In a sworn affidavit, Avenatti’s client Julie Swetnick says she knew Brett Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge between about 1980 and 1982, and that she witnessed the two of them participating in getting girls drunk so that they could be gang-raped by boys at parties.

“In approximately 1982, I became the victim of one of these ‘gang’ or ‘train’ rapes where Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh were present. Shortly after the incident, I shared what had transpired with at least two other people. During the incident, I was incapacitated without my consent and unable to fight off the boys raping me. I believe I was drugged using Quaaludes or something similar placed in what I was drinking,” Swetnick wrote.

What Swetnick is alleging is more elaborate and sensational than the previous claims, which could raise questions. The affidavit is legally binding—lying would constitute perjury. Swetnick holds or has held several federal-government security clearances. In a statement released by the White House, Kavanaugh said, “This is ridiculous and from the Twilight Zone. I don’t know who this is and this never happened.”

The new affidavit, which Avenatti had hinted was coming for days, was just one of several major developments in the Kavanaugh case on Wednesday. The Judiciary Committee also released facsimiles of Kavanaugh’s calendar from the summer of 1982, which Kavanaugh hopes will help vindicate him because it doesn’t list the party that Ford has described. The committee also released Kavanaugh’s prepared testimony, in which he blasted “false and uncorroborated accusations” and “last-minute smears” aimed at finding “something—anything, no matter how far-fetched or odious—that will block a vote on my nomination.” He argued: “Such grotesque and obvious character assassination—if allowed to succeed—will dissuade competent and good people of all political persuasions from serving our country.”

The committee also released affidavits from four people, including Ford’s husband, who testified that she had described the alleged assault prior to Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination. Meanwhile, stories in multiple publications focused on Kavanaugh’s reported history of heavy drinking, which seemed to be at odds with the portrait of wholesomeness he painted during a Fox News interview on Monday.

Republicans on the Judiciary Committee on Tuesday announced that they had hired Rachel Mitchell, a sex-crimes prosecutor in Maricopa County, Arizona, to conduct questioning on their behalf. The GOP had blanched at the prospect of a panel of men questioning Ford. Ford, meanwhile, had requested that senators, rather than staff, do the questioning.

Perhaps inevitably, the confirmation battle risked spinning off into a war of words between Avenatti, an attention-grabbing showman who has discussed running for president in 2020 despite no elected experience, and Trump, an attention-grabbing showman who ran for president in 2016 despite no elected experience. Avenatti has become one of Trump’s most prominent public critics. Trump tweeted:

Avenatti is a third rate lawyer who is good at making false accusations, like he did on me and like he is now doing on Judge Brett Kavanaugh. He is just looking for attention and doesn’t want people to look at his past record and relationships - a total low-life! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 26, 2018

The problem for Trump is that Avenatti has repeatedly been correct in his run-ins with the president and his aides, forcing repeated concessions in their account of a payment made to Daniels, Avenatti’s client.