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The Women Who Have Accused Brett Kavanaugh
by Christine Hauser
New York Times
September 26, 2018

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There are multiple women who have accused Judge Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. Here are their allegations and his responses. Published On Sept. 26, 2018 Credit Credit Image by T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times

Three women have publicly accused Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court nominee, of sexual assault or misconduct, with the latest allegation emerging on Wednesday.

The accusations against Judge Kavanaugh started to surface this month as he faced confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. That panel is scheduled to vote on his nomination on Friday.

Judge Kavanaugh has denied the claims. On Monday, with his wife at his side, he said on Fox News that he had always “treated women with dignity and respect.”


Christine Blasey Ford

Christine Blasey Ford: What she said

Dr. Blasey came forward in an interview published by The Washington Post on Sept. 16, saying that Judge Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when she was about 15 at a party in suburban Maryland in the early 1980s.

She described a drunken Judge Kavanaugh pinning her on a bed, trying to take her clothing off and covering her mouth to keep her from screaming. “I thought he might inadvertently kill me,” the newspaper quoted her as saying. “He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing.”

Dr. Blasey said a friend of Judge Kavanaugh, Mark Judge, was in the room and participated in the assault. He has denied the allegations.

Her background

Dr. Blasey, 51, is a research psychologist at Palo Alto University in Northern California, who also goes by her married name, Ford.

At the time of the alleged assault, she was a student at Holton-Arms School, a private girls’ prep school in Bethesda, Md. He was a student at Georgetown Preparatory School, an elite Jesuit school in suburban Washington.


The entrance to Georgetown Preparatory School in North Bethesda, Md.Credit Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA, via Shutterstock

Important details

Her account was also detailed in a confidential July 30 letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.

The Post interview included quotations from Dr. Blasey’s husband and her lawyer, and it described a therapist’s notes from 2012 in which she spoke of the attack.

She also took a polygraph examination in August. The retired F.B.I. agent who conducted the examination, Jerry Hanafin, said the results showed “no deception indicated” — in effect, “she was being truthful.” Her lawyers released a copy of the polygraph report on Wednesday.

Judge Kavanaugh’s response

Judge Kavanaugh has denied the accusations, and the White House has said it stands by those denials.

What happened next

The report resulted in the delay of the Judiciary Committee’s vote on Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination the week it was published.

Dr. Blasey’s lawyers, Debra Katz and Lisa Banks, have said that since she went public with her story, she has been subjected to death threats, had her email hacked and had to leave her home.

The committee’s Republican leadership has retained an Arizona prosecutor specializing in sex crimes to help question Dr. Blasey about the allegations in a hearing on Thursday.


Deborah Ramirez
CreditSafehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence, via Associated Press

Deborah Ramirez: What she said

Ms. Ramirez said in an interview published in The New Yorker on Sept. 23 that during the 1983-84 school year at Yale University, when she and Judge Kavanaugh were freshmen, he exposed himself to her during a drinking game in a dorm suite.

A small group of students sat in a circle and people selected who had to take a drink, she recalled, saying she was chosen frequently. She became drunk, she said.

Suddenly, Ms. Ramirez said, she saw a penis in front of her face. One man told her to “kiss it,” she told The New Yorker. As she moved to push it away, she said, she saw Judge Kavanaugh standing, laughing and pulling up his pants. Raised a Catholic, Ms. Ramirez was “embarrassed and ashamed and humiliated,” she said.

Her background

Ms. Ramirez, 53, was a student of sociology and psychology at the time. She arrived at Yale from Shelton, Conn., the daughter of a telephone company lineman and a medical technician. She attended a coed Catholic high school, St. Joseph, that was predominantly white but had a number of minority students, including Ms. Ramirez, whose father was Puerto Rican.


Judge Kavanaugh attended Yale Law School after graduating from Yale University. Credit Jessica Hill for The New York Times

Ms. Ramirez is now a registered Democrat who lives in Boulder, Colo., with her husband, Vikram Shah, a technology consultant. She has worked with a domestic violence organization and joined its board in 2014. She also works for the Boulder County housing department.

Important details

Ms. Ramirez said she told few people about the episode at the time. She and Judge Kavanaugh were not close friends, but they crossed paths, including at Yale and at a wedding in 1997.

Judge Kavanaugh’s response

Judge Kavanaugh denied the allegation, saying in a statement to The New Yorker, “This is a smear, plain and simple.”

What happened next

More than 2,200 Yale women have signed a letter of support for Ms. Ramirez; a similar letter has been circulating among Yale men.

A lawyer for Ms. Ramirez has written to the Judiciary Committee saying that his client would be “willing to cooperate” and tell her story under certain terms.


Julie Swetnick. Credit Michael Avenatti, via Associated Press

Julie Swetnick: What she said

On Wednesday, Ms. Swetnick accused Judge Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct at parties while he was a student at Georgetown Preparatory School in the 1980s. Her allegation was conveyed in a statement posted on Twitter by her lawyer, Michael Avenatti.

Ms. Swetnick said she observed Judge Kavanaugh at parties where women were verbally abused, inappropriately touched and “gang raped.”

She said she witnessed Judge Kavanaugh participating in some of the misconduct, including lining up outside a bedroom where “numerous boys” were “waiting for their ‘turn’ with a girl inside the room.” Ms. Swetnick said she was raped at one of the parties, and she believed she had been drugged.

Her background

Like Judge Kavanaugh, Ms. Swetnick, 55, is from the Washington suburbs. She grew up in Montgomery County, Md., graduating from Gaithersburg High School in 1980. She attended the University of Maryland, according to a résumé for her posted online, The Times reported.

She has held a variety of public and private sector jobs in Washington. Her résumé and her lawyer’s statement say she has held several government clearances, including with the State Department and the Justice Department.

Important details

Ms. Swetnick said in her statement that she had attended at least 10 house parties in the Washington area from 1981 to 1983 where Judge Kavanaugh and Mr. Judge, his friend, were present. (Mr. Judge has denied the allegations in her statement.)

Ms. Swetnick said she saw Judge Kavanaugh drinking “excessively” at parties and engaging in “abusive and physically aggressive behavior toward girls, including pressing girls against him without their consent, ‘grinding’ against girls, and attempting to remove or shift girls’ clothing to expose private body parts.”

Judge Kavanaugh’s response

In a statement issued by the White House, Judge Kavanaugh said there was no truth to the claim. “This is ridiculous and from the ‘Twilight Zone,’” he said. “I don’t know who this is and this never happened.”

What happened next

President Trump dismissed Ms. Swetnick’s lawyer, Mr. Avenatti, on Twitter as a “third rate lawyer who is good at making false accusations” and is seeking attention.

Judiciary Committee aides confirmed that they were examining Ms. Swetnick’s declaration. But the committee’s Republican chairman, Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, told reporters that he did not expect to find anything.

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, another Republican on the committee, said he would “not be a participant in wholesale character assassination that defies credibility.”

A fourth accusation surfaces

Judge Kavanaugh faced another accusation after an anonymous letter, dated Sept. 22, was sent to Senator Cory Gardner, Republican of Colorado.

In the letter, a woman said her daughter had witnessed Judge Kavanaugh drunkenly push her friend, a woman he was dating, up against a wall “very aggressively and sexually” after they left a bar one night in 1998.

On Tuesday, Judge Kavanaugh was questioned about the letter by staff lawyers for the Judiciary Committee about the accusation, which he denied, according to a transcript.

“It’s ridiculous,” he said. “Total ‘Twilight Zone.’ And no, I’ve never done anything like that.”

Melissa Gomez contributed reporting.

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For Christine Blasey Ford, a Drastic Turn From a Quiet Life in Academia
by Elizabeth Williamson, Rebecca R. Ruiz, Emily Steel, Grace Ashford and Steve Eder
New York Times
Sept. 19, 2018

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Christine Blasey Ford was reluctant to come forward with her allegation that Judge Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her.

The text message from Christine Blasey Ford this summer worried her college best friend, Catherine Piwowarski.

Over their years of friendship — as roommates, bridesmaids and parents on opposite coasts — Dr. Blasey wanted to know, had she ever confided that she had been sexually assaulted in high school?

No, Ms. Piwowarski said she texted back, she would have remembered that, and was everything O.K.? Dr. Blasey didn’t want to speak in detail quite yet, her friend recalled her responding. “I don’t know why she was asking that or what it ultimately meant or didn’t mean,” Ms. Piwowarski said in an interview, but she remembers thinking that the question betrayed deep turmoil.

That was about a month before Dr. Blasey, a research psychologist, came forward with her allegation that Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, sexually assaulted her more than three decades ago when they were high school students in the Washington suburbs.

