The handwritten letter arrived at the downtown San Diego office of Sen. Kamala Harris anonymously and absent a return address, but its explosive content has further roiled the confirmation process for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Some people were outraged at the newest allegation of sexual assault leveled against the federal judge — an accusation Kavanaugh denied explicitly and repeatedly in an interview with the Senate Judiciary Committee staff. Others said the two-and-a-half-page tale was little more than a political hit job.

“Undated, anonymously written letters which are devoid of any pertinent information, except an allegation, are to be ignored,” one reader wrote The San Diego Union-Tribune, which reported Tuesday that the nominee was questioned about the letter. “How is it possible to verify anything without the necessary info?”

Identified only as “Jane Doe” of Oceanside, the author claimed Kavanaugh and another man agreed to drive her home from a party and then sexually assaulted her in the back seat of a car. Senate Judiciary Committee staffers read the letter to Kavanaugh by phone on Sept. 26 and asked him about it, according to a transcript that the committee posted online. At the end, they asked Kavanaugh if he objected to the transcript becoming public, and he said no.


Experts say every aspect of a Supreme Court nominee needs to be fully vetted before he or she is confirmed for a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the nation.

“The allegations against Judge Kavanaugh are serious,” said Shaun Martin, a University of San Diego law professor who argued three separate cases before the Supreme Court. “Every one of them should be taken seriously.”

Anonymous accusations are among the most difficult claims to verify, he said.

“Unless the individual who wrote the letter comes forward, there is little that the FBI or Senate can do to investigate,” Martin said. “So as a practical matter, it’s all up to this individual. Without someone coming forward, there’s little to go on with respect to that particular letter.”


Former San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre, one-time staffer on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said that clues in the anonymous letter could lead to identifying the writer. Investigators would need to expend the resources needed. He cited the likelihood that the writer is a teacher in her early 50s who says she is married, a parent and a homeowner who lives in Oceanside.

“There is enough information in there for the FBI to make a reasonable effort to find out who she is and to keep her name confidential,” Aguirre said.

He said Judiciary Committee staffers erred by sharing details of the allegation with Kavanaugh ahead of an FBI investigation and the hearing last week.

“These are serious allegations. You don’t want him to know about the allegations before you interview him,” Aguirre said. “The FBI approaches people without their knowing so they can’t rehearse their answers.”


According to the interview transcript, the conference call appears to have included seven people: Kavanaugh and his lawyer, two staffers each representing Republican and Democratic committee members and a special counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Except for Kavanaugh’s, the names of all participants in the call were redacted from the document.

The transcript notes that Kavanaugh was responding to questions under “penalty of felony” and participated in two previous private interviews along with 32 hours of public testimony over four days.

The transcript shows that Democratic members of the committee repeatedly sought an FBI investigation of the claims and objected to moving forward with the Kavanaugh interview by legislative staffers.


“At a minimum, we need to hear from all parties and gather all additional evidence,” said an aide to ranking committee member Sen. Dianne Feinstein. “And again, we want to reiterate that the Democratic members do not believe that this is a fair or sufficient process.”

The allegations contained in the unsigned letter would clearly be criminal.

The author said Kavanaugh was driving and he began groping her while she sat in the front passenger seat. The boy in the back seat clamped his hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming, she said.


“Kavanaugh slapped me and told me to be quiet,” she wrote. Afterward, “they dropped me off two blocks from my home. ‘No one will believe if you tell. Be a good girl,’ he told me.”

A spokeswoman for Harris said Monday that the letter was received at the senator’s San Diego office Sept. 19 and immediately forwarded to the Judiciary Committee chairman, to the ranking member and to the FBI as is standard practice.

She declined Tuesday to explain why Harris did not ask Kavanaugh about the allegation when she questioned him at the committee last week.


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jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonald