Attorneys for Christine Blasey Ford on Wednesday submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee sworn affidavits from four people they say corroborate her sexual assault claim against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Blasey’s husband, Russell Ford, and three of her friends described past conversations with Blasey about the alleged assault in the signed declarations, obtained by HuffPost.
Blasey has alleged Kavanaugh pinned her down, groped her and tried to remove her clothes at a small party in suburban Maryland when they were both in high school in the early 1980s. Kavanaugh, now a federal appeals judge, has vehemently denied the allegation.
Blasey first told her husband she had experienced sexual assault around the time they were married in 2002, according to Ford’s affidavit. She revealed additional details during a couple’s therapy session 10 years later, Ford stated.
“She said that in high school she had been trapped in a room and physically restrained by one boy who was molesting her while another boy watched,” Ford wrote. “She said she was eventually able to escape before she was raped, but that the experience was very traumatic because she felt like she had no control and was physically dominated.”
He added: “I remember her saying the attacker’s name was Brett Kavanaugh, that he was a successful lawyer who had grown up in Christine’s home town, and that he was well-known in the Washington, D.C. community.”
Blasey was conflicted about whether to go public with her allegations, but ultimately felt it was “her civic duty to speak,” Ford said.
Keith Koegler, who described himself as a “close friend” of Blasey and Ford, said he first learned of the alleged assault in the early summer of 2016.
“I remember the timing of the conversation because it was shortly after Stanford University student Brock Turner was sentenced for felony sexual assault after raping an unconscious woman on Stanford’s campus,” Koegler stated.
He continued: “Christine expressed anger at Mr. Turner’s lenient sentence, stating that she was particularly bothered by it because she was assaulted in high school by a man who was now a federal judge in Washington, D.C.”
Blasey did not mention the assault again until June 2018, when Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his resignation, Koegler said. In an email exchange, Blasey told Koegler her assailant was Brett Kavanaugh and that he was on President Donald Trump’s short list of potential nominees, according to Koegler’s affidavit.
Two other friends, Adela Gildo-Mazzon and Rebecca White, stated in their declarations that Blasey confided in them about being assaulted.
Gildo-Mazzon said Blasey told her about the incident in June 2013 while they shared a meal at a pizza place in Mountain View, California, and believes she still has the receipt.
“Christine told me she had been having a hard day because she was thinking about an assault she experienced when she was much younger,” Gildo-Mazzon stated. “She said that she had been almost raped by someone who was now a federal judge.”
After reading Blasey’s first-person account of the alleged assault in The Washington Post earlier this month, Gildo-Mazzon contacted Blasey’s legal team “to advise them that she had told me about the assault in 2013.”
White said Blasey told her the story in 2017 while discussing a social media post White had written about her own sexual assault.
“She then told me that when she was a young teen, she had been sexually assaulted by an older teen,” White stated in her affidavit. “I remember her saying that her assailant was now a federal judge. I have always known Christine to be a trustworthy and honest person.”
Blasey and Kavanaugh are scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. The panel has scheduled a vote for Friday on whether to advance Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the full Senate.
The New Yorker on Sunday published the account of Deborah Ramirez, who said Kavanaugh thrust his penis in her face at a drinking party when they were freshmen at Yale University in the early 1980s. Kavanaugh has denied the allegation.
Ramirez’s attorney suggested on Wednesday that she would be willing to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Hours later, Michael Avenatti, best known as the attorney representing former adult film actress Stormy Daniels, released a signed declaration from a third woman accusing Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.
Julie Swetnick, who attended high school at the same time as Kavanaugh, said she witnessed Kavanaugh and one of his friends at several house parties in the early 1980s getting “drunk” and “being overly aggressive with girls,” according to a declaration she provided to Avenatti.
“I witnessed Brett Kavanaugh consistently engage in excessive drinking and inappropriate contact of sexual nature with women during the early 1980s,” Swetnick stated. She alleged she was the victim of a “gang rape” coordinated by Kavanaugh and his friends at one party. She did not name the assailants.
Kavanaugh denied Swetnick’s allegations in a statement on Wednesday.
“This is ridiculous and from the Twilight Zone,” he said in the statement. “I don’t know who this is and this never happened.”
Read the affidavits from Blasey’s husband and friends below:
This article has been updated to include Julie Swetnick’s accusation and Brett Kavanaugh’s response.
Ryan J. Reilly contributed reporting.