Just days ago, both Dr. Blasey and Judge Kavanaugh — who has denied sexually assaulting her, or anyone — had been expected to testify on Monday before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the allegation, setting up a contest of credibility reminiscent of 1991, when Anita Hill leveled accusations of sexual harassment against Clarence Thomas, then a Supreme Court nominee. But it is increasingly uncertain whether that will happen. Dr. Blasey’s lawyers on Tuesday called for an F.B.I. investigation of her allegation before she testifies, but the Senate Republican leadership has rejected the idea and said that a vote on the Kavanaugh nomination will go forward if she does not appear.


Former classmates of Dr. Blasey’s from the Holton-Arms private girls’ prep school in Bethesda, Md., sent a letter to Congress calling for “due consideration” of her claims. Credit Justin T. Gellerson for The New York Times

Dr. Blasey’s allegation has divided not just the Senate and the country, but also the overlapping social circles of the judge and the researcher, as former classmates, colleagues, friends and others have written warring letters of support in recent days. Dr. Blasey’s lawyers, Debra Katz and Lisa Banks, say that since she went public with her story last weekend, she has been subjected to death threats, had her email hacked and had to leave her home. Speculation has arisen in the capital that Dr. Blasey, who had already been reluctant to come forward, may ultimately decline to testify, at least publicly.

Supporters of Dr. Blasey, 51, describe her as a precise, logical scientific thinker; a community leader; a woman of integrity; and a devoted mother of two boys.

“Her life’s work is about telling the truth with science,” said Kate Beebe DeVarney, a behavioral neuroscientist who has worked with Dr. Blasey in Silicon Valley. “Christine doesn’t get stuff wrong. She’s obsessive about making sure it’s right,” she added. “If Christine says something happened, I absolutely believe her.”

Backers of Judge Kavanaugh, 53, describe him as a precise, methodical legal thinker; a strong mentor; a pillar of the community where he and Dr. Blasey grew up; and a devoted father of two girls. Mr. Trump this week praised the judge as an “outstanding intellect,” who “never had even a little blemish on his record.”

Judge Kavanaugh, a Republican, is a staunch Catholic conservative who lives in the nation’s capital. Dr. Blasey, colleagues say, is a Democrat from California who wore a pink “brain hat” when she joined fellow academics in protesting the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to scientific research funding. Their histories coalesced, in Dr. Blasey’s telling, in the early 1980s, in the insular, moneyed world of Washington private college preparatory schools.

Intersecting Social Circles

She began attending Holton-Arms School, a private girls’ prep school in Bethesda, Md., in seventh grade, joining a tight-knit group of about 65 girls. High school friends and classmates described “Chrissy,” as Dr. Blasey was known then, as a popular girl equally comfortable in math class and at social gatherings.

Samantha Semerad Guerry said Dr. Blasey fit right in. Athletic and outdoorsy, she joined the soccer, softball and cheerleading teams. “She was universally well-liked — always cheerful, affable, funny, and super smart,” Ms. Guerry said.


Dr. Blasey pictured in her junior year of high school.

“She was self-possessed,” recalls Cheryl Aviva Amitay, who graduated in 1985, the year after Dr. Blasey.

As a student at Holton-Arms, Dr. Blasey was part of an elite, suburban Washington community, where the families of members of Congress, white-shoe lawyers and lobbyists golfed, played tennis and swam together at a hierarchy of country clubs; Dr. Blasey’s father, a business executive, formerly served as president of the Burning Tree Country Club. Students at private schools socialized with one another and participated in cross-school events.

Children from Catholic schools, like Georgetown Preparatory School, which Mr. Kavanaugh and Justice Neil Gorsuch attended, and Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, a girls’ school nearby, tended to hang around together, having often come from the same parishes and grade schools, though not exclusively. Ms. Guerry said that she knew Georgetown Prep boys through participating in school performances, and that Brett Kavanaugh was an acquaintance.

Drinking was commonplace among the private school teenagers, and the laws governing alcohol and minors were more lax than now. “Back then, pretty much there were parties every Friday and Saturday night, somewhere,” said Samu Qureshi, a friend of Dr. Blasey’s who attended Landon, the brother school to Holton Arms, two years ahead of her. “Generally, parents are out and the kids are getting a keg.”

Holton-Arms’s yearbook includes pages of photographs of girls with drinks. Boys would be invited from the surrounding schools — Landon, Georgetown Prep, and St. Albans — for dances. Things could get rowdy, especially at unsupervised parties before and after school functions, students from that era recalled.

A yearbook entry for Judge Kavanaugh, a varsity football and basketball player at Georgetown Prep, described him as “Keg City Club (Treasurer) — 100 Kegs or Bust.” Mark Judge, a classmate and close friend, describes his own blackout drinking during those years in “Wasted: Tales of a Gen X Drunk,” his 1997 memoir about his experiences as a teenage alcoholic. The book mentions a person named “Bart O’Kavanaugh” who had “puked in someone’s car” and “passed out on his way back from a party.” Mr. Judge did not respond to queries this week about whether that name refers to Judge Kavanaugh.

This was the environment in which Dr. Blasey, when she was about 15 years old, encountered Judge Kavanaugh at a gathering at another teenager’s house in Montgomery County, Md., she said. She knew him before the alleged incident, she has said, countering a theory of mistaken identity advanced by Judge Kavanaugh and his supporters in the Senate.

New Attention Given to Kavanaugh’s Remarks About Drinking, Following an accusation of sexual assault, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s past comments about drinking in his youth are resurfacing. Published On Sept. 19, 2018 Credit CreditImage by Doug Mills/The New York Times

She had met him a couple of times, though they didn’t run in the same circles and weren’t friends, a person close to Dr. Blasey said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personal matter.

According to a letter sent to Senator Dianne Feinstein in July, Dr. Blasey claimed that Mr. Kavanaugh pushed her into a bedroom as she headed upstairs to a bathroom. He and someone she described as a “very drunken” friend — identified in later news reports as Mr. Judge — locked the door and played loud music, she wrote. Mr. Kavanaugh then pushed her on a bed, began grinding his body against hers and tried to undress her, she said. To stifle her screams, she asserted, he covered her mouth with his hand.

Mr. Judge, Dr. Blasey alleged, told his friend to alternately “go for it” and “stop.”

When Mr. Judge jumped on the bed, causing the three teenagers to tumble onto the floor, Dr. Blasey said she ran from the room, locked herself in the bathroom and escaped after hearing the two inebriated boys stumbling down the stairs.

Dr. Blasey said she did not share a detailed account of the incident with anyone until 2012, when she and her husband, Russell Ford, an engineer, met with a couples therapist, according to a Washington Post interview. In her letter to Senator Feinstein, she described being traumatized from the high school episode, saying “I have received medical treatment regarding the assault.” She declined to be interviewed for this article.

Mr. Judge, now an author, filmmaker and writer for conservative publications, wrote in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he had no memory of the incident, adding that he “never saw Brett act in the manner Dr. Ford described.”

Dr. Blasey’s allegation has ignited heated controversy in Washington’s private school circles, reflecting the same social divisions — by gender, alma mater, class and religion — that had riven alumni as teenagers more than three decades ago. Some Georgetown Prep classmates have cast aspersions on Dr. Blasey on social media, while her allies charge hypocrisy in their overlooking a pervasive culture of misogyny that existed then.

Twenty-three members of Dr. Blasey’s class at Holton-Arms signed a joint letter sent to Congress this week, calling for “due consideration” of her claims. Another letter is signed by more than 1,000 alumnae, dating back to the class of 1948.


Students at Georgetown Preparatory School, which Brett Kavanaugh attended, often socialized with students from other nearby schools. Credit Justin T. Gellerson for The New York Times

When Ms. Guerry circulated the letter from the class of 1984, she found that Dr. Blasey’s story resonated deeply. “I was very much surprised by how many of my classmates wrote back to say to say they had traumatic experiences in high school,” she said. “When they heard Christine’s story, it struck a chord for them.”

Among them was Cheryl Amitay, a chief regulator at the Department of Veteran’s Affairs living in Washington. Ms. Amitay said she was leaving a house party during her sophomore year when two male teenagers who had been drinking pushed her up against a car and groped her. One reached under her skirt, she said, and tore off her underwear.

“I will never forget that,” she said. “When my mom picked me up she knew something was wrong, but I didn’t say anything.”

“You never say a thing,” she went on. “You feel like a jerk.”

After the alleged attack on Dr. Blasey, a male friend said, she “fell off the face of the earth socially,” failing to appear at parties and events she’d previously attended. “All I remember is after my junior year thinking, ‘Where’s Chrissy Blasey?’” he recalled.

“She was the sort of person a lot of people paid attention to — she was a leader, she was great. I was like, where did she go?”

A Researcher in Demand

Dr. Blasey said the experience “derailed” her for four or five years, and that she struggled academically and socially, according to The Washington Post. She went on to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studied psychology. The school’s alumni directory and yearbook list her as having belonged to the Kappa Delta sorority, which had a reputation as the “cheerleading sorority” in the 1980s, though she was not a cheerleader at the school. She seems to have kept a low profile.

