Ronan Farrow says Deborah Ramirez, the second woman accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, came out publicly with her claims after being contacted by “Senate Democrats.”
“She came forward because Senate Democrats began looking at this claim. She did not flag this for those Democrats.
“This came to the attention of people on the hill independently and it’s really cornered her into an awkward position,” Farrow told “Good Morning America” on Monday.
FULL INTERVIEW: @ronanfarrow on the bombshell new allegations from former Yale classmate against Brett Kavanaugh: “It is not accurate to say that those who knew him at the time dispute this.” https://t.co/BbURHAQ6EE pic.twitter.com/pUznAxDdfC
— Good Morning America (@GMA) September 24, 2018
“She said point blank, ‘I don’t want to ruin anyone’s life,’ but she feels this is a serious claim,” he added. “She considers her own memories credible and she felt it was important that she tell her story before others did without her consent because so many people on the hill were looking at this story.”
George Stephanopoulos offered tough pushback asking about political motives with the allegation coming out now and drawing attention to a specific line from Farrow and co-author Jane Mayer’s reporting, which noted that Ramirez only felt confident enough to come forward after “assessing her memories and consulting with her attorney” for six days.
Farrow didn’t even let him finish his objection.
“George, I would say that that is extremely typical of these stories,” said Farrow. “When you’re dealing with trauma, alcohol, many years in between, I would say the more cautious witnesses I have dealt with in cases like this, very frequently say ‘I want to take time to decide.’”
On Sunday, Farrow and Mayer published Ramirez’s account of Kavanaugh’s alcohol-fueled drinking during his freshman year at Yale, which included the following accusation.
“She remembers Kavanaugh had exposed himself at a drunken dormitory party, thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away.”
In a statement offered by the White House and published in the piece, Kavanaugh categorically denied the accusation calling it “a smear, plain and simple.”
Ramirez, like Kavanaugh’s other accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, has called for an FBI investigation to evaluate their accusations.