The tone of this NBC interview with Jule Swetnick, the Kavanaugh accuser being promoted by Michael Avenatti, is defensive to the point of being apologetic. Snow isn’t proudly rolling out a big scoop here, she’s offering a pre-buttal, trying to issue enough caveats to cover herself given that NBC was unable to verify any of the allegations Swetnick is making here.
“NBC News, for the record, has not been able to independently verify her claims,” Snow says. She continued, “There are things that she told us on camera that differ from her written statement last week. We’ve been trying independently to reach out to anyone who remembers attending parties with Julie Swetnick and Brett Kavanaugh and we’ve been asking her attorney for names, so far we’ve not found anyone who remembers that.”
Once the interview starts, it turns out that Swetnick doesn’t remember when she came forward exactly. In a matter of moments, Swetnick goes from saying it was six weeks ago to saying it was “a few weeks.” Dr. Ford came forward on Sep. 16, which was 15 days ago. But if Swetnick seems unclear on when, she does remember why. She wanted to “corroborate” what Christine Blasey Ford had claimed.
That wasn’t the only inconsistency in this interview. Swetnick still claims she saw Kavanaugh getting handsy with female party guests but when it comes to the claim that he spiked the punch at these parties her story has shifted. In this interview, she claims she saw Kavanaugh and Mark Judge near a punch bowl handing out red cups, “but did not specifically say she saw either man spike it.” Asked point blank, Swetnick says, “I don’t know what he did.”
So what about the marquee allegation, i.e. that Kavanaugh participated in gang rapes. Tonight, Swetnick said she saw boys congregating outside rooms but adds, “I didn’t know what was occurring.” It wasn’t until she was (allegedly) gang-raped herself that she realized what must have been going on.
Snow tries to make sense of this: “So you’re suggesting that, in hindsight, you think he was involved in this behavior?”
“I would say yes,” Swetnick says, adding, “It’s just too coincidental.”
She tells the story of her own assault as being violated by several men. Snow asks if Kavanaugh was among them. “I cannot specifically say that he was one of the ones who assaulted me but before this happened to me at that party I saw Brett Kavanaugh there,” Swetnick says. She adds, “If Brett Kavanaugh was one of those people that did this to me there is no way in the world that he should go scot-free on this and that he should be on the Supreme Court.”
Swetnick says she told her mother at the time, but her mother is now deceased. She also claims she reported it to the Montgomery County police but the person she says took the report is also deceased (though he was apparently a real cop working around this time frame). The police told NBC it could take a month to see if there is a police report on this.
Toward the end of this interview, we get to other problems with Swetnick as a witness. She says the lawsuit filed by a former employer claiming she herself made unwelcome sexual comments was dismissed because it was false. She doesn’t go into detail. She’s also asked about a restraining order filed by an ex-boyfriend and claims that is “preposterous.” We may hear more about that soon as Laura Ingraham is apparently interviewing one of Swetnick’s ex-boyfriends tonight.
Finally, Swetnick is asked for the names of anyone who can back up her story. She apparently gave NBC four names. One of the four told NBC they don’t know Jule Swetnick, one was deceased, and the last two didn’t respond.
I agree with Swetnick that if Kavanaugh did something like this, he should face justice. The problem is that even Swetnick herself isn’t claiming Kavanaugh did it. She doesn’t know if he spiked the punch. She doesn’t know if he was present when she was assaulted. Several of the people she says can confirm parts of her allegation are dead, others don’t seem to know her at all. So, how are we to verify something that Swetnick herself doesn’t seem to remember? And that’s not to mention her own credibility issues.
Here’s the full interview:
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