Neil Gorsuch, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, left, and Brett Kavanaugh, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, attend the U.S. President Donald Trump's State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019.

President Donald Trump said that Justice Brett Kavanaugh should "start suing people" or the Department of Justice "should come to his rescue" on Sunday in response to an article in The New York Times that surfaced a previously unreported allegation of sexual misconduct from the justice's time as an undergraduate at Yale University.

"The lies being told about him are unbelievable. False Accusations without recrimination. When does it stop? They are trying to influence his opinions. Can't let that happen!" Trump wrote in a post on Twitter.

Trump tweet

In another post, the president wrote that "the Radical Left Democrats and their Partner, the LameStream Media, are after Brett Kavanaugh again, talking loudly of their favorite word, impeachment."

"They want to scare him into turning Liberal!" Trump wrote.

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The tweets followed a report in The New York Times, published Saturday evening, which was written by the two authors of a new book about the sexual misconduct allegations that dogged Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings last year. The authors wrote that they had uncovered an instance of sexual misconduct that did not publicly emerge in those hearings.

The two authors, Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, wrote that one of Kavanaugh's classmates at Yale notified senators and the FBI that he had witnessed Kavanaugh disrobe at a party during his freshman year, after which "friends pushed his penis into the hand of a female student."

Kavanaugh did not provide comment to the writers, and the classmate who witnessed the incident declined to discuss it. The New York Times story cited two officials who communicated with that classmate.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the president's tweet.

A number of Democratic presidential contenders called Sunday for Kavanaugh to be impeached.

Former housing secretary Julian Castro wrote in a post on Twitter that it was "more clear than ever that Brett Kavanaugh lied under oath. He should be impeached."

"And Congress should review the failure of the Department of Justice to properly investigate the matter," Castro wrote.

Sen. Kamala Harris of California, another presidential contender, later also called for Kavanaugh's impeachment.

"Brett Kavanaugh lied to the U.S. Senate and most importantly to the American people," the former prosecutor wrote on Twitter. "He was put on the Court through a sham process and his place on the Court is an insult to the pursuit of truth and justice. He must be impeached."

Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote on Twitter that Kavanaugh's nomination was "rammed through the Senate" without a proper analysis into the misconduct allegations against him.

"Confirmation is not exoneration, and these newest revelations are disturbing," Warren wrote. "Like the man who appointed him, Kavanaugh should be impeached."

It is exceedingly rare for justices to be impeached. The only time it happened was with Justice Samuel Chase in 1805, and Chase was ultimately acquitted by the Senate.