Republicans are turning to the most credible of sources in an attempt to discredit the women accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault and misconduct: their ex-boyfriends.
Late Tuesday night, Fox News obtained a written declaration from the ex-boyfriend of Christine Blasey Ford, the first woman to accuse Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, in which the unnamed man alleged Ford isn’t scared of planes or enclosed spaces, as she’s previously said. He also alleged Ford had once helped prepare a friend for a polygraph test, which would counter Ford’s sworn testimony last week, and said she never told him about the assault, which would corroborate that same testimony.
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Around the same time the Ford letter broke, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee released a statement attacking Julie Swetnick, the third woman to publicly accuse Kavanaugh of misconduct, in an intensely ugly way: by publishing a letter from her ex describing her supposed sexual preferences.
The statement regarding Swetnick was apparently provided “under penalty of felony,” by Dennis Ketterer, a television meteorologist and former Democratic congressional candidate who says he once dated Swetnick in 1993.
Ketterer, who said they only dated for a “couple of weeks,” alleges that Swetnick once told him she had engaged in group sex in high school and said she “never said anything about being sexually assaulted, raped, gang-raped, or having sex against her will.” However, Ketterer describes thinking of Swetnick, bizarrely, as a “high end call girl” when he first saw her, because he weighed 350 pounds at the time, leading him to believe she was interested only in his “well-known” personality as a TV weatherman. Ketterer says he ended their brief relationship after Swetnick allegedly expressed interest in group sex, but admits to later contacting her for help on his 1996 congressional campaign, and says he is a survivor of sexual assault himself.
Swetnick is now represented by celebrity attorney Michael Avenatti, who is also the lawyer for adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Avenatti told the Washington Post that the statement is “bogus and outrageous” and repeated his request that the FBI interview Swetnick. The FBI is currently investigating the allegations of sexual assault made by Ford against Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh has also been accused of sexual misconduct by Deborah Ramirez. He’s categorically denied all of the allegations against him.
Meanwhile, Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” interviewed Swetnick’s ex-boyfriend, Richard Vinneccy, on Monday, where he accused Swetnick of threatening to kill his unborn child.
“She was exaggerating everything. Everything that came out of her mouth was just exaggerations,” he said.
Republicans have attacked Swetnick with allegations of lying and seeking attention, and citing former lawsuits against her for allegedly falsifying her educational background and making claims of sexual harassment that were unfounded, according to the Oregonian.
Cover image: NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 02: Yale alumni gather in front of the Yale Club to voice their opposition to the confirmation of Republican Supreme court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who also received degrees from Yale on October 2, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
