Over the weekend, The New York Times reported a startling accusation against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
There’s just one problem: The newspaper had to quietly issue a correction on the article the next day that calls into question the entire story.
According to The New York Times, Kavanaugh’s classmate Max Stier said he watched the now-justice expose himself and force a female classmate to touch his genitals in the middle of a college party.
The female student in question declined to be interviewed and friends have said she doesn’t recall the episode. In fact, reports say the alleged victim outright denies the story. The newspaper said Sunday in an editor’s note that an earlier version of its story didn’t include that information.
Several Democratic presidential candidates have lined up to call for the impeachment of Kavanaugh in the face of the uninvestigated allegation. None of the Democratic candidates have publicly adjusted their position on Kavanaugh after the newspaper published the editor’s note and updated the story.
Democrats control the House, which holds the power of impeachment. If the House took that route, a trial would take place in the Senate, where Republicans now have a majority, making it unlikely that Kavanaugh would be removed from office.
Trump, who fiercely defended Kavanaugh during his contentious confirmation process, dismissed the latest allegation as “lies.”
In a tweet Sunday, Trump said Kavanaugh “should start suing people for libel, or the Justice Department should come to his rescue.”
Trump added that they were “False Accusations without recrimination,” and he claimed his accusers were seeking to influence Kavanaugh’s opinions on the bench.
The accusation was made in a book, The Education of Brett Kavanaugh, that was written by two NYT authors.
After it was published, the authenticity of the story was quickly questioned.
What a disgrace that an editor didn’t inquire about this and that the authors didn’t *volunteer* it pic.twitter.com/RAKiB67E9C
— Rich Lowry (@RichLowry) September 16, 2019
If the name Stier is familiar, it’s because he was the lawyer that represented former President Bill Clinton after Bill was sued by Paula Jones for allegedly exposing himself.
Stier later represented then-first lady Hillary Clinton during the former president’s 1998 impeachment.
This is the blockbuster "new allegation" against Kavanaugh. Except it's not actually new. It was shopped to Senate Democrats at the time and they apparently found it impossible to nail down, so they ignored it – the same Senators who found the "rape boat" allegations plausible. pic.twitter.com/0183DKr0q2
— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) September 15, 2019
“So I’m reading the new anti-Kavanaugh book by shockingly (really) biased reporters at NYT. All claimed anonymous sources are anti-Kavanaugh while all but a tiny few on-record sources are downright effusive. Just interesting how highly they contradict each other,” wrote Mollie Hemingway, author of another Kavanaugh book, Justice on Trial.
“Supporting evidence for this nothing story with no witnesses despite taking place, supposedly, at a large public event? Literally nothing. But she did tell mom, allegedly, years later, and I quote: ‘something happened at Yale,'” Hemingway tweeted.
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The Associated Press contributed to this article