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Brett Kavanaugh: Five major contradictions Trump's Supreme Court nominee made in unprecedented interview

Brett Kavanaugh: Five major contradictions Trump's Supreme Court nominee made in unprecedented interview

Brett Kavanaugh has provided an emotional and full-throated defence against sexual assault allegations during an unprecedented interview with Fox News.

The Supreme Court nominee and his wife Ashley Kavanaugh sat down to discuss accusations brought against him by Dr Christine Blasey Ford, who alleged he pinned her down and made unwanted sexual advances towards her at a party in high school, and another report of sexual misconduct during his college years. A third allegation arrived shortly after the interview was released from an unnamed woman represented by Michael Avenatti.

The interview featured an adamant and visibly hurt Mr Kavanaugh, who vowed he wasn't "going anywhere" and would proceed with the nomination process. However, he appeared to contradict numerous reports and statements from associates throughout his life which cast a damaging picture of the US district judge. Commentators said it was highly unusual, if not entirely unprecedented, for a nominee to appear in a television interview before his confirmation.

Below are some of the most contradictory elements to Mr Kavanaugh's Fox News interview:

Brett Kavanaugh said the supposed college incident "would have been the talk of the campus". It was.

The judge appeared to refute sexual assault claims brought against him by Deborah Ramirez, who said Mr Kavanaugh drunkenly exposed himself to her at a dormitory party at Yale and made her touch his penis without her consent, by suggesting nobody on campus ever heard of or spoke about the alleged incident.

However, numerous Yale alumni have said they recall hearing about the event in question involving both Ms Ramirez and Mr Kavanaugh shortly after it supposedly happened. One unnamed classmate said they were “one hundred per cent sure” they were told at the time about the judge’s unwanted advances onto Ms Ramirez. "I’ve known this all along,” he told the New Yorker. “It’s been on my mind all these years when his name came up. It was a big deal."

Not only have several former students said the alleged incident was discussed on campus at the time, but others have also said it was brought back up amongst alumni immediately after Donald Trump nominated Mr Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

The judge said the people he knew in college found the claims "inconceivable". They don't.

The judge kept referring to the numerous folks who have vouched for him throughout his life, including college friends who spoke out shortly after the second round of sex assault allegations were brought against him.

But his college roommate James Roche told the New Yorker the judge was "frequently, incoherently drunk" while adding: "Is it believable that she was alone with a wolf group of guys who thought it was funny to sexually torment a girl like Debbie? Yeah, definitely. Is it believable that Kavanaugh was one of them? Yes."

Even two of the judge’s friends who signed a statement of support provided by his lawyers did not appear wholeheartedly convinced of his innocence. In separate statements to the New Yorker, Louisa Garry and Dino Ewing both said “I cannot dispute Ramirez’s allegations, as I was not present” and “I also was not present and therefore am not in a position to directly dispute Ramirez’s account”.

Mr Kavanaugh said he was "focused on academics and athletics" in high school. He called himself the treasurer of the "Keg City Club" in his yearbook.

Mr Kavanaugh painted himself as a devout Catholic teenager with a passion for academia and sports, who was a virgin until “many years” after high school.

“The vast majority of the time I spent in high school was studying or focused on sports and being a good friend to the boys and the girls that I was friends with,” he told Fox News.

However, in his own yearbook page, the judge described himself as the treasurer of the “Keg City Club,” an apparent reference to his group of friends who reportedly enjoyed drinking and throwing parties while attending Georgetown Preparatory high school.

His former classmate and friend Mark Judge also wrote a book which included a character named Bart O’Kavanaugh, who was a heavy drinker. The New York Times also published a story highlighting a reference in his yearbook page to “Renate Alumnus,” which appears in some form numerous times throughout the yearbook and appears to be a mocking joke against Renate Schroeder, a former student from a nearby girls’ school.

His page also includes references to things like "100 kegs or bust" — which of course appear to reference drinking, not religious studies, academia or athletics.

He repeatedly called for "a fair process", but did not support relaunching an FBI investigation, which would provide fairness to both sides.

Though Mr Kavanaugh was provided the opportunity to expressly support a renewed FBI investigation into the claims against him, the judge simply asserted he wanted “a fair process”, repeating the phrase on multiple occasions throughout the interview.

“All I am asking for is a fair process where I can be heard,” he said. “I am looking for a fair process, a process where I can defend my integrity and clear my name.”

“Again, just asking for a fair process where I can be heard and I did defend my integrity,” he continued.

While “fair” could be interpreted in many ways in this event dependent on political ideologies, one would assume a neutral judge considers a “fair” case one that is properly investigated on both sides.

The judge said the New York Times "could not corroborate" the New Yorker story. That's simply not true.

Mr Kavanaugh alleged the New York Times was not able to substantiate the claims made against him, though the paper has said no such thing.

In fact, the Times’ editor Dean Baquet celebrated journalist Ronan Farrow’s reporting in the New Yorker.

"I gather some people thought we were trying to knock down [Ramirez’s] account, but that’s not what we were doing," he said on Monday. "I’m not questioning their story. We’ve been competing against Ronan Farrow for a year and he’s terrific."