“I don’t remember her very well,” said Leigh Goodwyn, who was a member of the sorority at the time. “There are not many people in the house I can say that about.” Two other sorority sisters also had trouble remembering her.


Judge Kavanaugh graduated in 1983 from Georgetown Prep.

But she became close with Ms. Piwowarski. They would watch new bands perform in bars on the town’s Franklin Street, hanging out with friends, and roomed together in an off-campus apartment their senior year.

After graduating from U.N.C. in 1988, Dr. Blasey moved to California, where she earned graduate degrees from Pepperdine, Stanford and the University of Southern California. When she married Mr. Ford in 2002 in Half Moon Bay, Calif., against a backdrop of redwood trees, Ms. Piwowarski was a bridesmaid.

Dr. Blasey developed a passion for surfing, which she shares with her husband and two sons. “She’s been chasing waves,” said Beth Stannard, a friend and former co-worker, who said Dr. Blasey’s decisions to teach at Pepperdine, in Malibu, Calif., and to complete an internship at the University of Hawaii were at least partly informed by the campuses’ seaside locations. She and her family live in Palo Alto — where she has volunteered for her sons’ schools and junior lifeguard training, has restored her midcentury modern home with an eye toward historical preservation, and has attended Stanford football and basketball games with her family. The family also has a house in Santa Cruz, famed for its beaches and breaks.

“She can be quite the academic — someone taken very seriously at a place like Stanford — and then go out and surf with the people of Santa Cruz,” Ms. Stannard said, recalling that Dr. Blasey had taken her and several colleagues surfing, followed by a lunch of fish and chips.

Fellow scientists described her as a collaborative researcher and statistician, in demand among graduate students and fellow researchers who sought her more refined writing skills for reports and papers. At the University of Southern California School of Education, she worked for several years in the laboratory, where she developed a test to assess how young children cope with trauma.

“She was very meticulous with data, looked carefully at developing children,” Dr. Gayla Margolin, who led the lab, said in an interview. “In doing good science, people have to take in information and reflect it and portray it in a very honest, straightforward way.”

Dr. Blasey was hired in 2012 by Palo Alto University to teach as part of its doctoral psychology program, a consortium with Stanford that emphasizes clinical training. She is a co-author of a guide to statistical power analysis called “How Many Subjects?” used by researchers to determine how large a sample size is required to accurately test a hypothesis.


Dr. Blasey sent a letter in July to Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, describing the assault. Credit Erin Schaff for The New York Times

Dr. Barr Taylor, a professor emeritus of psychiatry at Stanford who for a decade chaired dissertation committees in which Dr. Blasey was involved, described her as somewhat reserved. “The statistics fit her personality more than the statistics shaped her personality,” Dr. Taylor said.

Dr. DeVarney, the Silicon Valley neuroscientist, calls Dr. Blasey “a friendly but kind of geeky scientist,” who is “obsessive about making sure it’s right.” The two worked together at three companies over 10 years.

Dr. DeVarney said Dr. Blasey called her in August to say that she had sent a letter to Senator Feinstein about having been sexually assaulted in high school, “something that had haunted her for her entire adult life.” Dr. Blasey did not name the alleged attacker.

“She was clearly upset about it,” Dr. DeVarney recalled. “It was creating a lot of stress for her, and now it’s taken over her life.”

Preparing to Speak Out

After Dr. Blasey decided to come forward with her allegation and notify Senator Feinstein, she, and later her lawyers, took steps to prepare for the fight of her life. She submitted to a polygraph, gathered notes from her therapist and searched her memory.

“I’ve been trying to forget this all my life, and now I’m supposed to remember every little detail,” Dr. Blasey told a friend, Jim Gensheimer, in July, according to an account in The San Jose Mercury News.

Later in the summer, she texted Ms. Piwowarski, her college friend. The query was worrisome, and Ms. Piwowarski told Dr. Blasey that she was there for her. It wasn’t until Sunday night that Ms. Piwowarski learned the details of her friend’s account from news reports.

A resident of New Bern, N.C., which was devastated by Hurricane Florence, Ms. Piwowarski said she read the story when the power came back on at her house. She felt sickened by it, she said.

“Seeing what people say, I really, really understand why somebody wouldn’t want to be a part of this discussion,” she said. “I think it is brave. But it is a lot to take on.”

Kate Conger and Jennifer Medina contributed reporting. Kitty Bennett contributed research.

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The Yale Secret Society Brett Kavanaugh Joined Was Mostly About Drinking, Yale Alumni Say
No Skull and Bones.
by Molly Hensley-Clancy
Molly Hensley-Clancy
BuzzFeed News Reporter
July 11, 2018

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Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump's pick for Supreme Court justice, was in a secret society at Yale called Truth and Courage — a lofty name for what was, in reality, an all-male club that one former member said more closely resembled a fraternity.

The name was widely known to be a jab at Yale’s older, more formal secret societies, like the Bushes’ Skull and Bones, said Kristin Sherry, who attended in the early 1980s, a few years before Kavanaugh, and knew several members of Truth and Courage — all “nice party guys,” Sherry said. “It was a bit of a joke.”

The former Truth and Courage member, who graduated several years after Kavanaugh, said the group was young and loosely organized. It had no ancient tomb, and in his time, he said, it met mostly in members’ apartments or fraternity basements.

Yale’s network of secret societies, particularly in Kavanaugh’s time, was mostly decades-old, monied establishments that met in imposing stone buildings known as “tombs.” In Skull and Bones, for instance, members meet frequently to debate political and academic topics, dine on elaborate meals, and listen to distinguished speakers. The club is famously alcohol-free.

Not Truth and Courage, which was also known simply as TNC.

“It was nothing like Scroll and Key, nothing like Wolf’s Head,” said one woman who graduated a year after Kavanaugh and said she knew members of Truth and Courage. “They just drank a ton. They got drunk.” She paused. “All I remember is them drinking.”

Kavanaugh was a member of the fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon, according to his Yale yearbook entry, where he also listed Truth and Courage — a rarity at Yale, where fraternity life is relatively subdued. He wrote about sports for the Yale Daily News.

In a private Facebook group composed of more than 20,000 Yale alumni this week, some members have noted Kavanaugh's stated membership of TNC; most people commenting on the group have described it as “informal” and “minor.”

“Other societies were looking for a prestigious family background, or your GPA. Each had their own personalities,” said Sherry. TNC, Sherry said, was unique: It was “organized around having sex with coeds.”

Several years before Kavanaugh was initiated into TNC, Sherry said, the people on campus called the group by an “alternate nickname”: “Tit and Clit.”

That was a name that wasn’t familiar to the woman who had graduated in 1988. The former member said he hadn’t heard of the “Tit and Clit” nickname in his time there, either, and that the group didn’t have get-togethers with women’s societies.

But, of the nickname Sherry described, he said, “I can see how people would say that. When it really comes down to it, it was basically a fraternity extension.”

Kavanaugh is a steady conservative and a devout Catholic who attended Georgetown Prep, a Jesuit school in North Bethesda, Maryland. He’s spent much of his career inside the Beltway, forging tight connections to the Washington Republican establishment. His confirmation has ignited ire on the left, who fear he will tilt the Supreme Court to the right and could help roll back abortion rights, among other issues.

Sherry took issue not with Kavanaugh’s membership in TNC — “Yale in the ’80s was very sexually liberal,” she said — but with the idea that someone who had “partied” so liberally might take part in overturning Roe v. Wade. “It’s the height of hypocrisy,” Sherry said.

TNC did follow some secret society traditions, the former member said. It sent masked members running around campus, often while singing, on the night known as “Tap Night,” and initiated new members with elaborate drinking games.

In one way, though, TNC distinguished itself from other Yale societies. In the 1980s and 1990s, most Yale societies became gender neutral; Skull and Bones famously began to admit women in 1991. In a 2012 list of all of Yale’s societies, TNC’s members were, still, all men — making it, by then, one of only a tiny fraction of all-male societies left on campus.

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Kavanaugh’s Yearbook Page Is ‘Horrible, Hurtful’ to a Woman It Named
by Kate Kelly and David Enrich
New York Times
Sept. 24, 2018

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During a Fox News interview on Sunday, the Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh rebutted claims of sexual abuse. But some are questioning his characterization of his high school and college years. Published On Sept. 25, 2018 Credit CreditImage by Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press

Brett Kavanaugh’s page in his high school yearbook offers a glimpse of the teenage years of the man who is now President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee: lots of football, plenty of drinking, parties at the beach. Among the reminiscences about sports and booze is a mysterious entry: “Renate Alumnius.”

