Julie Swetnick says she witnessed efforts by Kavanaugh and others ‘to cause girls to become inebriated … so they could then be gang-raped’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A third woman has come forward to accuse Donald Trump’s supreme court pick, Brett Kavanaugh, of sexual misconduct, according to a statement published on Wednesday by her lawyer, Michael Avenatti.

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Avenatti tweeted a declaration made in the name of Julie Swetnick, a resident of Washington DC, which said she had met Kavanaugh and his school friend Mark Judge in the early 1980s and attended the same parties.

The declaration said she had “observed Brett Kavanaugh drink excessively at these parties and engage in abusive and physically aggressive behaviour towards girls, including pressing girls against him without their consent, ‘grinding’ against girls and attempting to remove or shift girls’ clothing to expose private body parts”.

Swetnick, 55, said she was at parties where Kavanaugh and his friend Judge were involved in situations that resulted in women being gang-raped.

She wrote: “I witnessed efforts by Mark Judge, Brett Kavanaugh and others to cause girls to become inebriated and disoriented so they could then be ‘gang-raped’ in a side room or bedroom by a ‘train’ of numerous boys…”

“In approximately 1982, I became the victim of one of these ‘gang’ or ‘train’ rapes where Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh were present.”

I witnessed Brett Kavanaugh consistently engage in excessive drinking and inappropriate contact of a sexual nature Julie Swetnick

Kavanaugh has been accused of sexual misconduct by two other women. He strenuously denies all the allegations. He is due at a public hearing on Capitol Hill on Thursday to answer allegations from the first of the three women who have accused him of sexual assault or misconduct, California professor Christine Blasey Ford.

Swetnick said she was a graduate of Gaithersburg high school in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and that she currently holds government security clearances to work for the US treasury, the US Mint and the Internal Revenue Service. She said she previously held clearances with the departments of state, justice, homeland security and customs and border protection. A résumé for Swetnick that was posted online said she worked for the government agencies as an IT contractor.

Swetnick said she met Kavanaugh and Judge – who Ford alleged was the third person in the room when Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were in high school. Kavanaugh and Judge have denied Ford’s allegations.

But Swetnick said in her statement: “There is no question in my mind that Mark Judge has significant information concerning the conduct of Brett Kavanaugh during the 1980s, especially as it relates to his actions towards women.”

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She said: “I attended well over 10 house parties in the Washington DC area during the years 1981-1983 where Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh were present.”

She went on: “I have reviewed Brett Kavanaugh’s recent claim on Fox News regarding his alleged ‘innocence’ during his high school years and lack of sexual activity. This claim is absolutely false and a lie. I witnessed Brett Kavanaugh consistently engage in excessive drinking and inappropriate contact of a sexual nature with women during the early 1980s.”

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Avenatti had pledged in recent days to reveal a client who wanted to go public with allegations against Kavanaugh, and he has asked the Senate judiciary committee if the woman, now revealed as Swetnick, can testify on Thursday.

The committee is reviewing the latest allegations.

Following the description in her affidavit that she became a victim of gang rape at a party where Kavanaugh and Judge were present, Swetnick said: “Shortly after the incident, I shared what had transpired with at least two other people. During this incident, I was incapacitated without my consent and unable to fight off boys raping me. I believe I was drugged using Quaaludes or something similar placed in what I was drinking.”

Donald Trump condemned Avenatti on Twitter on Wednesday and continued to cast doubt on the women’s accounts.

On Wednesday, at the UN in New York, the president 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!”

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

Judge has disappeared from the public eye in recent weeks. The Washington Post tracked him down to a beach house in Bethany Beach, Delaware, where he was apparently staying with a friend.

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“How’d you find me?” he asked the newspaper’s reporter before declining to comment further.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat on the judiciary committee, called Swetnick’s affidavit “gut-punching” and said it underscored the need for an FBI investigation into all the claims against Kavanaugh.

“There’s no way that we can vote on Friday on this nomination in good conscience,” he said. Blumenthal added that Thursday’s hearing should go ahead.

Meanwhile, a conservative group called the Judicial Crisis Network, which had vigorously defended Kavanaugh, began to waver on Wednesday. The group’s chief counsel and policy director, Carrie Severino, said on MSNBC: “I think we have to look into this further.”

A spokeswoman for Gaithersburg high school confirmed that Swetnick graduated in 1980. Swetnick’s résumé said that she later studied pre-medical courses at Montgomery county community college in Germantown, Maryland, until 1985.

The document described her as an experienced IT specialist and website developer. In addition to her work for federal government agencies, it said, Swetnick has also worked for major companies including JP Morgan, Marriott and American Airlines.

Swetnick has been registered as the owner of the company International Building Solutions in Bethesda, Maryland, since 2009, according to public records.

She registered as a non-affiliated voter in Washington DC in 2014 and voted in the 2016 general election.

• This article was amended on 27 September 2018. Bethany Beach is in Delaware, not Maryland, as we originally said.