The New York Times has been hit with backlash for revising its 'bombshell' article describing 'new' sexual assault allegat...
The New York Times has been hit with backlash for revising its 'bombshell' article describing 'new' sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh to include the fact that the alleged victim does not remember the apparent assault and declined to be interviewed about it.
The NYT published its story in the early hours of Sunday morning based on claims made by Max Stier, a former male classmate of Kavanaugh's at Yale.
Two of the newspaper's reporters - an arts writer and Wall Street reporter - discovered, from an unnamed official, that Stier reported seeing an apparent assault at a dorm party in the 1980s. He said Kavanaugh had his pants down and that his classmates then pushed his penis into a woman's hands.
They included his claim in a book they have written about Kavanaugh's college years which will be released on Tuesday.
Stier - who has been on the opposing side of legal cases from Kavanaugh before and who worked for Bill Clinton - declined to be interviewed, as did the woman at the heart of his claim. The woman told her friends told the NYT journalists that she does not even remember the apparent incident.
Those key details however did not make their way into the excerpt of the book that was published online. The newspaper amended the online story later on Sunday, after someone who had seen an advance copy of the book flagged the omission.
By then, Democrats including Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren had called for Kavanaugh to be impeached, saying the new report fueled the allegations against him.
President Trump - a vocal enemy of the NYT - has since intervened to defend Kavanaugh and encourage him to sue for libel, calling the debacle a 'disgrace'.
It is the latest in a string of incidents the newspaper has apologized for, most of which have involved the outlet criticizing the president.
This was the Editors' Note which was added to the story on Sunday, hours after it went online
It has since emerged that he tried last year to have the story told by The Washington Post and that he sent his allegation to a Democrat senator who urged the FBI and the Senators Chuck Grassley and Diane Feinstein to investigate it.
The Washington Post, which reported on the row on Sunday, has revealed it had been told the same story last year but decided not to publish it due to a lack of detail.
The new allegation has never been detailed before. Stier reported it to the FBI before Kavanaugh's confirmation last October.
It is similar to a different allegation made by Deborah Ramirez who says Kavanaugh pushed his penis in her face when she was drinking heavily at a party around the same time.
She spoke out last year, amid Kavanaugh's highly publicized confirmation hearings where Dr. Christine Blasey Ford described him sexually assaulting her.
Ramirez claimed that Kavanaugh exposed his penis to her and thrust it in her face at a dorm party, forcing her touch it while they were both students at Yale.
She alleged that others at the party had been passing a fake penis around and laughed at her afterwards.
The woman at the heart of the new claim has not spoken publicly about it but according to ABC, said when questioned about the NYT report: 'All I can say is ask Brett.'
According to the NYT, Stier notified the FBI and senators about the incident, but the FBI did not investigate the claim or interview the alleged victim.
The Washington Post claims to have heard the same claim from two unnamed 'intermediaries' last year but said it decided not to publish it because there was a lack of detail surrounding the allegation.
President Trump said Kavanaugh should start 'suing people for libel' after the NYT updated its story on Sunday
The journalists did not name the 'officials' who told the book's journalists that he had even reported it or say why it was not, as they claimed, properly investigated.
The book - The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation- is out on Tuesday.
It purports to verify Ramirez' claims and criticizes the Senate Judiciary Committee for not calling on her to speak at the hearings. It also touts the 'new' allegation.
After publishing its first excerpt, a journalist who had been sent an advance copy of the book picked up on the omission.
'The book notes, quietly, that the woman Max Stier named as having been supposedly victimized by Kavanaugh and friends denies any memory of the alleged event,' The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway tweeted.
The online excerpt was then updated with the following Editors' Note.
'An earlier version of this article, which was adapted from a forthcoming book, did not include one element of the book's account regarding an assertion by a Yale classmate that friends of Brett Kavanaugh pushed his penis into the hand of a female student at a drunken dorm party.
'The book reports that the female student declined to be interviewed and friends say that she does not recall the incident.
'That information has been added to the article.'
The newspaper had already apologized for tweeting that 'having a penis thrust in your face may seem like harmless fun'.
Minutes after that first tweet was posted, the paper issued a retraction, writing: 'We have deleted an earlier tweet to this article that was poorly phrased.'
They later deleted that post following further criticism, adding: 'We deleted a previous tweet regarding this article. It was offensive, and we apologize.'
Since the fresh allegation has come to light a string of Democrat 2020 presidential hopefuls have called for Kavanaugh to either step down or be impeached.
Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Beto O'Rourke, Cory Booker and Julian Castro, were among the group calling for Kavanaugh's resignation.
President Trump defended his Supreme Court nominee and said Kavanaugh should sue for libel.
He tweeted: 'Brett Kavanaugh should start suing people for libel, or the Justice Department should come to his rescue.
'The lies being told about him are unbelievable. False Accusations without recrimination.
'When does it stop? They are trying to influence his opinions. Can't let that happen!'
One of the journalists who wrote the book proudly tweeted that the president had tweeted 'three times in response' to their story as had Democrats calling for the Supreme Court Justice's impeachment
Kate Kelly, the other journalist behind the book, tweeted praise of it which called it 'careful and balanced'
Democrats leaped on the New York Times' 'new' allegation and used it to call for Kavanaugh to be impeached
Not only was the newspaper criticized for its treatment of Stier's apparent allegation, but its handling of Ramirez's was also criticized.
The New York Times deleted a tweet on Saturday that described the allegations against Brett Kavanaugh as 'harmless fun'
The NYT reporters said that though they found Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's testimony 'credible', 'during a 10-month investigation, Ms. Ramirez’s story could be more fully corroborated.'
It quotes her lawyers who say they were frustrated by how they were treated, and makes no mention of the steps taken to verify or investigate Ramirez's claim.
On Sunday, Sen. Chuck Grassley, the committee chairman, fumed about the coverage.
'The NY Times did not contacted (sic) Sen. Grassley’s office for this story.
'If they had, we would've reminded them of a few key public facts they omitted,' his office tweeted.
They then listed the reasons they say Ramirez was never called on to testify and referred back to a New York Times article from last year which said journalists could not corroborate her claims despite interviewing several people.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the House Committee which oversaw the hearings, slammed the NYT coverage on Sunday night
Ford, a research psychologist and professor, drew national attention last year after she came forward with sexual assault allegations following Trump's appointment of Kavanaugh.
The 52-year-old claimed 17-year-old Kavanaugh held her down on a bed at high school party when she was 15 and tried to remove her clothing, putting his hand over her mouth to stop her screaming.
Her emotional testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last September became a milestone for the #MeToo movement.
It turned Kavanaugh's confirmation into the most controversial since Clarence Thomas in 1991, who was accused of sexual harassment as well.
Third accuser Julie Swetnick rowed back from her claim Kavanaugh was part of a group who would spike 'punch' at parties in order to assault girls.
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