Mitchell Oath Statute Limitations Read His Rights Calendar Entry Kavanaugh

The Senate Judiciary Republicans' hand-picked sex prosecutor, Rachel Mitchell, has released a report that is generating the desired headlines from credulous journalists. It should take reporters no more piece of work than to compare what Mitchell claims in her memo with what actually happened last Thursday to declare it a sham report. Simply since journalists are reporting information technology every bit an honest submission, I guess I'll accept to deflate it.

Mitchell'due south report makes no mention of July ane

Start with the fact that Mitchell'southward study makes no mention of the July 1 get-together that included all of the boys Christine Blasey Ford has claimed were at the issue where she was assaulted. Here's how Mitchell got Brett Kavanaugh to confirm that fact in the hearing.

MITCHELL: I would similar you to look at the July 1st entry.

KAVANAUGH: Yes.

MITCHELL: The entry says — and I quote — "Get to Timmy'south (ph) for skis (ph) with Guess (ph), Tom (ph), P.J. (ph), Bernie (ph) and Squee (ph)"?

KAVANAUGH: Squee. That'due south a nick…

MITCHELL: What does…

KAVANAUGH: … that'south a nickname.

MITCHELL: OK. To what does this refer, and to whom?

KAVANAUGH: So first, says "Tobin's (ph) business firm workout". And then that's one of the football workouts that nosotros would have — that Dr. (inaudible) would run for guys on the football team during the summer.

So nosotros would be there — that's usually half-dozen:00 to 8:00 or and then, kind of — until near dark. And then it looks similar we went over to Timmy'southward — you want to know their last names too? I'yard happy to do information technology.

MITCHELL: If you could just identify, is — is "Guess," Mark Judge?

KAVANAUGH: It is.

MITCHELL: And is "P.J.," P.J. Smith?

KAVANAUGH: It is.

Then — all right. It's Tim Gaudette (ph), Mark Judge, Tom Caine (ph), P.J. Smith, Bernie McCarthy (ph), Chris Garrett (ph).

MITCHELL: Chris Garrett is Squee?

As I have noted, Mitchell got Kavanaugh to confirm that Gauge, PJ, and Kavanaugh — and other boys, as Ford has testified — were drinking at a suburban Maryland home on a weekday around the same time equally Ford's testimony said the issue would have happened. Thispast itselfrefutes the key prong of Kavanaugh's defense force, that he was never at a party like the one Ford described, as Kavanaugh had claimed in response to Mitchell just minutes earlier.

MITCHELL: Dr. Ford described a small gathering of people at a suburban Maryland domicile in the summer of 1982. She said that Marking Estimate, P.J. Smyth and Leland Ingham besides were present, likewise as an unknown male person, and that the people were drinking to varying degrees. Were you always at a gathering that fits that clarification?

KAVANAUGH: No, equally I've said in my opening statements — opening statement.

He was at such a party, and the calendars he say validate his claims actually undermine his brownie.

But Mitchell makes no mention of the fact that, in her limited questioning of Kavanaugh, he had both provided possible corroboration to Ford and contradicted a statement he made minutes earlier.

The report makes no mention of Mitchell'south truncated questioning of Kavanaugh, at all

Of class Mitchell didn't mention that, in her express questioning of Kavanaugh, she obtained evidence from him that actually helps Ford and hurts Kavanaugh. That'south because she'due south utterly silent about what happened in her questioning of Kavanaugh.

That'south important because it obscures both what did happen and what didn't happen. The Republicans subjected Kavanaugh to only three rounds of questioning from Mitchell earlier Lindsey Graham took over in a bluster almost equally argumentative as the nominee's. Over the class of those rounds, Kavanaugh showed visible discomfort — and a professed need to refer back to the definition of sexual beliefs — afterward Mitchell provided that to him.

MITCHELL: I want you lot to take a moment to review the definition that'due south before you of sexual behavior.

MITCHELL: Have you had a chance to review information technology?

KAVANAUGH: I take. I may refer back to it, if I can?

MITCHELL: Yes, please.

I'd like to bespeak out 2 specific parts. Among the examples of sexual behavior, information technology includes rubbing or grinding your genitals confronting somebody, clothed or unclothed. And I would also indicate out that the definition applies whether or not the acts were sexually motivated or, for example, horseplay. Exercise you understand the definition I have given you?