The word “Renate” appears at least 14 times in Georgetown Preparatory School’s 1983 yearbook, on individuals’ pages and in a group photo of nine football players, including Judge Kavanaugh, who were described as the “Renate Alumni.” It is a reference to Renate Schroeder, then a student at a nearby Catholic girls’ school.

Two of Judge Kavanaugh’s classmates say the mentions of Renate were part of the football players’ unsubstantiated boasting about their conquests.

“They were very disrespectful, at least verbally, with Renate,” said Sean Hagan, a Georgetown Prep student at the time, referring to Judge Kavanaugh and his teammates. “I can’t express how disgusted I am with them, then and now.”

Judge Kavanaugh’s years at Georgetown Prep, in a Maryland suburb of Washington, are under intense scrutiny because of allegations by Christine Blasey Ford that he sexually assaulted her during high school. Judge Kavanaugh has denied the allegation. He and Dr. Blasey are scheduled to testify Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Judge Kavanaugh’s peers have given different accounts of what he was like. But his yearbook provides a contemporaneous glimpse of the elite Catholic school’s hard-drinking atmosphere — Judge Kavanaugh’s personal page boasts, “100 kegs or bust” — and a culture that some describe as disrespectful to women.

This month, Renate Schroeder Dolphin joined 64 other women who, saying they knew Judge Kavanaugh during their high school years, signed a letter to the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is weighing Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination. The letter stated that “he has behaved honorably and treated women with respect.”

When Ms. Dolphin signed the Sept. 14 letter, she wasn’t aware of the “Renate” yearbook references on the pages of Judge Kavanaugh and his football teammates.

“I learned about these yearbook pages only a few days ago,” Ms. Dolphin said in a statement to The New York Times. “I don’t know what ‘Renate Alumnus’ actually means. I can’t begin to comprehend what goes through the minds of 17-year-old boys who write such things, but the insinuation is horrible, hurtful and simply untrue. I pray their daughters are never treated this way. I will have no further comment.”

Michael Walsh, another Georgetown Prep alumnus, also listed himself on his personal yearbook page as a “Renate Alumnus.” Alongside some song lyrics, he included a short poem: “You need a date / and it’s getting late / so don’t hesitate / to call Renate.”

-- Brett Kavanaugh: ‘Horrible, hurtful taunts’ towards schoolgirl in high school yearbook revealed, by Kate Kelly, David Enrich

Alexandra Walsh, a lawyer for Judge Kavanaugh, said in a statement: “Judge Kavanaugh was friends with Renate Dolphin in high school. He admired her very much then, and he admires her to this day.


Brett Michael Kavanaugh
[DELETE]
Bethesda, Maryland 20816
Varsity Football 3, 4; J.V. Football 2; Freshman Football 1; Varsity Basketball 3, 4 (Captain); Frosh Basketball (Captain); J.V. Basketball (Captain); Varsity Spring Track 3; Little Hoya 3, 4*** Landon Rocks and Bowling Alley Assault -- What a Night; Georgetown vs. Louisville -- Who Won That Game Anyway?; Extinguisher; Summer of '82 -- Total Spints (Rehobeth 10, 9 ...); Orioles vs. Red Sox -- Who Won, Anyway?, Keg City Club (Treasurer) -- 100 Kegs or Bust; [DELETE] -- I survived the FFFFFFFourth of July; Renate Alumnius; Malibu Fan Club; Ow, Neatness 2, 3; Devil's Triangle; Down Geezer, Easy, Spike, "How ya' doing'. Errr Ah; Rehobeth Police Fan Club (with Shorty); St. Michael's ... This is a Whack; [DELETE] Fan Club; Judge -- Have you Boofed Yet?; Beach Week Ralph Club -- Biggest Contributor; [DELETE] -- Tainted Whack; [DELETE] Beach Week 3-107th Street; Those Prep Guys are the Biggest ...; BONZAGA YOU'RE LUCKY.

A threesome with 1 woman and 2 men.

William Hereford Lifestyle

-- Devils Triangle, by Urban Dictionary

I've been around the block several times including raising boys and grandsons and I'll tell you that at no time did the word bouf mean farting nor is a devil's triangle a drinking game like quarters. One means butt-f*cking and the other refers to two on one sex (2 men).

-- Gabby Gale @GayleDazzler!

Judge Kavanaugh mentioned Renate Dolphin on his yearbook page, his lawyer said, because of one high school event they attended together “and nothing else.” Address and some names have been obscured.[/i]

“Judge Kavanaugh and Ms. Dolphin attended one high school event together and shared a brief kiss good night following that event,” the statement continued. “They had no other such encounter. The language from Judge Kavanaugh’s high school yearbook refers to the fact that he and Ms. Dolphin attended that one high school event together and nothing else.”

Ms. Dolphin said she had never kissed Judge Kavanaugh. “I think Brett must have me confused with someone else, because I never kissed him,” she said through her lawyer.

In an interview on Fox News on Monday, Judge Kavanaugh defended his high school behavior in general terms. “People might have had too many beers on occasion and people generally in high school — I think all of us have probably done things we look back on in high school and regret or cringe a bit,” he said.

A White House spokesman, Raj Shah, declined to comment beyond the statement from Judge Kavanaugh’s lawyer.

Four of the men who were pictured with Judge Kavanaugh in a photo captioned “Renate Alumni” said it was simply a reference to their dating or going to dances with Ms. Dolphin.

An elite Catholic boys’ high school founded in 1789, Georgetown Prep has many alumni who have gone into public service. Justice Neil M. Gorsuch of the Supreme Court is a graduate, as is Jerome H. Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Judge Kavanaugh, a member of the football team and the captain of the basketball team, played a prominent role in Georgetown Prep’s firmament in the early 1980s. The school’s culture was one of heavy drinking and at times insensitivity.

The 1983 yearbook, for example, includes multiple apparent references to the Ku Klux Klan (but not on Judge Kavanaugh’s page). His page, in addition to the “Alumnius” entry, mentions his role as “treasurer” of the “Keg City Club.”

“The vast majority of the time I spent in high school was studying or focused on sports and being a good friend to the boys and the girls that I was friends with,” he told Fox News on Monday.

Some of Judge Kavanaugh’s high school peers said there was a widespread culture at the time of objectifying women.

“People claiming that they had sex with other people was not terribly unusual, and it was not terribly believable,” said William Fishburne, who was in Judge Kavanaugh’s graduating class and was a manager for the football team. “Not just Brett Kavanaugh and his particular group, but all the classmates in general. People would claim things they hadn’t done to sort of seem bigger than they were, older than they were.”

Bill Barbot, who was a freshman at Georgetown Prep when Judge Kavanaugh was a senior, said Judge Kavanaugh and his clique were part of the school’s “fratty” culture. “There was a lot of talk and presumably a lot of action about sexual conquest with girls,” Mr. Barbot said.


Renate Alumni (missing: Pres. J.C. Del Real)
Judge Kavanaugh, far left, and eight football teammates in a yearbook photo. “I don’t know what ‘Renate Alumnus’ actually means,” Ms. Dolphin said. “I can’t begin to comprehend what goes through the minds of 17-year-old boys who write such things, but the insinuation is horrible, hurtful and simply untrue.”

Ms. Dolphin was a subject of that braggadocio, according to Mr. Hagan and another classmate, who requested anonymity because he fears retribution. They said Judge Kavanaugh and his friends were seeking to memorialize their supposed conquests with the “Renate” yearbook references.

“She should be offended,” Mr. Hagan said of Ms. Dolphin. “I was completely astounded when I saw she signed that letter” on Judge Kavanaugh’s behalf.

Some women who knew Judge Kavanaugh at the time defended his conduct.

“These guys weren’t any different than other boys high schools across the country,” said Suzanne Matan, a friend of Judge Kavanaugh’s from their high school days. “And I chose to hang out with those boys and many other girls did, too, because they were fun, and they were safe, and they were respectful.”

The Georgetown Prep yearbook’s personal pages were designed and written by the individual students, according to alumni. A faculty adviser reviewed the pages.

Judge Kavanaugh was one of 13 graduating seniors who referred to Ms. Dolphin in some way on their personal pages. Some gave themselves titles — DeLancey Davis, for example, listed himself as “chairman of the Bored” of the “Renate Club.” Another football player, Tom Kane, mentioned on his page “Renate’s Suicide Squad.”

The group photo, with Judge Kavanaugh and eight fellow football players in pads and uniform, grinning, was captioned “Renate Alumni.” Mark Judge, the commentator and author who has written about his alcohol-fueled years at Georgetown Prep, stands next to Judge Kavanaugh in the photo.

Barbara Van Gelder, a lawyer for Mr. Judge, declined to comment.

Four of the players in the “Renate Alumni” photo — Mr. Davis, Mr. Kane, Tim Gaudette and Don Urgo Jr. — said in a statement that they had “never bragged about” sexual contact or anything like that with Ms. Dolphin. The statement, issued by Jim McCarthy, a public-relations representative, said the yearbook’s “Renate” references “were intended to allude to innocent dates or dance partners and were generally known within the community of people involved for over 35 years.”

