Here’s where Kavanaugh’s sworn testimony was misleading or wrong
By Philip Bump
September 28 at 11:41 AM
As he began his questioning of Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh on Thursday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) asked Kavanaugh about a point of procedure in criminal trials.
“As a federal judge, you’re aware of the jury instruction falsus in omnibus, are you not?” Blumenthal asked. “You’re aware of that jury instruction?”
Kavanaugh said he was, but he deferred to Blumenthal on a direct translation.
"False in one thing, false in everything,” Blumenthal replied. “Meaning in jury instructions that we — some of us as prosecutors have heard many times, is — told the jury that they can disbelieve a witness if they find them to be false in one thing.”
Blumenthal's point was that the exceptional hearings centered on the credibility of Kavanaugh and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, who alleged that she'd been assaulted by Kavanaugh at a house party in 1982 when both were in high school. Over the course of his testimony, though, Kavanaugh offered several answers to questions that stretched or misrepresented the truth.
Here are those responses — and some for which he's incorrectly been accused of having been untruthful — in chronological order.
Kavanaugh’s opening statement
Watch Brett M. Kavanaugh's full opening statement
Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh delivered an opening statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 27, after being accused of sexual assault. (Reuters)
“Some of you were lying in wait and had it ready. This first allegation was held in secret for weeks by a Democratic member of this committee, and by staff. It would be needed only if you couldn’t take me out on the merits. ... This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit...”
Kavanaugh here refers to how Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) had received a letter in July detailing Ford’s allegation, and that it was released publicly only this month. He implies that the letter was withheld until a politically expedient point as part of a political “hit.”
Feinstein has said that she was unable to move forward with the allegation because Ford wanted to remain anonymous. On Thursday, Ford testified that she decided to step forward once the media learned about the letter. (Feinstein also denied leaking the letter.)
“I never attended a gathering like the one Dr. Ford describes in her allegation.”
The word “like” is carrying a lot of weight in that sentence, but it's clear from Kavanaugh's later testimony and the personal calendars he submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he attended parties like the one Ford describes — up to the point of the alleged assault. More on this below.
“She and I did not travel in the same social circles.”
Ford testified that in the spring and summer of 1982 she was going out with Kavanaugh’s friend nicknamed “Squi,” who appears more than a dozen times on Kavanaugh’s calendar of social events.
“Dr. Ford’s allegation is not merely uncorroborated, it is refuted by the very people she says were there, including by a long-time friend of hers. Refuted.”
As we noted Thursday, Kavanaugh’s presentation of what the others have allegedly said about Ford’s accusations is misleading.
more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/09/28/heres-where-kavanaughs-sworn-testimony-was-misleading-or-wrong/?utm_term=.a67f4da2cc37
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