Two New York Times reporters who helped smear now Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh as a sexual predator while he was still a nominee have gotten a book deal.
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that Kate Kelly and Robin Pogrebin have gotten a deal with Portfolio to write a book titled “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh,” which, according to the publisher, will focus on the “many unanswered questions” about the sexual assault accusations lodged against Kavanaugh — dating back to his high school and college days — just before his confirmation vote was to be held.
The two reporters dug through Kavanaugh’s high school and college days to bolster the unverifiable and thin allegations. They sought out old friends and twisted information to paint Kavanaugh as a sexual predator. As noted by @Ag_Conservative on Twitter, the reporters wrote articles titled:
“In a Culture of Privilege and Alcohol at Yale, Her World Converged With Kavanaugh’s”
“At Times, Kavanaugh’s Defense Misleads or Veers Off Point”
“Kavanaugh Was Questioned by Police After Bar Fight in 1985”
“Kavanaugh’s Yearbook Page Is ‘Horrible, Hurtful’ to a Woman It Named”
“Cleary this will be a fair book, not a smear job at all,” AG said sarcastically.
Kavanaugh repeatedly denied the accusations against him, and no evidence could be found by the Senate Judiciary Committee or the FBI to back up any of the allegations. In fact, four people have been referred for criminal prosecution over falsely accusing the judge: A Rhode Island man who claimed on Twitter that his “acquaintance” was raped by Kavanaugh on a boat; Julie Swetnick, who claimed Kavanaugh drugged women for gang-rape parties; Michael Avenatti, Swetnick’s attorney who appears to have written the statements of Swetnick and another accuser; and Judy Munro-Leighton, who admitted that in order to get attetion, she made up a claim that Kavanaugh raped her in a car.
The allegations from the two main accusers — Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez — raised questions as well, at least to those interested in the truth and not blindly believing allegations against a man one despised. Ford named three people who were at the high school party where Kavanaugh allegedly pushed her into a room, onto a bed, attempted to remove her clothes, groped her, and covered her mouth when she tried to scream. None of the three remembered a party matching her description. People who knew Ford also told Senate and FBI investigators that she never mentioned the incident or any fear of flying or anxiety involving doors, as she claimed.
Further, two men told investigators that they remember encounters with a woman similar to what Ford alleged. One man said that he was in the D.C. area around the time Ford said the party occurred (she initially said the mid-’80s, then said the early ’80s and finally 1982) and made out with a woman who might have been Ford. He also said he looked like Kavanaugh when he was younger. Another man said he kissed a girl in a bedroom of a house similar to the one Ford alleged and that the woman had a swimsuit on under her clothing. He said a friend jumped on them as a joke, which stopped the kissing. He said everything was consensual.
Ramirez, too, named people who supposedly witnessed Kavanaugh expose himself to her in college, yet these people either denied such an event ever took place or said they weren’t even at the party. The New Yorker, which originally ran Ramirez’s claims, admitted it could not find anyone to corroborate her story. The New York Times later wrote that it passed on the Ramirez story because it couldn’t find anyone to corroborate her account.
Ramirez also wasn’t sure it was Kavanaugh who exposed himself to her, and had to reach out to old Yale friends (and a Democrat lawyer) until she was confident enough to publicly accuse the judge.
Will any of the “unanswered questions” about the accusers’ stories be included in Kelly and Pogrebin’s book? What about the “unanswered questions” of how the media abandoned all credibility in publishing vague and unsubstantiated allegations against a man they clearly despised? How about the “unanswered questions” of how no reporters or members of Congress who spread the unsubstantiated allegations in an attempt to smear Kavanaugh have faced any negative consequences? How about the “unanswered questions” about why the high school yearbook of a 53-year old man was so heavily twisted in order to prove that he is now, 36 years later, a monster?
Probably not.