Senate Republicans aim to discredit 1 Kavanaugh accuser with hearsay on sexual tastes

On Tuesday, Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans emailed hundreds of journalists a statement from Dennis Ketterer, a former TV meteorologist in Utah, who says he was in a brief relationship with Julie Swetnick, one of the women accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. In his statement, Ketterer says that during his weeks-long 1993 relationship with Swetnick, she once told him she enjoyed group sex, had engaged in such activity in high school, and never mentioned Kavanaugh or "said anything about being sexually assaulted, raped, gang-raped, or having sex against her will."

A congressional committee releasing "a statement that included such explicit and unconfirmed details about a member of the public" is "unprecedented," The Washington Post reports. Swetnick said in a sworn affidavit that Kavanaugh had been present at a house party in 1982 where she was the victim of a gang rape. The Senate Republicans said Ketterer's statement was provided "under penalty of felony" — an odd phrase — and did not explain how it contradicted Swetnik's affidavit.

Her attorney, Michael Avenatti, released a statement on Tuesday from another woman who says she "witnessed firsthand Brett Kavanaugh, together with others, 'spike' the 'punch' at house parties I attended with Quaaludes and/or grain alcohol" with the understood "purpose of making girls more likely to engage in sexual acts and less likely to say 'No.'" Avenatti called Ketterer's statement a "fabricated" "piece of garbage" and urged the FBI to look into both his and Swenick's allegations.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

In an interview with the Post, Ketterer — a Republican who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in Maryland as a Democrat in 1996 — says he approached Sen. Orrin Hatch's (R-Utah) office Friday after discussing his memories with leaders of his Mormon church. He said "this has nothing to do with party," he doesn't know Kavanaugh, and he only wanted to "do the right thing" and "find a back-channel way to Mrs. Kavanaugh" because he sympathized with the nominee's wife, Ashley.