An anonymous letter signed by a “Jane Doe” from Oceanside contains explosive allegations of rape and sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and an unnamed friend of Kavanaugh’s.
Those allegations, first referred to last week in a document released by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, are detailed in a transcript of a September 26 phone conversation between Committee staff and the nominee.
During that 20-minute phone conversation, a Committee staffer read Kavanaugh the entire 2-and-a-half page letter, which was addressed to Senator Grassley and mailed to Senator Kamala Harris’s downtown San Diego office on Sept. 19.
“Kavanaugh kissed me forcefully,” wrote the alleged victim, who described what happened when she accepted a ride home from a party with Kavanaugh and his friend.
The letter recounts in graphic detail the alleged rape and sexual assault.
“They dropped me off two blocks from my home,” the alleged victim claimed. “‘No one will believe you if you tell. Be a good girl,’ he told me.”
According to the transcript, the letter contains no identifying information about the alleged incident and no details about the alleged victim. It is signed, “Jane Doe, Oceanside, California.” There was no return address on the envelope.
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In his conversation with committee staff, Kavanaugh unequivocally denied each and every allegation.
Asked if he had any questions for committee staff, Kavanagh said “Nothing -- the whole thing is ridiculous. Nothing ever -- anything like that, nothing. I mean, that’s -- the whole thing is just a crock, farce, wrong, didn’t happen, not anything close.”
Attorney Dan Eaton, who has closely followed the Kavanaugh nomination, told NBC 7 that the anonymous letter will have little or no impact on the Senate debate, because it contains no information about the alleged victim and no viable leads that could help investigators find the letter-writer.
"There's nothing to go on,” Eaton said. “So I don't see this letter having any impact at all on the nomination."
Eaton said Kavanaugh’s detractors could still use the unsubstantiated allegations to attack the nominee’s reputation. Eaton also said the letter -- and other claims of sexual misconduct -- can also be fuel for critics who will second-guess Kavanaugh’s motives and judicial rulings, if the Senate does approve his nomination to the nation’s highest court.
“But it won’t affect one important thing,” Eaton said. “It won’t affect the fact that he has a vote on the Supreme Court, and that that vote may very well be decisive on a lot of very, very important issues that will come before the court in the months and years ahead.”
