Cartoon by Marian Kamensky

How Many Women Will Accuse Brett Kavanaugh of Sexual Assault? 

Rolling Stone: Christine Blasey Ford may not have been the only one. A week to the day after the professor’s allegation of sexual assault against Brett Kavanaugh was made public, the New Yorker published a report from Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer detailing an additional sexual misconduct claim against the Supreme Court nominee. A woman named Deborah Ramirez is alleging that while she and Kavanaugh were freshmen at Yale, he exposed himself to her and pushed his penis in her face, causing her to touch it against her will. The legitimacy of the claim has been disputed, but Ramirez says she is confident of her account.

According to Ramirez, she and Kavanaugh were present at a dorm party where a drinking game that called for people to sit in a circle was taking place. Ramirez kept getting picked to drink, became drunk and eventually another student pulled out a plastic gag penis and pointed it at her. She then remembers being drunk and on the floor, with that student and another next to her. Then, a third, Kavanaugh, exposed himself to her. “I remember a penis being in front of my face,” she said. “I knew that’s not what I wanted, even in that state of mind.” She pushed him away, touching his penis as she did it. She recognized Kavanaugh as he was pulling up his pants. “Brett was laughing,” she said, according to the New Yorker. “I can still see his face, and his hips coming forward, like when you pull up your pants.” She recalled another male student shouting that “Brett Kavanaugh just put his penis in Debbie’s face.”

Ramirez does admit she was drunk and that there are gaps in her memory, but says she is “confident” of her story. According to the New York Times, however, “Ramirez herself contacted former Yale classmates asking if they recalled the incident and told some of them that she could not be certain Mr. Kavanaugh was the one who exposed himself.” None of the “several dozen” people contacted by the Times since they learned of the claim last week had “firsthand knowledge” of the alleged incident, and the New Yorker too was unable to obtain confirmation from anyone present >>>