Julie Swetnick, the woman accusing federal judge Brett Kavanaugh of facilitating gang rapes while in high school, said in a new interview released Thursday: “I don’t think he belongs on the Supreme Court.”
At the same time, Swetnick’s attorney, Michael Avenatti, said she is again demanding the chance to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. That committee on Thursday is hearing testimony from Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, 51, who accuses him of sexual assault in the early 1980s.
“Brett Kavanaugh is going for a seat, where he’s going to have that seat on the Supreme Court for the rest of his life, and if he’s going to have that seat legitimately, all of these things should be investigated,” Swetnick said in the interview with Showtime’s “The Circus,” a clip of which aired on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show.
“Because from what I experienced first hand, I don’t think he belongs on the Supreme Court,” the 55-year-old Washington resident said.
“I just want the facts to come out and I want it to be just, and I want the American people to have those facts and judge themselves.”
Swetnick’s interview came after Avenatti on Wednesday released a bombshell affidavit from her in which she described attending mulitple parties in suburban Maryland in the early 1980s, when Kavanaugh was a student at the all-boys Georgetown Prep high school.
Swetnick claims that she saw Kavanaugh and his close friend Mark Judge line up with other boys to rape girls after they had become inebriated and disoriented after drinking drinks spiked with grain alcohol or drugs.
She also alleged that in around 1982: “I became the victim of one of these ‘gang’ or ‘train’ rapes where Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh were present.”
Kavanaugh, 53, and Judge both deny Swetnick’s claim. Kavanaugh has denied attacking anyone, including Ford. Judge has said he has no memory of the incidence described by Ford.
Asked during the interview why it had taken until the day before the hearing with Kavanaugh and Ford for her story to be made public, Swetnick said, “It wasn’t that I wanted to come out one day before the hearings.”
“It’s just that circumstances brought it out that way,” she said. “This is something that occurred a long time ago, and it’s not that I just thought about it.”
“It’s been on my mind ever since the occurrences,” Swetnick said.
Asked why specifically she thought Kavanaugh was unsuitable to be a Supreme Court justice, Swetnick said, “I think all of the above,” referring to her affidavit’s allegations.
‘I mean, that’s not the kind of behavior that anybody, at any age, should do,” she said. “I mean, I don’t think women should be treated that way. I don’t think any human being should treat people that way.”
Politico reported Wednesday that that Swetnick was once the subject of a restraining order filed by an ex-boyfriend in 2001. That restraining order was dismissed within two weeks.
The man, Richard Vinneccy, told Politico that Swetnick had threatened him after their relationship ended, and after he married another woman.
“She was threatening my family, threatening my wife and threatening to do harm to my baby at that time,” Vinnecy said. “She’s not credible at all.”
Avenatti told Politico he had not known of the restraining order, and said questions about it were not relevant.
“Complete nonsense. No truth to this at all. Her ex-boyfriend fraudulently used her resume to apply for and obtain jobs and was caught by her,” Avenatti said. “Why are you all attacking a sexual assault victim? Would that be appropriate in a court of law?”