“These comments,” the statement continued, “were never controversial and did not impact ongoing relationships until The Times twisted and forced an untrue narrative. This shabby journalism is causing egregious harm to all involved, particularly our friend, and is simply beneath contempt.”

Michael Walsh, another Georgetown Prep alumnus, also listed himself on his personal yearbook page as a “Renate Alumnus.” Alongside some song lyrics, he included a short poem: “You need a date / and it’s getting late / so don’t hesitate / to call Renate.”

Mr. Walsh, a bank executive in Virginia, was one of scores of Georgetown Prep alumni who signed a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee leaders vouching for Judge Kavanaugh’s “sharp intellectual ability, affable nature, and a practical and fair approach devoid of partisan purpose.” He did not respond to requests for comment.

Ms. Dolphin was aware that members of Judge Kavanaugh’s clique were reciting that poem, according to a person familiar with her thinking. She told the football players that she found it offensive, believing it made her seem like a cheap date, and she asked them to stop.

Some of Judge Kavanaugh’s peers said they doubted that the yearbook notations were good-natured. “Those guys weren’t big on crushes,” Mr. Fishburne said. “I think they felt that if a girl didn’t want to date them, then they must be gay. I’m serious.”

A high school friend of Ms. Dolphin’s, who also signed the letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that while she stood by the letter’s contents, as a friend of Ms. Dolphin’s she was “sickened” by the yearbook’s “Renate” references. She and a second friend of Ms. Dolphin’s denied that there was any sexual contact between Ms. Dolphin and Judge Kavanaugh or anyone else in his circle.

Kitty Bennett contributed research.

A version of this article appears in print on Sept. 24, 2018, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Yearbook ’83: Football, Kegs And Innuendo.

[admin]

Rule 413. Similar Crimes in Sexual-Assault Cases
Cornell Law School
Legal Information Institute
Accessed: 9/28/18

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(a) Permitted Uses. In a criminal case in which a defendant is accused of a sexual assault, the court may admit evidence that the defendant committed any other sexual assault. The evidence may be considered on any matter to which it is relevant.

(b) Disclosure to the Defendant. If the prosecutor intends to offer this evidence, the prosecutor must disclose it to the defendant, including witnesses’ statements or a summary of the expected testimony. The prosecutor must do so at least 15 days before trial or at a later time that the court allows for good cause.

(c) Effect on Other Rules. This rule does not limit the admission or consideration of evidence under any other rule.

(d) Definition of “Sexual Assault.” In this rule and Rule 415, “sexual assault” means a crime under federal law or under state law (as “state” is defined in 18 U.S.C. § 513) involving:

(1) any conduct prohibited by 18 U.S.C. chapter 109A;

(2) contact, without consent, between any part of the defendant’s body — or an object — and another person’s genitals or anus;

(3) contact, without consent, between the defendant’s genitals or anus and any part of another person’s body;

(4) deriving sexual pleasure or gratification from inflicting death, bodily injury, or physical pain on another person; or

(5) an attempt or conspiracy to engage in conduct described in subparagraphs (1)–(4).

Notes
(Added Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXII, §320935(a), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2135; Apr. 26, 2011, eff. Dec. 1, 2011.)

Effective Date

Section 320935(b)–(e) of Pub. L. 103–322, as amended by Pub. L. 104–208, div. A, title I, §101(a), [title I, §120], Sept. 30, 1996, 110 Stat. 3009, 3009–25, provided that:

“(b) Implementation.—The amendments made by subsection (a) [enacting this rule and rules 414 and 415 of these rules] shall become effective pursuant to subsection (d).

“(c) Recommendations by Judicial Conference.—Not later than 150 days after the date of enactment of this Act [Sept. 13, 1994], the Judicial Conference of the United States shall transmit to Congress a report containing recommendations for amending the Federal Rules of Evidence as they affect the admission of evidence of a defendant's prior sexual assault or child molestation crimes in cases involving sexual assault and child molestation. The Rules Enabling Act [ 28 U.S.C. 2072 ] shall not apply to the recommendations made by the Judicial Conference pursuant to this section.

“(d) Congressional Action.—

“(1) If the recommendations described in subsection (c) are the same as the amendment made by subsection (a), then the amendments made by subsection (a) shall become effective 30 days after the transmittal of the recommendations.

“(2) If the recommendations described in subsection (c) are different than the amendments made by subsection (a), the amendments made by subsection (a) shall become effective 150 days after the transmittal of the recommendations unless otherwise provided by law.

“(3) If the Judicial Conference fails to comply with subsection (c), the amendments made by subsection (a) shall become effective 150 days after the date the recommendations were due under subsection (c) unless otherwise provided by law.

“(e) Application.—The amendments made by subsection (a) shall apply to proceedings commenced on or after the effective date of such amendments [July 9, 1995], including all trials commenced on or after the effective date of such amendments.”

[The Judicial Conference transmitted to Congress on Feb. 9, 1995, a report containing recommendations described in subsec. (c) that were different than the amendments made by subsec. (a). The amendments made by subsec. (a) became effective July 9, 1995.]

Committee Notes on Rules—2011 Amendment

The language of Rule 413 has been amended as part of the restyling of the Evidence Rules to make them more easily understood and to make style and terminology consistent throughout the rules. These changes are intended to be stylistic only. There is no intent to change any result in any ruling on evidence admissibility.

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With Kavanaugh Confirmed, It’s Time to Burn It Down
by Jennifer Wright
Harpers Bazaar
Oct 6, 2018

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"We will burn patriarchal institutions to the ground. And I pray that, for our daughters, the blaze will light the way forward."

Design by Moira Gilligan

“I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation”

Abigail Adams wrote that in 1776. Her words have never seemed more prescient than they do today.

Surely, this is a time where many ladies wish to foment a rebellion. So many of us, today, want to burn a system to the ground that could put a man like Brett Kavanaugh, a man accused of multiple accounts of sexual assault, on the Supreme Court. Especially when there is such a strong sense that justice has not been done. The FBI’s investigation was limited. Mark Judge, an alleged witness, was never subpoenaed and made to testify. Ford’s nuanced, precise testimony seemingly could not hold up to a man shouting about how much he enjoyed beer.

Some (male) people might be concerned that women will foment the rebellion. To them I can say with certainty that the rebellion is already underway.

Like Ford, women “are used to being collegial.” So the rebellion might look more polite and orderly than some people expected.

That does not mean we are not furious.

“Women are so angry,” Trump declared in a rather garbled press conference about Kavanaugh on Tuesday night: “Women are very angry.”

It may be the first time I’ve agreed with Trump. God, are we angry. If we had calendars, like Kavanaugh, for many of us, this week would just be represented by the word “fury” scrawled in all caps.

For years, women’s anger has been dismissed. We have been taught to subsume anything even resembling anger at all costs. Watch a woman speak in a tone that does not convey deference and watch her be called "strident". Watch a woman speaking firmly be accused of "yelling". If she is not smiling, she seems "angry". If woman are openly upset, they will be called "hysterical," a term which implies that the root of their anger is a form of madness.

"For the first time in a long time—perhaps the first time ever—women’s rage is being seen as valuable."

Mercifully, for the first time in a long time—perhaps the first time ever—women’s rage is being seen as valuable and useful. Soraya Chemaly’s book Rage Becomes Her and Rebecca Traister’s Good and Mad are both recent books delving into the way women’s fury have created a more just world. In Chemaly’s book, she remarks that, “Anger has a bad rap, but it’s actually one of the most hopeful and forward thinking of our emotions. It begets transformation, manifesting our passion and keeping us invested in the world. It is a rational and emotional response trespass, violation and moral disorder.”

And women’s anger does create change, even here, even in this age. In an excerpt from Good and Mad published in New York Magazine, Traister cites not only my personal favorite angry American woman, Abigail Adams, but the many times American women’s anger has been the impetus for social movements. Those range from the women at textile mills in Lowell Massachusetts staging walk-outs in the 19th century, in one of the first iterations of a labor movement, to Emmett Till’s mother cracking open her son’s coffin in order to reveal the damage done to him to the world. Doing so, in Traister’s words, “lit a match under a burgeoning social struggle that would help to partially remake the United States and lessen (though hardly obliterate) the legal and political obstacles to racial parity.”

We’ve been angry before. We’ve channeled our anger to remake society, before. We’re good at this.

“Why aren’t women out in the streets then?” Some people are wondering.

Those people are remarkably unobservant. We are. Seventy percent of the membership and almost all of the leadership of local resistance groups are women. We are outside The Hart Senate Office Building chanting “We Care” and “Abolish I.C.E.” We are organizing walk-outs to protest Kavanaugh. We have been out there, in the streets, numbering in the millions since Trump was elected.

