Sixty-five women who said they knew Brett Kavanaugh in high school have signed a letter in support following accusations he tried to sexually assault a girl in the 1980s.
Sen Dianne Feinstein rocked the Supreme Court nomination after revealing she had received a letter from a woman who knew Kavanaugh in high school.
The woman claims Kavanaugh held her down and tried to force himself on her during a party while he was attending Georgetown Preparatory in Bethesda, Maryland.
Now 65 women have come forward saying they knew Kavanaugh while he was attending the all-boys prep school and believe he is an honorable man.
Sixty-five women who said they knew Brett Kavanaugh in high school have signed a letter in support following accusations he tried to sexually assault a girl in the 1980s
The women said they knew Kavanaugh as an honorable man who had ‘a wide circle of friends’ while attending the all-boys school Georgetown Preparatory
‘We are women who have known Brett Kavanaugh for more than 35 years and knew him while he attended high school between 1979 and 1983,’ the letter reads.
‘For the entire time we have known Brett Kavanaugh, he has behaved honorably and treated women with respect.’
‘We strongly believe it is important to convey this information to the Committee at this time.’
The letter goes on to state that Kavanaugh was an ‘outstanding student and athlete’ with a ‘wide circle of friends’ in high school.
‘Almost all of us attended allgirls high schools in the area. We knew Brett well through social events, sports, church, and various other activities,’ it continues.
The letter, which was released just a day after the allegations were made public by Feinstein, immediately raised eyebrows
Debra Messing and Patricia Arquette were quick to highlight how quickly the letter was posted by the Senate Judiciary
‘Many of us have remained close friends with him and his family over the years. Through the more than 35 years we have known him, Brett has stood out for his friendship, character, and integrity.’
Kavanaugh graduated in 1983 from Georgetown Prep, an all-boys Catholic school in suburban Maryland near Washington, DC
‘In particular, he has always treated women with decency and respect. That was true when he was in high school, and it has remained true to this day.’
‘The signers of this letter hold a broad range of political views. Many of us are not lawyers, but we know Brett Kavanaugh as a person. And he has always been a good person.’
The letter, which was released just a day after the allegations were made public by Feinstein, immediately raised eyebrows.
Debra Messing and Patricia Arquette were quick to highlight how swiftly the letter was posted by the Senate Judiciary.
‘#BrettKavanaugh went to an all boys high school. Interesting how quickly you got 65 names,’ Messing tweeted on Friday.
‘It’s almost as though you KNEW about this accusation of sexual assault and tried to hide it. But got prepared with names JUST IN CASE.’
‘I thought that too…hmm,’ commented Arquette.
And the celebrities aren’t the only ones speaking out.
Kavanaugh (at right, pictured in his high school yearbook with an unnamed football teammate) was 17 years old at the time a woman alleges he tried to force himself on her
The woman said Kavanaugh (pictured front and center) and a friend, since identified to be conservative author Mark Judge, turned up music in the room to drown out her protests
Sen Dick Durbin called on Senate Republicans to delay next week’s Judiciary Committee vote on the nomination following the allegations.
‘This is the most important Supreme Court vacancy in a generation, and President Trump has chosen Judge Kavanaugh to be the decisive vote on the health, privacy, and rights of all Americans, and whether our Constitution will protect everyone or just the wealthy and powerful,’ he wrote in a statement.
‘The American people deserve to know who Judge Kavanaugh is, but Republicans are trying to rush through this nomination while concealing critical parts of the nominee’s record.’
At the end of the statement, Durbin noted that it was ‘up to survivors of sexual assault alone to decide whether to come forward’.
‘It is completely unacceptable to attack anyone who alleges she has been assaulted,’ he wrote.
Sen Dianne Feinstein referred the letter from an unnamed woman to the FBI. She first received the letter from the woman in July
Anita Hill, who accused Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his own hearing, has since spoken out in support of the woman
‘If the #MeToo movement has taught us anything, it is that we must respect and listen to survivors of sexual assault, regardless of the age of those involved or when the alleged attack took place.’
Kavanaugh’s accuser actually first approached lawmakers with her accusation in July, according to the New Yorker.
She sent a letter describing the attack to her congresswoman, Rep Anna Eshoo, as well as Feinstein – who is leading the Democrats during Kavanaugh’s hearing.
In the letter the woman said that she attended a high school near Georgetown Preparatory and attended a party there one night.
She said Kavanaugh held her down and attempted to force himself on her.
The woman said he and a friend, since identified to be conservative author Mark Judge, turned up music in the room to drown out her protests.
Washington, D.C. writer Mark Judge has been identified as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s high school friend described in a woman’s letter accusing
She said Kavanaugh also covered her mouth with his hand.
The woman said she was able to get away but that the memory has stayed with her and she has even received psychological treatment because of it.
Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court revived the painful memory and the woman struggled with whether she should go public, she told Ronan Farrow.
Feinstein’s decision to only reveal the allegations, which she learned about months ago, this week has raised eyebrows even within her own party.
Sources said the senator was trying to protect the woman’s privacy and wanted to focus on legal issues during Kavanaugh’s questioning.
But others were shocked that Feinstein did not brief other members of the Judiciary Committee.
Judge posted this weathered 1981 photo on Facebook depicting a beach week with his group of high school friends. Kavanaugh is pictured in the back row, second from the right
This group photo of students at Georgetown Prep was taken in 1983, the year Kavanaugh graduated. Judge wrote on Facebook that the mustachioed man at the bottom was his gym teacher whose bachelor party – complete with a stripper – was attended by some of the boys
Anita Hill, who accused Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his own hearing, has since spoken out.
Hill said the allegations are clear proof that senators need to put a process in place that will allow such accusations to be properly heard.
‘Given the seriousness of these allegations, the government needs to find a fair and neutral way for complaints to be investigated,’ Hill said in a statement on Friday.
‘The Senate Judiciary Committee should put in place a process that enables anyone with a complaint of this nature to be heard.’
‘The reluctance of someone to come forward demonstrates that even in the #MeToo era, it remains incredibly difficult to report harassment, abuse or assault by people in power.’
Kavanaugh has since denied the allegations, saying he ‘did not do this back in high school or at any time’.
Judge likewise said he had ‘no recollection’ of the incident, although he has frequently written in the past about how ‘alcoholism was rampant’ at his alma mater.
Kavanaugh and Judge attended the elite Georgetown Preparatory School in Bethesda, Maryland, the same secondary school that produced Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch
His 2005 book God and Man at Georgetown Prep is out of print. But conservative writer George Weigel wrote that year, for the magazine Catholic San Francisco, that in it Judge ‘freely admits that his own propensities for wild behavior (especially when fueled by drinking) made a circus out of his high school and (extended) college years’.
In a 2006 essay about media bias, Judge wrote that in high school he and Kavanaugh had been ‘instructed in graphic sex ed – including abortion’.
He also wrote that he had attended ‘a bachelor party for a teacher and there was a stripper present.’
‘Alcoholism was rampant, as was homosexuality in the clergy. It was a combustive place that was playing with fire,’ Judge recalled.
On Facebook Judge described a photograph of some of his friends with their gym teacher, who he identified as the bachelor.
‘We had a keg and a belly dancer,’ he wrote. ‘We would have been arrested today.’