September 18, 2018

Kavanaugh Backer Says Sexual Assault Allegation Could Have Been Just “Rough Horseplay”

Christine Blasey Ford has said the assault “derailed [her] substantially for four or five years.”

Following the publication of a detailed account of an alleged sexual assault by Brett Kavanaugh, conservatives this week are rushing to defend the Supreme Court nominee’s record, with many openly questioning the credibility of his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, and whether she may be “mixed up” about the alleged assault. 

In that incident, which Ford calls an attempted rape, she alleges that a heavily inebriated Kavanaugh forced her onto a bed, groped her, and tried to disrobe her while covering her mouth to prevent her from screaming during a high-school party in the 1980s. She told the Washington Post the alleged assault “derailed [her] substantially for four or five years” and had a “lasting impact” on her life.

Now Carrie Severino, a lawyer for the Judicial Crisis Network, a top activist group behind Kavanaugh, suggests that despite any permanent damage Ford says she suffered, Ford may have incorrectly registered the alleged incident. According to Severino, what actually happened may have simply been “rough horseplay” between two teenagers.

“Well look, her allegations cover up a whole range of conduct, from boorishness to rough horseplay to actual attempted rape,” Severino said during a Tuesday appearance on CNN. “And obviously, if you go to rape, yes that is a really serious allegation. But this is why it’ll be useful to have this hearing so we can even figure out some of what the specifics on those allegations are.”

“I don’t think anywhere in there she’s saying that this is boorish horseplay at all in her letter,” CNN anchor Kate Bolduan interrupted. 

“She’s certainly implying that it’s attempted rape,” Severino replied. “But I think you have to look at 35 years of memory that we’re trying to play with here, and I’m saying that the behavior she describes could describe a whole range of things. I know her perception of it was one.”

In an abrupt turn, she then appeared to remember that Kavanaugh has denied that he was even at the party in question. The appearance comes one day after the Judicial Crisis Network launched a $1.5 million to salvage Kavanaugh’s nomination.

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate