Trump's Supreme Court pick denies 1980s sexual abuse claim
US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has denied allegations of sexual wrongdoing dating back to when he was a high school student in the 1980s.
“I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation,” Kavanaugh, 53, said in a statement put out by the White House on Friday. “I did not do this back in high school or at any time.”
The allegation came just one week before the Senate Judiciary Committee is to vote on his confirmation to the nation’s highest court.
If approved by the committee and the whole Senate, as has been expected, Kavanaugh is likely to decidedly tilt the court to conservatives for years to come.
US Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democratic Party member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Thursday she received information about Kavanaugh from a person she declined to identify, and that she had referred the matter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
According to an account in the New Yorker, the incident happened while Kavanaugh attended the elite Georgetown Preparatory Catholic all-boys high school in suburban Washington.
The report said the woman had accused Kavanaugh of trying to force himself on her at a party, holding her down and covering her mouth with his hand, but that she was able to free herself. The woman, from a nearby high school, was allegedly at a party where the youths were drinking alcohol.
The woman "said that the memory had been a source of ongoing distress for her, and that she had sought psychological treatment as a result," the New Yorker said.
A number of prominent men in business, entertainment, and the media in the United States have been accused of sexual misconduct in the past year, triggering what has become known as the #MeToo movement.
Trump nominated Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court in July, provoking angry protests in Washington and elsewhere.
The 53-year-old has served as a judge for the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia since 2006. If confirmed, he will replace long-serving Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement on June 27.
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