Everything We Know Most Deborah Ramirez's Allegations Against Kavanaugh

Deborah Ramirez

Deborah Ramirez Photo: Uncredited/AP/Shutterstock

Mere days before the Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to hear Christine Blasey Ford'due south sexual-assault allegation against then–Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh terminal year, a woman named Deborah Ramirez came forwards with her own allegation against Kavanaugh, claiming that he thrust his penis in her face at a dorm party when they were both students at Yale. At the time of the alleged incident, in the early 1980s, she was heavily intoxicated, and feared the GOP would utilise that to discredit her. She was also reluctant to speak out subsequently witnessing the relentless personal attacks launched against Ford.

In mid-September of last year, The New Yorker published an investigation into the declared incident, in which Ramirez shared her recollection of what happened and said she believed an FBI investigation was "warranted." (Kavanaugh adamantly denied the allegations in a argument to the magazine, calling them "a smear, plain and simple.")

After the article'southward publication, many of Ramirez's worst fears came truthful: She was inundated with vitriolic threats, and Kavanaugh's defenders used her inebriated state at the time of the alleged assault confronting her. And though the FBI did investigate her claims, it yielded cipher. But according to a damning new report from the New York Times, that may have been because agents declined to interview numerous people with bear witness that may have corroborated Ramirez'due south account — some of whom went out of their way to achieve out to the FBI.

Beneath, here'southward everything nosotros've learned about Deborah Ramirez and her allegation against Kavanaugh, every bit well as the rushed FBI investigation into them.

Ramirez is a 54-twelvemonth-onetime woman who attended Yale University in the early on 1980s — the same time as Kavanaugh. Today, she lives in Boulder, Colorado, where she has worked for Bedrock County'due south Housing and Man Services department since 2013. Before property that position, she worked as a victim's-advocate coordinator for the nonprofit Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence, which aids victims of domestic violence.

Just days earlier the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Ramirez became the 2d woman to accuse Kavanaugh of misconduct. Her business relationship, which she detailed to Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer atThe New Yorker, dates back to the 1983–84 bookish year, when she and Kavanaugh were both freshmen at Yale. Ramirez says that she and other students became heavily intoxicated at a dorm party while playing a drinking game with a small grouping of students — Kavanaugh included — and that male students were playing effectually with a "gag penis." But at some point during the nighttime, Kavanaugh thrust his real penis in her face up, Ramirez claims. Per The New Yorker:

"I remember a penis being in front end of my confront," she said. "I knew that's not what I wanted, even in that state of heed." She recalled remarking, "That's not a real penis," and the other students laughing at her confusion and taunting her, ane encouraging her to "buss information technology." She said that she pushed the person away, touching it in the process.

Though Ramirez admits that her memory of the incident is fuzzy, she says she can "yet come across [Kavanaugh'south] face, and his hips coming forward, similar when you pull up your pants," she said. Ramirez also toldTheNew Yorker that after the declared incident, a male pupil "yelled down the hall, 'Brett Kavanaugh just put his penis in Debbie'south confront.'" (While The New Yorker did not confirm that Kavanaugh was at the political party, and some of Ramirez'due south sometime classmates disputed her allegation, one former classmate said that he's "1-hundred-per-cent sure" that some other former classmate at the time told him that Kavanaugh exposed himself to Ramirez.)

"I wasn't going to bear on a penis until I was married," Ramirez, who was raised a devout Catholic, said of the incident. "I was embarrassed and aback and humiliated."

In the same New Yorker report, Kavanaugh denied the accusation, calling it a "smear, evidently and unproblematic."

"This alleged event from 35 years ago did not happen," he said. "The people who knew me then know that this did not happen, and have said and then … I look forward to testifying on Thursday about the truth, and defending my good name — and the reputation for character and integrity I have spent a lifetime building — against these final-minute allegations."

(Co-ordinate to text messages obtained by NBC News, members of Kavanaugh'south legal squad were quietly working behind the scenes to refute Ramirez'southward claim, reaching out to potential witnesses as early as July — a full two months before Ramirez decided to come forward. The texts also advise that days before The New Yorker article was published, Kavanaugh himself was talking with former classmates most Ramirez's claims.)

Ramirez'southward accusation also elicited a response from Trump, who told reporters during a meeting at the U.Northward. General Assembly that Ramirez "has nada."

"She thinks maybe it could take been him, maybe non," he said. "She admits that she was boozer. She admits that there are fourth dimension lapses."

Following The New Yorker'southward report, a range of supporters, from Democratic politicians to Kavanaugh'southward quondam roommate, spoke out in solidarity with her, and many of her sometime classmates vouched for her integrity.

"Although Brett was unremarkably reserved, he was a notably heavy drinker, even past the standards of the time, and … he became belligerent and aggressive when he was very drunk," Kavanaugh's onetime roommate James Roche said in a argument. "Based on my time with Debbie, I believe her to be unusually honest and straightforward and I cannot imagine her making this upwardly. Based on my time with Brett, I believe that he and his social circle were capable of the deportment that Debbie described."

In October 2018, Kavanaugh was confirmed to the court after the Senate Judiciary Commission concluded that there was "no corroboration of the allegations" made by Ford and Ramirez. Only later on a ten-calendar month investigation, New York Times reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly were able to find several people who could corroborate Ramirez's account." Per a New York Times written report published on September 14, which adapted reporting from the Pogrebin and Kelly'due south forthcoming book, The Teaching of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation, at to the lowest degree vii people — including Ramirez'due south mother — had heard almost the accusation years earlier Kavanaugh became a federal judge. Additionally, Ramirez submitted a list of "at least 25 individuals who may have had corroborating show" to the FBI last year — but not a single person on information technology was interviewed, even though some had attempted to reach out to the agency on their own.

This is non the commencement time the adequacy of the FBI's investigation has been chosen into question. In an op-ed published in the Indianapolis Star in October 2018, William Scheuerman, one of Kavanaugh's sometime Yale classmates, says he attempted to contact the FBI and was "rebuffed," and called the investigation a "joke."

"I promised a list of names of people who may have attended the party at which Ramirez claims to take been assaulted," wrote Scheuerman, who currently serves as a political-science professor at Indiana University. "The FBI never returned my call. Based on what has at present been revealed virtually the FBI report, I do not believe that the FBI contacted people on that listing."

In the days since the Times published its report, Autonomous presidential candidates and politicians have chosen for a new investigation into the claims, equally well as Kavanaugh's impeachment.

"Last yr the Kavanaugh nomination was rammed through the Senate without a thorough examination of the allegations confronting him," Elizabeth Warren tweeted. "Confirmation is non exoneration, and these newest revelations are disturbing. Like the man who appointed him, Kavanaugh should be impeached."

What We Know About Deborah Ramirez'south Kavanaugh Allegations