White House legal counsel Don McGahn oversaw the FBI investigation into allegations that a drunk Brett Kavanaugh, age 17, had sexually assaulted Chrissy Ford, age 15, at a house party and had, two years later, again inebriated, sexually assaulted fellow Yale University student Debby Ramirez. McGahn directed the FBI to interview just nine people, mostly personal friends of Kavanaugh. They interviewed Debby Ramirez but never followed up with her 20 witnesses who could corroborate her testimony. Ramirez’s lawyers wrote that they were “deeply disappointed” in the investigation. The FBI never did interview Dr. Ford, who was eager to talk to them and provide the names of friends who could attest to her having discussed the assault years before Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination. Ford’s lawyers called the investigation “a stain on the process, on the FBI and on our American ideal of justice.” But, in fact, Kavanaugh’s own high school yearbook provided undeniable evidence contradicting his assertion that he had always been respectful to women. Renate Schroeder Dolphin, who initially had signed a statement supporting Kavanaugh, was humiliated to learn that Kavanaugh and 13 classmates had included a notation in their respective high school yearbooks that they were members of the “Renate alumni club.” When asked what that notation referred to, Kavanaugh disingenuously said that it honored a very likable person who they had all dated. If it was such an accolade, why did no one tell her? And why was it embedded with other racy notations, which internet dictionaries indicated were allusions to sexual exploitation and boozy partying? When she learned, as millions of other Americans did, of the “Renate alumni club,” she felt horribly disrespected. She told the The New York Times, “…the insinuation is horrible, hurtful and simply untrue. I pray their daughters are never treated this way.” She angrily withdrew her support from Kavanaugh. Women have a right to be angry that such clear misogyny should be elevated to the highest judicial position in the U.S. for life, where he will have immense power to restrict women’s reproductive rights, access to health care, labor rights and consumer rights for decades to come.
William McCarthy