KAVANAUGH: I do.

In round 2, nether Mitchell'south questioning, Kavanaugh offered up his first really troubling denial of drinking to excess, including a refusal to describe, in behavioral or even legal terms, what it ways to drink too much.

MITCHELL: Dr. Ford has described you lot as being intoxicated at a party. Did you consume alcohol during your high school years?

KAVANAUGH: Aye, we drank beer. My friends and I, the boys and girls. Yes, we drank beer. I liked beer. Still like beer. We drank beer. The drinking age, as I noted, was 18, so the seniors were legal, senior twelvemonth in loftier school, people were legal to potable, and nosotros — yeah, nosotros drank beer, and I said sometimes — sometimes probably had as well many beers, and sometimes other people had too many beers.

MITCHELL: What practice y'all…

KAVANAUGH: We drank beer. We liked beer.

MITCHELL: What exercise yous consider to be too many beers?

KAVANAUGH: I don't know. You know, we — whatever the nautical chart says, a claret-alcohol chart.

MITCHELL: When y'all talked to Fox News the other night, you said that there were times in high schoolhouse when people might accept had too many beers on occasion. Does that include you?

KAVANAUGH: Certain.

MITCHELL: OK. Have you ever passed out from drinking?

KAVANAUGH: I — passed out would be — no, but I've gone to slumber, simply — but I've never blacked out. That's the — that's the — the allegation, and that — that — that's wrong.

Kavanaugh would keep to deny more specific questions about blacking out, simply this initial response shows that Kavanaugh is too defensive about his drinking to be reliable.

Immediately after that second circular of questioning, Kavanaugh took his first break.

In Mitchell'due south 3rd round, she got Kavanaugh to confirm that he had, in fact, been at a political party the likes of which he said he had not been, though she didn't phone call attending to that fact. Besides in that round, she asked him about his interviewwith the commission about the alleged assaults.

MITCHELL: Since Dr. Ford's allegation was made public, how many times have you been interviewed by the committee?

KAVANAUGH: It's — it's been a — iii or four. I'k — I'm trying to remember now. It'southward — it's been several times. Each of these new things, absurd as they are, we'd get on the phone and kind of go through them.

MITCHELL: Then have y'all submitted to interviews specifically most Dr. Ford's allegation?

KAVANAUGH: Yeah.

MITCHELL: And what well-nigh Deborah Ramirez's allegation…

KAVANAUGH: Yes.

MITCHELL: … that you waved your penis in forepart of her?

KAVANAUGH: Yes.

MITCHELL: What about Julie Swetnick'south allegation that you repeatedly engaged in drugging and gang-raping, or assuasive women to be gang-raped?

KAVANAUGH: Yes. Yes, I've been interviewed about it.

MITCHELL: Were your answers to my questions today consistent with the answers that y'all gave to the commission in these various interviews?

KAVANAUGH: Yes, ma'am.

MITCHELL: OK. I see I'1000 out of fourth dimension. [my emphasis]

And that was it, Mitchell was yanked by Republicans before she asked any more questions that helped Ford and injure Kavanaugh.

Mitchell held Ford's statements to a much higher standard than she did Kavanaugh's

Now compare that last flake — where Mitchell but asked Kavanaugh to judge from himself whether his responses to her were consistent withmerely the interviews he had had with the committee — with how Mitchell asked Ford to review her statements and betoken out anything she would change.

MITCHELL: OK.

We've put before you — and I'thousand sure you have copies of them anyway — five pieces of information, and I wanted to go over them.

The commencement is a screenshot of a WhatsApp texting between you lot and somebody at the Washington Mail service. Do you have that in front of y'all?

FORD: Aye.

MITCHELL: The outset ii texts were sent by you lot on July 6th. Is that correct?

FORD: Correct.

MITCHELL: And then the concluding one sent by you was on July 10th?

FORD: Correct.

MITCHELL: OK. Are those three comments accurate?

FORD: I will read them.

(UNKNOWN): Have your time.

Ford did so, and corrected a number of things that were fabricated, often in non-legal contexts, quite specifically. Her corrections of her not-legal statements were a key function of her credibility, considering they showed her to be a careful person with attention to detail.

