Kavanaugh's high school calendar fails to exonerate him

Trump Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s attorneys have released his personal calendars from the summer of 1982, which they said would help refute the allegations that he sexually assaulted Dr. Christine Blasey Ford at a party that summer.

The New York Times reports that Kavanaugh’s attorneys claim the calendars help Kavanaugh because they “do not show a party consistent with the description of his accuser,” and that they provide “no corroboration for her account of a small gathering at a house where he allegedly pinned her to a bed and tried to remove her clothing.”

In fact, the calendars note multiple parties or gatherings that could be consistent with what Ford described in her harrowing account of the attempted assault to the Washington Post.

While there’s no smoking gun, the content of the calendars is a far cry from the Kavanaugh team’s claims that they provide “no corroboration” whatsoever.

The calendar pages (which the Washington Post has reproduced and transcribed) range from May through August of 1982, and contain six entries containing the word “party.”

Only one of those six entries specifically mentions other attendees; the others just mention the name of the person hosting the party, which tells us nothing about what kind of party it was or who attended.

Three other entries mention Mark Judge, the person Ford says was present in the room during her assault. And one of those entries says, “Go to Timmy’s for Skis [possibly slang for “Brewskis”] w/ Judge, Tom, PJ, Bernie, Squi.”

Ford has reportedly identified a young man named “PJ,” whose full name is Patrick Smyth and who denies Ford’s account, as one of the four specific people she remembers being at the party.

The other three are Kavanaugh, Judge, and a female friend named Leland Keyser. Keyser also says she doesn’t remember the party, which Ford’s attorney says isn’t surprising since Keyser didn’t witness what happened or hear about it from Ford; the party would have been unmemorable for her.

The calendars also confirm that Kavanaugh attended an event called “Beach Week.” Kavanaugh’s third accuser, Julie Swetnick, claims in a sworn declaration that she witnessed Kavanaugh behaving in abusive, sexually aggressive ways toward girls at a “Beach Week” gathering in Ocean City, Maryland.

Swetnick’s declaration went on to detail a disturbing set of allegations against Kavanaugh that included orchestrating gang rapes with Judge and others at multiple house parties in high school. Swetnick says she was a victim of a gang rape at which Kavanaugh and Judge were “present.”

It’s ludicrous to begin with that Kavanaugh’s attorneys would try to use this calendar as evidence. No teenager could reasonably be expected to note wild, alcohol-fueled parties with fastidious accuracy. Even Kavanaugh’s team admits he could have attended parties that he didn’t write down.

But it’s also quite possible that one of the parties Kavanaugh did write down could have been the same party at which he allegedly assaulted Ford.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.