President Trump called Monday for the resignation of the reporters who authored a controversial New York Times opinion piece suggesting federal investigators dropped the ball probing sexual misconduct allegations lobbed at Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.

“I call for the Resignation of everybody at The New York Times involved in the Kavanaugh SMEAR story, and while you’re at it, the Russian Witch Hunt Hoax, which is just as phony!” the president tweeted.

He added, “They’ve taken the Old Grey Lady and broken her down, destroyed her virtue and ruined her reputation…She can never recover, and will never return to Greatness, under current Management. The Times is DEAD, long live The New York Times!”

The president’s comments come after the New York Times was forced to clarify its article, which was taken from an anti-Kavanaugh book by Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly.

The piece revisited allegations made by Deborah Ramirez, a college classmate of Justice Kavanaugh. She claimed during the justice’s confirmation hearings last year that he thrust his penis at her during a party a college party.

In the article, The Times also leveled a new allegation of sexual misconduct and suggested the FBI probe was less than rigorous.

Senate Republicans, though, rebuked the charge, saying both the committee and the FBI looked into Justice Kavanaugh’s background.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, who served as chairman of the Judiciary Committee during the confirmation hearings, said his staff chased down eight people linked to Ms. Ramirez during the committee’s probe into alleged misconduct — and never heard anything about the other incident alleged in The Times article.

“This is not an allegation. It’s barely a third-hand rumor. These writers didn’t even speak to the man who they claimed originally recounted this rumor,” the Iowa Republican said on the chamber floor. “What’s left is only layers and layers of decades-old hearsay.”

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