As a threshold affair, Mitchell assessing the consistency of Ford's statements across v different kinds of statements: statements to her therapists, her spouse and friends, to the WaPo, before a polygraph, and to the committee. She'southward only asking Kavanaugh to validate 1 kind of argument — his interviews with friendly staffers on the committee — with his responses to her questioning, and her questioning didn't fifty-fifty touch on the topics of one of those interviews (that is, the other allegations). She specifically left out the Flim-flam interview where (amongst other things), Kavanaugh divers "sexual set on" to be limited to vaginal intercourse, which is far dissimilar than the 1 Kavanaugh squirmed at when presented with it by Mitchell. That's also where Kavanaugh claimed seniors were legal to drink, and everyone drank that much, and his friendship with girls extended just to those at sister Cosmic schools, not Holton-Arms where Ford attended.

friendship, friendship with my beau classmates and friendship with girls from the local all girls Catholic schools.

There was fifty-fifty an exchange where Kavanaugh might be taken to have claimed he never met Ford.

MACCALLUM: And to this engagement, no 1 has corroborated the story that she has told. Equally you accurately point out, only is in that location – so in that location's no hazard that there was something betwixt the two of you that possibly she misunderstood the exchange that you lot had?

Nil ever physical, you never met her, never kissed her, never touched her, nothing that you lot remember?

KAVANAUGH: Correct

Though earlier, he had said he may have met her, even though he claimed they did not travel the same circles.

KAVANAUGH: I may have met her, we did not travel in the aforementioned social circle, she was not a friend, not someone I knew—

And, of grade, the Fox interview is where he claimed he was the concluding American virgin.

Particularly given the content of the hearing, where Ford testified that Squi was the guy through whom she met Kavanaugh, the guess's claims that she didn't travel in his same circles appear absolutely false, every bit do a number of other details Kavanaugh fabricated public. Simply by narrowly.construing the validation she asked Kavanaugh to brand (as compared to the broad comparison she demanded of Ford), Mitchell avoided making Kavanaugh swear that some of his obviously bullshit comments are true and in the process absolved herself of conducting the aforementioned cess of whether Kavanaugh's claims were consistent over time. And all that's earlier you look at other claims — such as that he claimed the 65 women who signed a letter backing him knew him well, including those who went to Holton-Arms forth with Ford, even though he claimed he was but friends with Cosmic school girls. Or, his comments in the yearbook.

Kavanaugh's statements would not survive the kind of apples to orangish comparison Mitchell subjected Ford'southward statements to

Mitchell'south failure to comport the same scrutiny of Kavanaugh's statements matters because that's a key prong of her finding that Ford's statements were not consistent, of which these ii passages are representative of the problems with Mitchell'due south claims.

Dr. Ford has non offered a consistent account of when the alleged attack happened.

• In a July 6 text to the Washington Post, she said information technology happened in the "mid 1980s." • In her July 30 letter to Senator Feinstein, she said it happened in the "early 80s." • Her August 7 statement to the polygrapher said that it happened one "high school summer in early on 80'south," but she crossed out the discussion "early" for reasons she did not explain.
• A September 16 Washington Mail service article reported that Dr. Ford said it happened in the "summer of 1982."
• Similarly, the September xvi article reported that notes from an individual therapy session in 2013 show her describing the set on as occurring in her "late teens." But she told the Post and the Committee that she was 15 when the assault allegedly occurred. She has not turned over her therapy records for the Commission to review.
• While it is common for victims to be uncertain near dates, Dr. Ford failed to explain how she was of a sudden able to narrow the timeframe to a item season and item yr.

[snip]

Her business relationship of who was at the party has been inconsistent.

• Co-ordinate to the Washington Mail service's account of her therapy notes, there were four boys in the bedroom in which she was assaulted.
• She told the Washington Post that the notes were erroneous because there were four boys at the party, simply only two in the bedchamber.
• In her letter to Senator Feinstein, she said "me and 4 others" were nowadays at the political party.
• In her testimony, she said at that place were iv boys in addition to Leland Keyser and herself. She could not retrieve the name of the 4th boy, and no 1 has come up frontward.
• Dr. Ford listed Patrick "PJ" Smyth equally a "bystander" in her argument to the polygrapher and in her July 6 text to the Washington Post, although she testified that it was inaccurate to call him a eyewitness. She did not listing Leland Keyser even though they are good friends. Leland Keyser's presence should have been more memorable than PJ Smyth'southward.