And yet, each year, when we march, Republican men wonder why women are even marching.

Honest question: what exactly are these women marching for https://t.co/M1PnadkDiL

— Harrison Barron (@harrison_barron) January 21, 2017
What are these women marching for???
The “right to EXPOSE THEMSELVES”??? https://t.co/8mEP7o5hfP

— Dave Jones (@mdj17) January 21, 2018
I don't get what the fuck all these women are marching for all over the place. Like when did women loose all their rights??

— Dylan (@dylanobney42) January 21, 2017

That is easy to answer this week. When we march, we are marching against your blithe dismissal of the fact that women’s lives have value. We are marching to inform you that we are people, not objects for male pleasure. We are marching to show that our lived experiences of pain will no longer be something you can dismiss with a laugh and a shrug.

"We are marching against your blithe dismissal of the fact that women’s lives have value."

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, when asked what she remembered most about her assault, replied, “Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter, the uproarious laughter between the two.”

It’s telling how little Republicans have evolved in 50 years that, during this trial, as a woman described her sexual assault, republicans like Kurt Schlichter were tweeting, “I’m laughing.”

Women are not.

Women aren’t going to keep politely laughing along with you. Even Republican women, who will tie themselves into knots trying to justify bad male behavior, have seemingly reached the end of their rope.

They are fleeing the Republican party in droves. In 2002, 36 percent of young women identified as Republican. In 2018, 23 percent do. Steve Bannon (has said “The Republican college-educated woman is done. They’re gone. They were going anyway at some point in time. Trump triggers them.” I would suggest that it’s the entire GOP’s dismissal and mockery of issues like the #MeToo movement that “triggers” them, but okay. This, all by itself should be a message to men on the Right to stop laughing, and start taking women seriously.

But they’re refusing to. If anything, they’re leaning in to misogyny.

In Kavanaugh’s confirmation they have revealed their true colors completely.

The GOP has made it clear that confirming a man accused by multiple people of sexual assault, who responded to accusations by bemoaning what a hard time he’d had as a result, was not only tolerable to them, it was desirable. Many onlookers saw Kavanaugh presenting as angry and entitled — he alternated between crying, yelling, lashing out at Senator Amy Klobuchar and expressing his fondness for beer.

Christina Cauterucci at Slate wrote an article called, “Brett Kavanaugh’s Testimony Made It Easier Than Ever to Picture Him as an Aggressive, Entitled Teen.” New York Times writer Mara Gay said on MSNBC “You hear a lot of entitlement coming from him.” Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post quipped on Twitter, “is this how people get to talk if they don't spend their entire lives being scrutinized for tone?”

is this how people get to talk if they don't spend their entire lives being scrutinized for tone

— Alexandra Petri (@petridishes) September 27, 2018

It’s fair to say that, among women, Kavanaugh’s speech did not go over too well.

But Donald Trump Jr. loved it. During the Trial, Trump Jr. tweeted, “I love Kavanaugh’s tone… others in the GOP should take notice!” Trump himself was similarly enthusiastic, tweeting, “Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him. His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting.”

I love Kavanaugh’s tone. It’s nice to see a conservative man fight for his honor and his family against a 35 year old claim with ZERO evidence and lots of holes that amounts to nothing more than a political hit job by the Dems.

Others in the GOP should take notice!

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 27, 2018

Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him. His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats’ search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2018

The GOP has given women an incredibly good reason to vote against them during the midterms. They’ve presented us with the image of a man screaming about how he’s the real victim in sexual assault accusations to rebel against.

And women across the world are already rising to stand against the powerful men like him. And not just “perfect” women anymore. For a long time, our imperfection, the fact that we might be revealed not to have perfectly walked the tightrope of female respectability, has been an impetus for women to remain silent. Rise up and call out men and you’ll be told it’s because you’re a slut. Or ugly. Or dirty, in some way that means you deserved your poor treatment.

"For a long time, the fact we might be revealed not to have perfectly walked the tightrope of female respectability, has been an impetus for women to remain silent."

This still happens, but it seems as though this year women just stopped caring. Women like Stormy Daniels are coming forward to fight against Trump and the GOP. Jill Filipovic wrote of how Rudy Giuliani remarked “I don’t respect a porn star the way I respect a career woman, or a woman of substance, or a woman who has great respect for herself as a woman, and as a person. So, Stormy, you want to bring a case? Let me cross-examine you.” Seemingly, he did this with the intention of shaming her, as women have often been shamed in the past. Except—and this was unusual—it did not seem to bother her. She did not flinch. Stormy remained, as Filipovic wrote, “an imperfect, entirely self-possessed woman telling her story with clarity and without shame. And here we are, actually listening to her.”

The day is coming where, when men make statements intended to remind us of how imperfect we are, they will be met not with fear, but with an eye-roll. Our imperfections do not negate our truths. There is such great power in the fact that we will no longer be shamed.

"There is such great power in the fact that we will no longer be shamed."

And this rebellion, in its large and small manifestations, will go on. Women are not going anywhere. We are going to keep existing, and more and more, we are going to share our truths. “Bravery”, as Senator Leahy told Dr. Ford, “is contagious.” This week has been horrible, but it is one battle lost, not a war. Women are running for office in unprecedented numbers. We may suffer under the leadership of old white men who have little regard for women. It seems increasingly unlikely that the next generation will.

So, don’t let anyone tell you that the rebellion has yet to begin. The events of this week only mean that it must not yet end.

Our rage burns so brightly. I look out, and I see a nation of women incandescent with rage. We will burn patriarchal institutions to the ground. And I pray that, for our daughters, the blaze will light the way forward.

[admin]

'Bro Culture’ Led to Repeated Sexual Harassment, Former Google Engineer's Lawsuit Says
by Kate Conger
2/28/18 2:58pm

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Loretta Lee, a software engineer who worked at Google for seven years before being fired in February 2016, is suing Google for sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and wrongful termination she says she experienced at the company. Lee says in her lawsuit that the company’s “bro-culture” led to continuous harassment and that Google did nothing to intervene.

Lee’s lawsuit follows more than six months of Google grappling with the fallout from a memo written by a former employee, James Damore, in which he argued that women were biologically less fit for careers in tech than men. Damore’s memo, which was published by Gizmodo in August, received both support and condemnation from other Google employees and spurred internal debate about sexism, racism, and diversity within the company.

Throughout her time at Google, Lee was routinely sexually harassed, according to her lawsuit. She says her male coworkers spiked her drinks with alcohol and shot nerf guns at her regularly, and she says one male coworker messaged her to ask for a “horizontal hug.” At a holiday party, Lee’s lawsuit says, a male coworker slapped her across the face while he was intoxicated.

In one particularly alarming incident detailed in Lee’s lawsuit, she says she found a male coworker hiding under her desk when she returned after a short break. He refused to say what he was doing, the lawsuit says. “The incident with the co-worker under her desk unnerved her. Plaintiff [Lee] had never spoken to that co-worker before. She was frightened by his comment and believed he may have installed some type of camera or similar device under her desk,” the lawsuit says.

Google’s human resources department pressured Lee during a series of meetings to make a formal complaint about the incident, she says. But she was frightened that a complaint would only generate retaliation from her coworkers, she says—and video had emerged of the incident, her lawsuit states, so she didn’t think that she should be required to make a complaint. When she refused, HR cited her for “failing to cooperate,” her lawsuit states. Lee says she finally relented and made a complaint, which Google then failed to investigate, the lawsuit states.

Lee’s male coworkers retaliated against her after the complaint, her lawsuit says. They refused to approve her code and stalled her projects, she says, making it more difficult for her to succeed at work.

“Not only did Google fail to prevent severe and pervasive sexual harassment in Plaintiff’s workplace, but the repeated and awkward meetings that Human Resources forced Plaintiff to attend led her group to retaliate against her in the very way she feared,” the lawsuit states. “Google’s failure to take appropriate remedial action is consistent with its pattern and practice of ignoring sexual harassment in the workplace, making no significant efforts to take corrective action, and punishing the victim.”

Lee received positive performance reviews throughout her career at Google and placed highly in two internal hackathons, the lawsuit states. However, when she was terminated in February 2016, she says, she was told she was being fired for poor performance.

Shortly before being fired, Lee was in a car accident and requested medical leave—but Google didn’t accommodate her requests, her lawsuit says.

“We have strong policies against harassment in the workplace and review every complaint we receive. We take action when we find violations—including termination of employment,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement. Google disputes Lee’s allegations about her coworkers’ behavior and about how HR handled the case, the spokesperson added, noting that Google promptly investigates and responds to allegations of workplace misconduct.

The allegations in Lee’s lawsuit are reminiscent of those raised last year by Susan Fowler, an engineer who blew the whistle about systemic sexual harassment at Uber. Fowler, like Lee, received sexually suggestive messages from her coworkers and experienced retaliation from HR after she made the problem known.

