Izzy Manzo — Photo Editor
In 2018, Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination was met with multiple accusations of sexual misconduct. A year later, it is happening all over again.
The nomination of Brett Kavanaugh was almost immediately met with criticism — Christine Blasey Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, alleging that he assaulted her while they were high school students. Another woman, Deborah Ramirez, came forward and alleged that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her during a party while they were both freshmen at Yale.
Now, there is a third allegation, one that was previously unknown until the New York Times published an essay regarding on Sept. 17 — Max Stier, another student at Yale, alleged that he witnessed Kavanaugh with his pants down at another party during his freshman year. He exposed himself to an unidentified woman who denies that she was assaulted, stating that she does not remember the incident. Stier said she was so inebriated during the party that she easily could have forgotten it.
A lawyer in Wash., Stier told Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware about the incident. Four days before the Senate voted on Kavanaugh, Coons sent
a letter to FBI Director Christopher A. Wray describing Stier as an “individual whom I would like to specifically refer to you for appropriate follow up.”
The FBI never questioned Stier. In total, they contacted nine people — selected from a list of over 50 — after the Judiciary Committee’s Republican majority eased up and allowed the FBI to interview ten people after swing-state voters demanded it. It was technically an upgrade, considering they were originally only allowed four people.
Ramirez herself gave the FBI a list of at least 25 people who could have potentially defended her statements, according to Vox, only to be told that authorization was needed before anyone could be contacted. None of them ended up being interviewed.
The entire election of Brett Kavanaugh reflects a huge failure on the Senate’s part, navigated by limitations and interferences. We have now seen what could have been: two New York Times reporters, limited only by peoples willingness to talk, unearthed more information about Kavanaugh than the FBI did.
Other people, including Sens. Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, as well as former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro,
according to Vox—are calling for Kavanaugh’s impeachment.
“It’s more clear than ever that Brett Kavanaugh lied under oath,” Castro said in a tweet on Sept. 14. “He should be impeached. And Congress should review the failure of the Department of Justice to properly investigate this matter.”
Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke echoed Castro’s sentiment, stating on Twitter on Sept. 15 that “we didn’t find out about [the new allegation] before he was confirmed because the Senate forced the F.B.I. to rush its investigation to save his nomination.”
It is no secret that the FBI was given impossible standards and that the process was rigged in Kavanaugh’s favor. They were given such little time to investigate that Sen. Sheldon White house of RI., a member of the Judiciary Committee, said, “I would view the Ramirez allegations as not having been even remotely investigated,” according to the New York Times.
During his testimony in the Senate, Kavanaugh said if the incident with Ramirez actually did occur, it would have been “the talk of campus.” Due to the failures of the Senate and the FBI that got him in the Supreme Court in the first place, his previous allegations as well as the ones that we are just finding out about now are the talk of the nation.
