Those who followed Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation know that even before he was dubiously accused of sexual assault the media’s campaign of destruction against him was motivated by the fact that he could tip the court’s favor toward overturning Roe v. Wade.
Now a new book from National Law Journal reporter Ryan Lovelace reveals that this was, in fact, at least part of the reason Dr. Christine Blasey Ford first made her accusations against Kavanaugh. Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner was given a video clip by the author of Ford’s attorney, Debra Katz, speaking at a legal conference where she made the acknowledgment.
“In the aftermath of these hearings, I believe that Christine’s testimony brought about more good than the harm misogynist Republicans caused by allowing Kavanaugh on the court,” Katz told an audience at the University of Baltimore’s 11th Feminist Legal Theory Conference. “We were going to have a conservative [justice] … elections have consequences, but he will always have an asterisk next to his name. When he takes a scalpel to Roe v. Wade, we will know who he is, we know his character, and we know what motivates him, and that is important; it is important that we know, and that is part of what motivated Christine.” (Emphasis added.)
Lovelace told Bedard: “Ford’s audience was not the Senate, as Katz had previously suggested, but the American people. If they could be persuaded that Justice Kavanaugh was a predator, then they might not accept a future ruling by the five Republican-appointed justices altering the right to obtain an abortion established by Roe v. Wade. Had the Senate understood Ford’s real motivation, as described by Katz, it might have appreciated more fully the pressure that ‘organized forces’ were applying.”
Indeed, Ford’s allegations were deemed “credible” even though not one person corroborated her story. In fact, the people she suggested witnessed the event in question could not recall such an event occurring. Ford’s parents didn’t even come forward to defend their daughter and acknowledge that she ever came home one day during high school seemingly upset. Further, Ford’s timeline didn’t add up, as she claimed to be a sophomore in high school yet said it was only her first years of college where she struggled with what had allegedly happened to her.
Once Ford’s allegation was breathlessly repeated, another woman, Deborah Ramirez claimed the then-Supreme Court nominee had exposed himself to her at a party while they were in college. Again, no witnesses corroborated the event, yet Ramirez was deemed “credible.” Also, Ramirez wasn’t even sure Kavanaugh was the person who exposed himself until she consulted with friends and Democrat attorneys.
More accusers came forward, including Julie Swetnick, who was represented by celebrity attorney Michael Avenatti. Both Swetnick and Avenatti have been referred for criminal investigation over their accusations. Swetnick claimed, incredibly, that Kavanaugh organized gang-rape parties while in high school. She walked back her claims when NBC interviewed her even though the outlet had information that undermined her claims.
Lovelace’s book, Search and Destroy: Inside the Campaign Against Brett Kavanaugh was published by Regnery, which also published a previous book on the Kavanaugh hearings, Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court.