News of the Restless

Artwork by the lovely and talented Mr. Jim Carrey — the best editorial cartoonist never to work for a newspaper.

Ahem. Notice that there’s a period there, instead of the question mark I used the other day? There’s a reason for that…

A third accuser of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh publicly identified herself Wednesday and alleged that Kavanaugh and others in the early 1980s spiked the drinks of girls at high school parties with intoxicants to make it easier for them to be gang raped.

The woman, Julie Swetnick, said Kavanaugh lined up with other boys, including his close friend Mark Judge, waiting to rape those girls at many parties — and that she once became a victim herself.

The allegations were detailed in an affidavit, signed under penalty of perjury, that was released by Swetnick’s lawyer, Michael Avenatti. Her statement was sent to a senior staffer on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

A signed affidavit? Yeah, that’s reason enough for me to put the period there. I can say with reasonable confidence that NO ONE signs this kind of statement unless they have a compelling case to make.

And if you wonder who she is and why she’s coming forward, just look at this:

Swetnick, a 55-year-old certified systems engineer who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, identified herself in the affidavit as a resident of Washington, D.C. While Avenatti had generally described Swetnick’s allegations in an email to the Judiciary Committee on Sunday, he had not previously identified her until Wednesday.

A 1980 graduate of Gaithersburg High School in Maryland, she said she has held multiple clearances for work done at the Treasury Department, U.S. Mint, IRS, State Department and Justice Department, among other government agencies.

A woman with multiple security clearances doesn’t just pick those up at random. She’d have to be extraordinarily transparent and open to investigation by authorities before she could be cleared to work for all the different agencies she has served. Meaning, this is a witness with an exceptionally high degree of probity. And that makes her statements all the more deserving of belief.

So, what is she bearing witness to? Well, THIS:

Swetnick says in her affidavit that she saw Kavanaugh in the early 1980s “drink excessively at many” house parties in suburban Maryland. At the time, Kavanaugh and Judge were students at Georgetown Prep, a private Catholic all-boys school.

She said Kavanaugh and Judge engaged in “abusive and physically agressive behavior toward girls,” which “included the fondling and groping of girls without their consent” and “not taking ‘No’ for an answer.”

During the years of 1981 and 1982, she said, she learned of efforts by Kavanaugh, his friend Judge and others “to spike the drinks of girls at house parties I attended with grain alcohol and/or drugs so as to cause girls to lose inhibitions and their ability to say ‘No.’ ”

Certain girls were targeted by those boys, and “it was usually a girl that was especially vulnerable because she was alone at the party or shy,” Swetnick claimed.

Swetnick said she “witnessed efforts by Mark Judge, Brett Kavanaugh and others to cause girls to become inebriated and disoriented so they could then be ‘gang raped’ in a side room or bedroom by a ‘train’ of numerous boys.”

“I have a firm recollection of seeing boys lined up outside rooms at many of these parties waiting for their ‘turn’ with a girl inside the room,” Swetnick said. “These boys included Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh.”

She also said in her affidavit sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee that in approximately 1982 “I became the victim of one of these ‘gang’ or ‘train’ rapes where Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh were present.”

“Shortly after the incident, I shared what had transpired with at least two other people,” Swetnick said.

“During the incident, I was incapacitated without my consent and unable to fight off the boys raping me. I believe I was drugged using Quaaludes or something similar placed in what I was drinking.”

So, not only has Julie Swetnick witnessed Kavanaugh and Judge in (hideously slimy) action, she has also been the victim of their actions…AND told at least two other people about them shortly afterward. Meaning, there are further witnesses who can and should be called to testify when it comes to that. And they will in turn testify that Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge were clear ringleaders — pimps — in a rape gang that targeted shy, vulnerable, easily isolated young women and girls for assault. REPEATEDLY.

So, what happened to Christine Blasey Ford back in 1982 was no isolated incident, and was perhaps only the first of many. If indeed it WAS only their first, and if they hadn’t already done it to someone else before her. Not being privy to their activities at that time, I can’t say for certain whether it was their very first time at the rape rodeo. But clearly they had plenty of time and opportunity to refine their grotesque techniques on subsequent occasions, and they did.

And, worst of all, Kavanaugh is also a human-rights violator (in effect, a high-level rape pimp) for another reason: He okayed a lot of war crimes, domestic espionage, and even torture under none other than dear ol’ Dubya. Remember him? That lovable goofus? Yeah, not so lovable in light of this:

As you know, in 2006, Judge Kavanaugh told the Committee under oath that he was “not aware of any issues” regarding “the legal justifications or the policies relating to the treatment of detainees”; was “not involved in the questions about the rules governing detention of combatants”; had nothing to do with issues related to rendition; and was unaware of, and saw no documents related to, the warrantless wiretapping program conducted without congressional authorization.

However, at least two documents that are publicly available on the Bush Library website from Judge Kavanaugh’s time as Staff Secretary suggest that he was involved in issues related to torture and rendition after 9/11. In one, just days after the existence of the Office of Legal Counsel “torture memos” was publicly revealed, then-Deputy White House Chief of Staff Harriet Miers forwarded to Judge Kavanaugh a set of talking points addressing the memos and U.S. torture policy. The forwarded email makes clear that then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley had personally asked for Judge Kavanaugh’s review. Similarly, another email shows that Judge Kavanaugh was included on an email chain circulating talking points on rendition and interrogation. These emails and talking points demonstrate why we need access to Judge Kavanaugh’s full record as Staff Secretary.

In addition, documents that have been produced to the Committee as part of the partisan process that you have brokered with Bill Burck further undercut Judge Kavanaugh’s blanket assertions that he had no involvement in or knowledge of post-9/11 terrorism policies. These documents are currently being withheld from the public at your insistence, but they shed additional light on Judge Kavanaugh’s involvement in these matters and are needed to question him in a public hearing.

After all, Judge Kavanaugh was an Associate White House Counsel on 9/11. Over the next several months and years, the White House sought legal opinions from the Office of Legal Counsel and advised the President on the legality of several controversial programs. For example, just six days after the 9/11 attack, Office of Legal Counsel lawyer John Yoo drafted a memorandum evaluating the legality of a program that would allow warrantless wiretapping of American’s e-mails and phone calls. Mr. Yoo, described in a public Inspector Generals’ report as “‘very well connected’ with officials in the White House,” addressed his memo to Deputy White House Counsel Timothy Flanigan, Judge Kavanaugh’s likely supervisor at the time. It is important for the public and full Senate to understand whether Judge Kavanaugh was involved in their communications, despite having told the Committee in 2006 that he had not seen or heard anything about the President’s warrantless wiretapping program until December 2005.

Ah yes, you all no doubt needed reminding that Dubya is not some cute, cuddly homebody, puttering around his Dallas retirement home and painting his puppies, and passing candy to Michelle Obama at John McCain’s funeral. Just like you needed reminding that Brett Fucking Kavanaugh was not just some superannuated virgin choirboy during his formative years at high school and college.

And only now are we seeing just what grotesque circles they all run in. Who knew that high-school sexual assaults and frat-house rapes would be just the tip of a very treacherous iceberg, and that what lies below the waterline is even uglier, and could only be deemed salacious if one is already one hell of a pervert?

Well, I can’t say I didn’t suspect as much.

Strap yourselves in, folks, this vomit-comet ride is not even off the ground yet.