Another possible accusation of sexual assault has emerged against Brett Kavanaugh, according to a report by the Montgomery County Sentinel’s Brian Karem.
Brett Kavanaugh faces possible new misconduct allegations in Montgomery County, Maryland
Despite a local news report, county police have said they haven’t heard from anyone coming forward about an allegation.
Li Zhou is a former politics reporter at Vox, where she covers Congress and elections. Previously, she was a tech policy reporter at Politico and an editorial fellow at the Atlantic.
Karem reports that a woman or her attorney and several witnesses have spoken to investigators in Montgomery County about what they say is an incident involving Kavanaugh when he was a teenager.
“It has to do with senior year in high school and some of the same things that Michael Avenatti was talking about,” Karem said in an interview.
Avenatti — an attorney representing porn actress Stormy Daniels — tweeted on Sunday that he is representing a woman with “credible information” implicating Kavanaugh and his classmate, Mark Judge, in a alleged pattern of sexual assault. According to an email he wrote and shared on Twitter, he claims to have “significant information” that Kavanaugh and Judge targeted women with drugs and alcohol “to allow a ‘train’ of men to subsequently gang rape them.” Karem notes in his story that investigators aren’t certain if the allegations are connected.
If the alleged event took place in Montgomery County, that might precipitate further investigation: there is no statute of limitations on rape and attempted rape in Maryland. Prosecutors could have discretion, however, on what the charge might look like, given that the people involved were likely under 18 at the time. Karem’s sources say the woman has not requested to press charges at this time, but if she does, police and the Montgomery County prosecuting attorney’s office said they will investigate.
Montgomery County police say they have not heard from anyone bringing such allegations forward. “I have spoken with my chief of detectives, and neither of us have any knowledge of anyone coming forward to us to report any allegations involving Judge Kavanaugh,” Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said in an email to the Washington Examiner. Karem’s article noted that the investigators he spoke with on background are affiliated with law enforcement. The Montgomery County prosecuting attorney’s office declined to comment.
Here’s what we know, according to anonymous sources in Karem’s story:
- Investigators in Montgomery County have apparently spoken with either a woman or her attorney about allegations of sexual assault against Kavanaugh that date back to his senior year of high school.
- Investigators have apparently spoken to multiple witnesses about the allegations.
- A formal complaint has not been filed.
- “Without a complaint, they cannot conduct a further investigation,” said Karem. “That’s the fulcrum.”
- In Maryland, there is no statute of limitations for rape and attempted rape.
- The county police and the Montgomery County prosecuting attorney’s office have said they would conduct an investigation into the case, if a complaint is filed.
- The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Both Manger and prosecuting attorney John McCarthy have said they intend to fully investigate these allegations if a complaint is reported. “We are prepared to investigate if the victim wants to report to us, and we can determine it occurred in the county,” Manger told the Sentinel.
This allegation comes in the wake of two sexual misconduct allegations that have already been brought against Kavanaugh by Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez.
Ford has accused Kavanaugh of trying to force himself on her while the two were attending a party in Montgomery County in the early 1980s. Ramirez has said that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her during a party while they were undergraduate students at Yale. Kavanaugh has unequivocally denied those allegations thus far.
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