Damore sued Google last month for firing him, alleging that the company routinely discriminated against conservative white men. Since his termination last August, Google employees who advocate for diversity at the company say that Damore’s supporters have weaponized the company’s HR department, filing spurious complaints that claim diversity activists are discriminating against white men.

Tim Chevalier, a former Google engineer, sued the company this month for discrimination, harassment, and wrongful termination after he was fired for internal message board posts that advocated diversity at the company.

“An important part of our culture is lively debate. But like any workplace, that doesn’t mean anything goes. All employees acknowledge our code of conduct and other workplace policies, under which promoting harmful stereotypes based on race or gender is prohibited,” a Google spokesperson said in response to Chevalier’s lawsuit.

Googlers have also had screenshots of their internal conversations leaked to alt-right websites, according to Wired. In the immediate aftermath of Damore’s memo, Google CEO Sundar Pichai planned to hold a town hall meeting to address the situation. However, the town hall was canceled after leaks to alt-right sites led employees to fear for their safety. The town hall was never rescheduled, sources tell Gizmodo, although the threats that led to its cancellation seemed to compound the need for Google management to address the situation.

Google’s response to its cultural conflict stands in stark contrast to Uber’s reaction to its own sexual harassment crisis last year. After Fowler’s blog post went viral, Uber hired former US attorney general Eric Holder to lead an investigation into its workplace culture and retained the law firm Perkins Coie to investigate 215 complaints of sexual harassment. Based on Perkins Coie’s findings, Uber fired more than 20 employees. Holder’s investigation found that Uber did not have consistent procedures in place for responding to harassment, and made sweeping recommendations for how Uber could improve its culture.

Google, by comparison, seems to have done relatively little to address the recent swell in employee complaints of harassment and discrimination. The company does have procedures in place to address complaints of sexual harassment and assault—in 2015, Google instated a program called Respect@ to educate its employees about acceptable workplace behavior and collect reports of behavior that crosses lines. Employees can submit anonymous reports through an internal site, and Google reports the number, type, and outcome of complaints to its employees through an annual Internal Investigation Report. Google declined to share recent data from its Internal Investigation Report with Gizmodo.

Updated 3/1 at 7:00pm with additional comment with Google, including the company’s dispute of Lee’s claims and information about its Respect@ program.

[admin]

Google Faces Internal Backlash Over Handling of Sexual Harassment
by Kate Conger, Daisuke Wakabayashi and Katie Benner
The New York Times
October 31, 2018

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SAN FRANCISCO — Google is struggling to contain a growing internal backlash over its handling of sexual harassment and its workplace culture.

Over the past week, Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, and Larry Page, a co-founder of Google and the chief executive of its parent company, Alphabet, have taken multiple steps to calm its agitated 94,000-person work force. The anger arose after The New York Times revealed last week that Google had paid millions of dollars in exit packages to male executives accused of harassment and stayed silent about their transgressions.

Google later said it had fired 48 people for sexual harassment over the last two years; none received an exit package. Mr. Page and Mr. Pichai also issued apologies, with Mr. Pichai later saying his initial statement “wasn’t enough” and apologizing again. And one of the executives whom Alphabet continued employing after he was accused of harassment resigned on Tuesday and did not obtain an exit package.

But employees’ dissatisfaction has not subsided. On Thursday, more than 1,500 — most of them women — plan to walk out of almost two dozen company offices around the world to protest the treatment, organizers said.

“We don’t want to feel that we’re unequal or we’re not respected anymore,” said Claire Stapleton, 33, a product marketing manager at Google’s YouTube who helped call for the walkout. “Google’s famous for its culture. But in reality we’re not even meeting the basics of respect, justice and fairness for every single person here.”

The walkout is a culmination of simmering tensions at a time when Silicon Valley workers have become more activist. Tech employees once moved in lock step with their leaders to make products that they said would change the world, but the industry has come under the spotlight for causing harm rather than good. That has led engineers, data scientists and others to increasingly question how their work is being used.

Employees at Microsoft and Amazon recently protested the companies’ work with federal immigration authorities when migrant children were being separated from their families at the Mexican border. And some employees at Facebook have complained that the social network is intolerant of different political perspectives.

Nowhere has the tech employee activism been more evident than at Google. Workers have pushed back this year against the company’s artificial intelligence work with the Pentagon, saying their work shouldn’t be used for warfare. Google eventually decided not to renew its contract with the Pentagon. Employees also rebuked Mr. Pichai and other executives for developing a search engine for China that would censor results. Since then, Google has not moved forward on a search product for China.

Google declined to comment.

The treatment of female employees has been an especially charged topic at Google. Just 31 percent of its global work force and about 26 percent of its executives are women. Google has also been sued by former employees and the Department of Labor, which claim that it underpaid women; the company has said it does not have a wage gap between male and female employees.

Google workers said other incidents had raised questions about the company’s attitude toward women. Last year, one engineer, James Damore, argued in an internal document that women were biologically less adept at engineering and that “personality differences” explained the shortage of female leaders at the company. After an outcry, Google executives rejected the memo and fired Mr. Damore.

At a staff meeting last year, Google’s founders, Mr. Page and Sergey Brin, also struggled to answer a question about who their female role models were, said two employees who saw a video of the meeting.

Mr. Brin tried to recall the name of a woman he had recently met at a company event who had impressed him, the people said. Mr. Page eventually reminded Mr. Brin that the woman’s name was Gloria Steinem, the feminist writer. Mr. Page said his hero was Ruth Porat, the chief financial officer of Google and Alphabet, said the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Last week, The Times reported that Google had paid Andy Rubin, the creator of the Android mobile software, a $90 million exit package even after the company concluded that a harassment claim against him was credible. (Mr. Rubin has denied any misconduct and has said the report of his compensation is a “wild exaggeration.”) Google also paid millions of dollars in an exit package to another executive who was accused of harassment, and continued employing a third despite a harassment claim.

Google’s workers were outraged. They immediately raised questions at a staff meeting with executives last Thursday about how the company approaches sexual harassment.

“I know this is really an exceptionally painful story for some of you, and I’m really sorry for that,” Mr. Page said at the time.

The meeting did little to quell the anger. On Friday, Ms. Stapleton said, she created an internal mailing list to organize a walkout. More than 200 employees joined over the weekend, she said, and the numbers have since grown to more than 1,500.

On Tuesday, Richard DeVaul, one of the Alphabet executives who The Times revealed was accused of harassment, resigned from the company. He did not receive an exit package, according to a company spokeswoman.

That same day, Mr. Pichai sent an apologetic email to employees saying he would support this week’s protest. He said that some workers had already raised constructive ideas of how to improve policies around harassment and that he hoped to “turn these ideas into action,” according to the email, which was obtained by The Times.

Employees organizing the walkout have called on Google to end the practice of private arbitration — which requires people to waive their right to sue and often includes confidentiality agreements — in cases of sexual assault and harassment. They also are demanding publication of a transparency report on instances of sexual harassment, more disclosure of salaries and compensation, an employee representative on the company’s board and a chief diversity officer who could make recommendations directly to the board.

Other employees said they were disappointed that senior executives such as David C. Drummond, Alphabet’s chief legal officer, who had a child with a female subordinate, and Mr. Brin, who had a public extramarital relationship with an employee, remained in influential positions. Some raised questions about whether it was appropriate for Eric Schmidt, the company’s former chief executive and chairman, to remain on Alphabet’s board after former and current employees said he had retained a mistress as a company consultant.

Thursday’s walkout is set to begin in Google’s Tokyo office and then circle the globe, with employees leaving work around 11 a.m. in their time zones, Ms. Stapleton said. People can choose whether or not to return to work, she said.

“While Google has championed the language of diversity and inclusion, substantive actions to address systemic racism, increase equity and stop sexual harassment have been few and far between. ENOUGH,” organizers of the walkout wrote on an internal website, which was viewed by The Times. “Time’s up at Google.”

Kate Conger and Daisuke Wakabayashi reported from San Francisco, and Katie Benner from Washington.

Follow Kate Conger, Daisuke Wakabayashi and Katie Benner on Twitter: @kateconger, @daiwaka and @ktbenner.

[admin]

A trip to Cabo, an allegation of sexual assault, and 'a culture of dishonesty': Inside the downfall of the founding CEO of $1.9 billion startup Apttus
by Becky Peterson
Business Insider
November 1, 2018

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Kirk Krappe, the longtime CEO of $1.86 billion startup Apttus, left the company in July. Two months after Krappe’s abrupt departure, Apttus was acquired by Thoma Bravo, a Chicago private-equity firm.

Sexual harassment and inappropriate relationships were rampant at the highest levels of Apttus, according to documents and several former employees and insiders Business Insider spoke with.

