Julie Swetnick accuses Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct

Julie Swetnick became the third woman to accuse Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct after her lawyer tweeted a declaration of the allegations on Wednesday. 

According to the declaration, shared by lawyer Michael Avenatti, Swetnick said she met Kavanaugh and his school friend, Mark Judge, in the 1980s and attended several parties in which the two were present.

“On numerous occasions at these parties, I witnessed Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh drink excessively and engage in highly inappropriate conduct, including being overly aggressive with girls and not taking ‘No’ for an answer,” she said. “This conduct included the fondling and grabbing of girls without their consent.”

Other serious allegations were made in the statement, which is being reviewed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, that have not yet been corroborated. 

In a statement on Wednesday, Kavanaugh said: “This is ridiculous and from the Twilight Zone. I don’t know who this is and this never happened.”

Avenatti said that his client demands a “full and complete” FBI investigation into the allegations. 

Swetnick’s declaration comes a day before Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Kavanaugh of groping her and attempting to remove her clothes when they were both teenagers, are set to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Kavanaugh staunchly denies ever sexually assaulting anyone, and his allies have questioned the credibility of Ford and a second accuser, Deborah Ramirez, based in part on what they say is a lack of corroboration. Judge, who Ford said was present at the time of the assault, said in a letter sent to the Judiciary Committee by his lawyer that he had “no memory of this alleged incident”. President Donald Trump has dismissed the accusations against his Supreme Court pick as a “Democratic con job”.

Ford’s lawyers submit 4 affidavits of support

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Ford’s lawyers said they gave the Senate sworn affidavits from four people who say she told them well before Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination that she had been sexually assaulted when she was much younger.

And according to all four, she either named Kavanaugh as the assailant or described the attacker as a “federal judge.”

On Tuesday, the Judiciary Committee has scheduled a vote on whether to recommend Kavanaugh to the full Senate for Friday. Republican leaders laid plans that could keep the full Senate in session over the weekend and produce a final showdown roll call soon after – close to the October 1 start of the high court’s new term.

The controversy over Kavanaugh is unfolding just weeks before November 6 congressional elections in which Democrats are trying to take control of Congress from Trump’s fellow Republicans, against a backdrop of the #MeToo movement fighting sexual harassment and assault. 

Swetnick’s lawyer, Avenatti, also represents Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress who alleges she was paid to keep a sexual relationship with Trump quiet. Trump denies the allegations. On Wednesday, Trump tweeted that Avenatti “is a third rate lawyer who is good at making false accusations.”

According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, one in three women in the United States experience some form of sexual violence in their lives. About 63 percent of sexual assaults in the US are not reported to the police. More than 90 percent of sexual assault survivors on US college campuses do not report the incident.