{"id":37262,"date":"2019-10-11T16:46:44","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T20:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=37262"},"modified":"2019-10-11T16:46:44","modified_gmt":"2019-10-11T20:46:44","slug":"getting-serious-about-false-allegations-against-nominees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=37262","title":{"rendered":"Getting Serious About False Allegations Against Nominees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senator Chuck Grassley posted an article on his Senate web page <\/a>that included a letter asking the Attorney General and the Director of the FBI about investigations into false charges made against Justice Kavanaugh.<\/p>\n

Part of the letter states:<\/p>\n

These criminal referrals were not made lightly.\u00a0 In each of the aforementioned cases, the referred individual(s) made false allegations against then-Judge Kavanaugh.\u00a0 These allegations were taken seriously and carefully investigated by Committee staff, resulting in the diversion of significant resources.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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      The first referral, dated September 29, 2018, relates to a false allegation made by an individual who told the Committee that he had direct knowledge that Judge Kavanaugh assaulted a close friend on a boat in the harbor at Newport, Rhode Island in 1985. [1]<\/a>\u00a0 After the Committee extensively questioned Judge Kavanaugh about the allegation, the individual recanted and apologized on social media for making the false allegation.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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          The second referral, dated October 25, 2018, relates to false allegations made by Mr. Michael Avenatti and his client, Ms. Julie Swetnick.[2]<\/a>\u00a0 In a September 23, 2018, email to Committee staff, Mr. Avenatti stated that he and Ms. Swetnick were aware of evidence that during the 1980s, Judge Kavanaugh participated in the \u201ctargeting of women with alcohol\/drugs in order to allow a \u2018train\u2019 of men to subsequently gang rape them.\u201d[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Committee staff interviewed Judge Kavanaugh and ten other individuals in connection with these allegations, which were outlined in graphic detail in a sworn statement to the Committee purportedly written and signed by Ms. Swetnick.\u00a0 After a thorough investigation, the Committee found no verifiable evidence to support any of the allegations made in the declaration.\u00a0 The Committee also found that both Mr. Avenatti and Ms. Swetnick had a long history of credibility issues and may have criminally conspired to mislead the Committee and obstruct its investigation.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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              The third referral, dated October 26, 2018, relates to evidence that Mr. Avenatti falsified a sworn statement to the Committee in order to provide support for Ms. Swetnick\u2019s unfounded allegations.[4]<\/a>\u00a0 The sworn statement by an unknown declarant claimed that Judge Kavanaugh had spiked the punch at house parties with Quaaludes and\/or grain alcohol in order to make \u201cgirls more likely to engage in sexual acts and less likely to say \u2018No.\u2019\u201d[5]<\/a>\u00a0 NBC News later reported on a series of contacts with the purported declarant, who stated that she had denied the key allegations in the declaration both before and after the statement was publicly released and that Mr. Avenatti had \u201ctwisted [her] words.\u201d[6]<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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                  The fourth referral, dated November 2, 2018, relates to allegations made by Ms. Judy Munro-Leighton.[7]<\/a>\u00a0 On October 3, 2018, Committee staff received an email from Ms. Munro-Leighton stating that she was the author of an unsigned letter containing highly graphic sexual-assault accusations against Judge Kavanaugh previously received by the office of Senator Kamala Harris.\u00a0 Ms. Munro-Leighton included the text of the letter in her e-mail to the Committee, claiming that Judge Kavanaugh and a friend had raped her \u201cseveral times each\u201d in the back seat of a car.[8]<\/a>\u00a0 When Committee staff interviewed Ms. Munro-Leighton, she admitted that she falsely identified herself as the author of the letter and its allegations and had only claimed authorship \u201cas a way to grab attention.\u201d[9]<\/a>\u00a0 When asked by Committee investigators if she had ever met Judge Kavanaugh, she said:\u00a0 \u201cOh Lord, no.\u201d[10]<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                  The letter continues:<\/p>\n

                  As the Committee stressed in each of the referrals issued during and after the investigation into allegations against then-Judge Kavanaugh, investigations in support of the judicial nomination process are an essential part of the constitutional role in confirming judges.\u00a0 As Committee members, we are grateful to citizens who come forward with relevant information in good faith, even if they are not entirely sure about the accuracy of that information.\u00a0 But, when individuals intentionally mislead the Committee, they divert important Committee resources during time-sensitive investigations and materially impede its work. Such acts are not only unfair; they are potentially illegal.\u00a0 It is illegal to make materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statements to Congressional investigators.\u00a0 It is illegal to obstruct Committee investigations.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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                  It is important to protect the constitutional process from being hijacked by bad actors involved in insidious partisan operations.\u00a0 The Committee can bring bad actors to the attention of law enforcement and the American people by being as transparent as possible about its investigative findings.\u00a0 However, it is up to the FBI and the Justice Department to hold those who mislead Congress accountable for the criminal aspects of their behavior.\u00a0 The DOJ has not shied away from selectively filing charges against individuals for alleged violations of 18 U.S.C. \u00a7\u00a7 1001 in the past.\u00a0 Martha Stewart, former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, and ex-Presidential aide Scooter Libby are just a few individuals who have been charged with lying to federal investigators.[11]<\/a>\u00a0 Lying to Congress is and should be treated as an equally serious offense.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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                  The next Supreme Court nominee should not have to defend himself or herself against baseless and fabricated allegations, and Committee staff should not have to spend valuable time investigating them.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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                  Accordingly, please respond to the following no later than October 21, 2019:<\/strong><\/div>\n
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                      For each criminal referral made by the Committee to the FBI, did the FBI open a criminal investigation?\u00a0 If so, which investigation(s) resulted in a referral to the Justice Department for prosecution?\u00a0 If not, why not?<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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                          For each case that was referred to the Justice Department for prosecution, which cases were rejected and which were accepted for prosecution?\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                          It will be interesting to see if there is any response to this letter.<\/p>\n

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                          Senator Chuck Grassley posted an article on his Senate web page that included a letter asking the Attorney General and the Director of the FBI about investigations into false charges made against Justice Kavanaugh. Part of the letter states: These … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1554,10613,621,12349,790,12078,180,12348],"class_list":["post-37262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-attorney-general","tag-confirmation-hearings","tag-constitution","tag-false-accusations","tag-fbi","tag-justice-kavanaugh","tag-law-enforcement","tag-senator-chuck-grassley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37263,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37262\/revisions\/37263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}