Reporters who published new Kavanaugh allegation accuse him of asking them to lie in exchange for interview
Credibly accused sexual predator Brett Kavanaugh’s presence on the Supreme Court bench is an ongoing miscarriage of justice, a perverse mocking of our democracy that will not end until he is held accountable and impeached. While we can’t know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s guilty, the mere fact that he very likely could be is more than enough reason to exclude him from our nation’s most powerful judicial body. Democrats aren’t saying we should throw him in prison obviously, just that he shouldn’t be trusted with such tremendous power. Justices must have immaculate records and reputations if the Supreme Court is going to have any credibility at all.
The more we learn about Kavanaugh, the more it becomes clear that his character simply isn’t up to standards. HuffPost reports that Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly of The New York Times now allege that Kavanaugh agreed to sit down for an interview with the two of them for their book (which contains a new bombshell allegation) on the condition that they publicly lie and deny that he did so. The reporters revealed the disturbing story while speaking at the National Press Club in D.C. yesterday. Washingtonian‘s Andrew Beaujon live-tweeted the event.
The Hill’s Saager Enjeti reported on Twitter that he spoke to Pogrebin and Kelly and they told him they were negotiating an off-the-record sitdown with Kavanaugh but his representative insisted they lie in their book and claim such a sitdown never took place.
I pressed the authors this morning on this . They say they were negotiating for an OTR conversation but a Rep for Kavanaugh demanded they say "Kavanaugh declined to comment" in their book if the meeting were to occur. You can watch it for yourself here https://t.co/RIQODPgnpb https://t.co/wX6csKzvMf
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) September 19, 2019
The discussions with Kavanaugh’s camp took place as the two reporters were putting the finishing touches on their book. They turned down the interview in the end, unable to justify lying to their readers. In an interview with The Hill the authors explained their ultimate decision:
“Unfortunately, they wanted a line in that actually said he declined to comment and we felt that would have misled the readers,” said Pogrebin.
“They asked us to affirmatively say that Justice Kavanaugh declined to be interviewed for the book even if we had an off-the-record discussion with him,” said Kelly.’
Clearly, Kavanaugh as an at best adversarial relationship with the truth, much like the president who appointed him. If he is willing to ask reporters—people whose entire livelihoods are built on their honest reputations—to lie, it can be reasonably presumed that he himself has no problem lying. With that in mind, his insistence that he never sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford looks even more dubious. Kavanaugh must be impeached.
