Progressive Groups Call on House Democrats to Open Impeachment Inquiry in Light of New Kavanaugh Allegations
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 15, 2019
Contact: [email protected]
PROGRESSIVE GROUPS CALL ON HOUSE DEMOCRATS TO OPEN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY IN LIGHT OF NEW KAVANAUGH ALLEGATIONS
NY Times Report Shows Assault Allegation by Kavanaugh’s Yale Classmate Debbie Ramirez was Never Probed by FBI and Reveals New Incident Involving Kavanaugh at Yale
WASHINGTON, DC—Several leading progressive organizations joined together Sunday to call on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler to launch a formal impeachment proceeding regarding Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The call comes after a New York Times report on Saturday night revealed a new incident of sexual assault involving Kavanaugh while he was a student at Yale, and documented how previous accusations were never meaningfully investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation a year ago.
“This new report corroborates the allegations made by Debbie Ramirez and proves the FBI investigation conducted last year was a sham from the start. At this point, an impeachment inquiry in the House is the only appropriate way to conduct the fact-finding that Senate Republicans refused to conduct,” Demand Justice, Women’s March and Center for Popular Democracy said in a joint statement.
“The evidence that Kavanaugh committed perjury in his Senate testimony is mounting. Brett Kavanaugh is unfit to sit as a Supreme Court justice in the face of so many credible allegations that he sexually assaulted these women. House Democrats must not delay in launching an impeachment probe,” the groups added.
The groups are planning an October 6 protest outside the Supreme Court to coincide with the one-year anniversary of Kavanaugh’s confirmation. The action is being cosponsored by over two dozen civil rights and sexual assault survivor groups.
The groups have been urging the House to formally reinvestigate Kavanaugh for months now. In April, they sent their first letter to Nadler urging his panel to reexamine several of the unresolved controversies involving Kavanaugh. Finally in August, Nadler sent an official request to the National Archives for documents from Kavanaugh’s time in the George W. Bush White House that were never produced during Kavanaugh’s confirmation process.
But a new book, authored by two New York Times reporters, increases the urgency for action on Kavanaugh. According to a published report Saturday that is based on the upcoming book, at least seven people had knowledge of the allegation that Kavanaugh’s former Yale classmate Debbie Ramirez made about being assaulted by Kavanaugh at a party long before he became a judge. The report notes that Ramirez’s lawyers provided the FBI with the names of 25 individuals who could corroborate Ramirez’s account, but none of these people were ever interviewed.
Moreover, the Times uncovered that Kavanaugh was involved in another incident at Yale that was similar to the one Ramirez described. The fact of that incident was attributed to another of Kavanaugh’s classmates, Max Stier.
More information on the October 6 protest is available at www.ReclaimtheCourt.com.
# # #