Notation how primal the WaPo is to this (and, though I won't deal with it hither, to her timeline of Ford'due south disclosures). That is, Mitchell is holding Ford responsible for how a text submitted to a tipline gets developed into more specific timelines that appeared in the WaPo. And she may be holding Ford accountable to inaccuracies in the WaPo story and her therapist'south study, neither of which Ford had final control over.

Plus, Mitchell is accented incorrect when she claims that Ford offered no explanation for how she narrowed in on the summer of 1982 for the assail — because, given that she didn't bulldoze, it must accept been before she got her driver'due south license.

MITCHELL: In your polygraph statement you said it was loftier school summer in '80s, and you really had written in and this is one of the corrections I referred to early and so you crossed that out.

Later in your interview with The Washington Post, yous were more specific. You lot believed it occurred in the summer of 1982 and yous said at the end of your sophomore yr.

FORD: Aye.

MITCHELL: Yous said the same matter I believe in your prepared argument.

How were you able to narrow down the timeframe?

FORD: I can't give the exact appointment. And I would like to be more helpful about the date, and if I knew when Marking Approximate worked at the Potomac Safeway, and then I would be able to exist more helpful in that way.

So I'm just using memories of when I got my commuter's license. I was 15 at the time. And I — I did not drive home from that party or to that political party, and once I did take my driver's license, I liked to bulldoze myself.

It'due south remarkable Mitchell completed ignored this explanation, because mapping relationships in time via what friends collection him is something Kavanaugh did, also.

MITCHELL: And how did you know Patrick Smyth?

KAVANAUGH: Also ninth grade, Georgetown Prep. Went by P.J. and so. He and I lived close to one another. Played football game together, he was defensive tackle, I was the quarterback and wide receiver. We carpooled to school along with De Davis (ph) every year, the three of us for two years. I didn't have a machine, so one of the two of them would drive every twenty-four hours. And I'd be in the (ph), y'all know, they'd pick me up.

All of which is to say the key basis by which Mitchell declares Ford unreliable is a methodology she protects Kavanaugh from. Had she subjected him to the aforementioned treatment, he would accept looked far more unreliable.

Both witnesses had brusk term memory loss

The same is true of Mitchell'southward claim that Ford struggled to remember details of the recent past.

Dr. Ford has struggled to recall important recent events relating to her allegations, and her testimony regarding recent events raises further questions about her retentiveness.

• Dr. Ford struggled to remember her interactions with the Washington Post.

[snip]

• Dr. Ford refused to provide any of her therapy notes to the Committee.
• Dr. Ford'south explanation of why she disclosed her allegations the way she did raises questions.
• Dr. Ford could non remember if she was beingness audio- or video-recorded when she took the polygraph. And she could non remember whether the polygraph occurred the same 24-hour interval as her grandmother's funeral or the day after her grandmother's funeral.

First, the second and tertiary bullets are non retentiveness issues at all — she treats the feet of coming forward, and the differing choices she made, every bit a memory issue rather than a stress 1.

Simply as to the others, she holds Ford accountable for interactions with the WaPo, not all of which may be her doing. And she treats uncertainty about a strange process, the polygraph, as a memory upshot.

And Kavanaugh himself had troubles remembering something fifty-fifty more than recent — how many times he had been interviewed by the committee, three or four.

MITCHELL: Since Dr. Ford'southward allegation was made public, how many times have you been interviewed by the committee?

KAVANAUGH: It's — it's been a — three or four. I'grand — I'grand trying to remember now. Information technology'south — it's been several times. Each of these new things, absurd as they are, we'd become on the telephone and kind of become through them.

There'due south probable a skilful reason for this retentiveness loss: the commission has just released transcripts from ii conversations. Then if at that place were iv interviews, it suggests in that location may exist two where he was massaging his story. Whatever the explanation, though, these interviews were just weeks and days before this hearing, and Kavanaugh couldn't remember them.

In short, this study is an attack on Ford. It's not a measure out of a he said she said dispute. To assess such a dispute, Mitchell would have had to examine how badly Kavanaugh flubbed his responses to her.

And she wasn't paid for that kind of scrutiny.

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Source: https://www.emptywheel.net/2018/10/01/rachel-mitchell-is-not-very-good-at-propaganda/

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