‘The Ends Justify The Means’

Latest Allegation: ‘She Came Forward Because Senate Democrats Began Looking At This Claim’

ABC’s GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: “Why did she come forward?”

THE NEW YORKER’s RONAN FARROW: “She came forward because Senate Democrats began looking at this claim. She did not flag this for those Democrats.” (ABC’s “Good Morning America,” 9/24/2018)

“The offices of at least four Democratic senators have received information about the allegation, and at least two have begun investigating it…. Democratic Senate offices reviewing the allegations believe that they merit further investigation.” (“Senate Democrats Investigate a New Allegation of Sexual Misconduct, from Brett Kavanaugh’s College Years,” The New Yorker, 9/23/2018)

• MSNBC’s HALLIE JACKSON: “[C]an you clarify here? When did you first hear about this allegation? When did you know about it? And did you share that information with anyone else, Republican or Democrat, in Congress?” SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D-HI): “My office was among a number of offices that heard this report about a second victim and we contacted the ranking member’s [Dianne Feinstein’s] staff to pass that on, that is all I did….” (MSNBC’s “MSNBC Live with Hallie Jackson,” 9/24/2018)

• “Per a Senate official, staff of Judiciary Ds, once they heard about Ramirez’s allegation, reached out to [Sen. Michael] Bennet’s [D-CO] office for help. His staff reached out to Stan Garnett, who reached out directly to Ramirez (the accuser in the New Yorker piece) and now reps her.” (The Washington Post’s Seung Min Kim, @seungminkim, Twitter, 9/23/2018)

• “As Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings became a national story, the discussions among Ramirez and Kavanaugh’s classmates took on heightened urgency, eventually spreading to news organizations and to the Senate. Senate aides from Ramirez’s home state of Colorado alerted a lawyer, Stanley Garnett, a former Democratic district attorney in Boulder, who currently represents her.” (“Senate Democrats Investigate a New Allegation of Sexual Misconduct, from Brett Kavanaugh’s College Years,” The New Yorker, 9/23/2018)

This Allegation Had ‘Been Floating Around’ For Nearly A Week, And Even The New York Times Refused To Run It

“The Ramirez accusation has been floating around several news outlets in the past week, including NBC, NYer, New York Times, & the Washington Post per five sources.” (New York Magazine’s Yashar Ali, @yashar, Twitter, 9/23/2018)

• THE NEW YORK TIMES: “The New Yorker did not confirm with other eyewitnesses that Judge Kavanaugh was at the party. The Times had interviewed several dozen people over the past week in an attempt to corroborate her story, and could find no one with firsthand knowledge. Ms. Ramirez herself contacted former Yale classmates asking if they recalled the incident and told some of them that she could not be certain Mr. Kavanaugh was the one …” (“Christine Blasey Ford Reaches Deal to Testify at Kavanaugh Hearing,” The New York Times, 9/23/2018)

“After six days of carefully assessing her memories and consulting with her attorney, Ramirez said that she felt confident enough of her recollections …” (“Senate Democrats Investigate a New Allegation of Sexual Misconduct, from Brett Kavanaugh’s College Years,” The New Yorker, 9/23/2018)

‘Yet Again, Senate Democrats Actively Withheld Information From The Rest Of The Committee’

“A spokesperson for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Sunday night … in a statement slammed Democrats for ‘withholding information’ regarding the allegations. ‘Yet again, Senate Democrats actively withheld information from the rest of the Committee only to drop information at politically opportune moments,’ the statement said, doubling down on his remarks that Democrats withheld the first allegation against Kavanaugh from Christine Blasey Ford, who went public last week.” (“Grassley: Dems 'Withheld Information' On New Kavanaugh Allegation,” The Hill, 9/23/2018)

Previous Allegation: Democrats Held It For Weeks And Then Leaked It

“In late July, Ford … called her congresswoman’s office to discuss what she described as private matter. Days later, on a Friday afternoon in her California office, Rep. Anna Eshoo sat with Ford and listened to the story … That weekend, Eshoo contacted Feinstein, a longtime colleague in California’s Bay Area politics and the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee…. At Feinstein’s recommendation, Eshoo asked Ford to outline the accusation in a letter…. A week later, on July 30, Eshoo had Ford’s letter hand-delivered to Feinstein’s office in Washington.” (“Inside Democrats’ Struggle With The Kavanaugh Accusation,” The Associated Press, 9/24/2018)

• WALL STREET JOURNAL: “The preposterous circumstance in this case is that Senator Feinstein withheld [the] accusations for six weeks from Republicans and the White House. Ms. Feinstein could have turned over [the] letter to the FBI immediately, yet now Democrats are demanding a further delay …” (Editorial, “Schumer’s FBI Ploy,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/18/2018)

PBS’ LISA DESJARDINS: “Top Democratic sources told me, yes, this was a leak by Democrats.” (PBS’ “PBS NewsHour,” 9/14/2018)

• NBC’s STEPHANIE GOSK: “The first biggest problem is the fact that it leaked. Her name leaked.” NBC’s MEGYN KELLY: “The Democrats leaked it. The Democrats leaked it. … They outed her. They’re the ones who had her name.” (NBC’s “Megyn Kelly Today,” 9/20/2018)

• SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT), Judiciary Committee Member: “After six weeks in the United States Senate, a lot of things leak.” (MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes,” 9/20/2018)