Krappe left the company after the settlement of a claim of sexual assault at a February company retreat. The claim against Krappe was described to Business Insider by several people familiar with the matter.

In a recent letter to David Murphy, the Apttus executive chairman installed by Thoma Bravo, a former Apttus employee describes a place overrun by fear, bullying, and discrimination — and hints at more forthcoming legal claims.

When employees showed up to work at Apttus’ San Mateo headquarters on July 2, they were shocked to learn that the startup’s longtime CEO, Kirk Krappe, was no longer at the company.

Krappe, whose faint British accent and pocket-square outfits made him stand out in Silicon Valley’s landscape of fleece vests, cofounded Apttus in 2006 after a career spent at Bain & Co, Oracle, and several enterprise startups.

He was the face and voice of the company. Just a few weeks earlier, Krappe was onstage at the company’s annual user conference delivering one of his trademark “free-form” speeches. These often began with an abstract history lesson (topics included human evolution and Turkish archaeology) and eventually segued into Quote-to-Cash, a sales software, Apttus’ signature product.

It didn’t take long before rumors about Krappe’s disappearance were swirling through the company’s offices. There had been a booze-filled sales retreat in Cabo. There were allegations of sexual assault. Had Krappe been forced out, people wondered?

The story about Cabo was just one of many worrisome allegations involving Krappe that were coming to a head around the time, and which ultimately would suggest that the tech entrepreneur’s old-world charm and erudite air might be concealing a pattern of questionable behavior.

With promises of an eventual IPO, Krappe sold employees, customers, and investors on a Silicon Valley dream that in hindsight appeared to have been only loosely based in reality.

Instead of a hot IPO-bound startup, the company Krappe created was by a number of accounts a lawless place where sexual harassment and inappropriate relationships were rampant at the highest levels, according to several former employees and insiders Business Insider spoke with and according to legal documents.

Misdeeds such as padding expense reports and promising clients nonexistent products were encouraged, the people said, and any voices of dissent were swiftly silenced.

At a time when reports of inappropriate behavior among executives at high-profile tech companies from Google to Uber have come to light, the story of Apttus is more than just another disturbing example of alleged sexual misconduct in the male-dominated technology business.

The startup’s still unfolding drama, if the allegations are true, shows how pervasively a company can be infected by toxic behavior once it’s taken root at the top of the organization, and how easily it is allowed to happen in Silicon Valley.

Big-name backers from Salesforce Ventures to ICONiQ Capital to IBM’s venture arm invested in Apttus during Krappe’s tenure, even as his behavior — including having a child outside of his marriage with a manager at the company — raised eyebrows throughout the organization.

Apttus’ last venture round in September 2017 valued the company at $1.86 billion. Salesforce, whose founder, Marc Benioff, is an outspoken advocate for stamping out sexism in the workplace, declined to comment, as did IBM. ICONiQ Capital, which is closely associated with Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, both prominent supporters of the #MeToo movement, did not return requests for comment. Zuckerberg and Sandberg declined to comment.

Two months after Krappe’s departure, Apttus sold a majority stake to Thoma Bravo, a Chicago private-equity firm with offices in San Francisco.

Multiple lawsuits

It’s unclear whether Thoma Bravo was aware of the allegations surrounding Krappe during the time of the acquisition. But while the problematic CEO was gone by the time Thoma Bravo announced the deal, some of the problems created during Krappe’s reign are likely to live on.

Several claims involving allegations of harassment or a hostile work environment are in various stages of negotiations, Business Insider has learned, and there are three lawsuits from former employees who claim that Krappe had misled them about the health and size of Apttus’ business.

And in a recent letter sent to David Murphy, the Apttus executive chairman installed by Thoma Bravo, in October, a former Apttus employee hinted at more forthcoming legal claims.

The private-equity firm has not disclosed how much it paid to acquire its majority stake in Apttus, which has raised about $400 million in funding over the years. In a news release announcing the deal, Thoma Bravo touted the “operational excellence” it would bring to Apttus, which makes software to helps businesses manage revenues and customer relationships.

Representatives from Apttus declined to comment. Thoma Bravo did not respond to a request for comment.

A night of heavy drinking at the hotel bar

The claim that preceded Krappe’s departure was made by a 26-year-old rising star on Apttus’ business-development team who, along with her aunt, attended a February retreat in Mexico that Apttus hosted for high-performing sales personnel.

The Presidents Club event, as Apttus called the company getaway, took place at the One&Only Palmilla resort near Cabo San Lucas, a coastal property that to many is the epitome of paradise. Located 30 minutes from downtown Cabo, the beachfront is lined with palm trees and beach chairs. Its bright-blue infinity pool is an Instagram influencer’s dream with its dramatic views of where the Gulf of California meets the Pacific Ocean.

It was there, after a night of heavy drinking at the hotel bar, that Krappe allegedly followed the business-development employee back to her hotel room and sexually assaulted her.

The claim against Krappe, which was described to Business Insider by multiple people familiar with the events, was settled outside of court in early June. A large sum of money changed hands, and both Krappe and the plaintiff left the company at the time of the settlement. Gloria Allred, who represented the plaintiffs on the case, declined to comment.

Krappe did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Bikinis, massages, and ‘sexulence’

For some employees, signs of dysfunction and unprofessional conduct were routine at Apttus.

In early 2015, people at the company noticed that one of their colleagues was pregnant. The late-20s blonde, who managed the global partnerships and business-development teams at Apttus, had started showing. Though she was tight-lipped about her relationship with Krappe, most people at the company thought it was his child, sources told Business Insider.

Krappe, who was in his mid-50s at the time, was still legally married to the mother of his four oldest children. But the newly minted couple got engaged and started raising their newborn daughter as a family.

People felt scandalized, but it wasn’t just because of the affair. Krappe’s fiancée moved up quickly at Apttus, and eventually managed a team called the Salesforce Excellence Team, known by some internally as the “sexulence team” because it was made up exclusively of “very pretty girls.”

It was that team’s job to fly around the country to host social events with salespeople at Salesforce, a crucial Apttus partner at the time and an investor in the startup.

That team, multiple sources said, was liberal with its expenses. Sources told Business Insider that manicures and massages would be documented as team-bonding expenses. Luxurious dinners between two Apttus employees would be documented as four-person client dinners with nonexistent Salesforce employees. In at least one instance, bikinis and beach chairs got expensed on a trip to Florida.

“We were encouraged to spend money on anything, and it would be approved,” one former team employee said.

Employees on other teams took note of the spending, and of the fiancée’s special status at the company. One employee on the fiancée’s team went to HR and blew the whistle about the spending. Not long after, that employee was asked to leave the company, according to people familiar with the matter. Krappe’s fiancée did not return requests for comment.

“It’s like a zoo, and you either bite or you’ll get bitten,” another former employee said. “I’ve never worked at a company like this ever. It’s strange.”

A meeting at the fish market

But the alleged misdeeds at Apttus went a lot deeper than just expense reports.

In mid-2017, Apttus was hit with two lawsuits from former employees who both alleged that executives at Apttus, including Krappe, lied about the company’s sales pipeline, product readiness, and command structure to get them to join the company. A third suit, on behalf of a former general manager and vice president William Veiga, is pending.

The first two suits were filed on behalf of Elizabeth Baker and Marco De La Cuesta, high flyers in the enterprise-sales world. Baker had previously worked for Oracle and both spent time at SAP. They took managerial roles on the sales team at Apttus in late 2015, and were terminated by the board in June 2016.

Both complaints allege that they were fired over their refusal “to engage in the requested illegal and unethical conduct, and otherwise engage in a culture of dishonesty and corruption.”

In her complaint, Baker describes meeting Krappe for lunch at the Fish Market in San Mateo before she took the job, and being told by Krappe that Apttus was experiencing “unprecedented growth in large enterprise companies.”

In their respective lawsuits, both Baker and De La Cuesta allege that Krappe sold them on Apttus as a company with a $400 million sales pipeline, but that pipeline didn’t exist. He also sold them on key customers, including Intel, Clorox, GE, HPE/HPI, and McKesson, and both allege that parts of the customer base were fictionalized or misrepresented.

In the case of Intel, the Silicon Valley chip giant, both suits allege that Apttus sought to sell a product that didn’t yet exist. Intel grew concerned that something was wrong “after extensive suspicious delays and excuses from Apttus,” according to the complaints.

It all came to a head in a meeting with the team, when Intel asked directly if the products it had “purchased had actually been developed, and if other Apttus customers were currently using the products today, in an actual production environment,” according to the complaints.

One team member deferred to another, who told Intel they had nothing to worry about. Later, the first team member said that he refused to answer their question because “his wife worked at Intel and ‘he did not want to lie,'” the complaint said.

Intel declined to comment.

‘Devalued, bullied, and treated like dirt’

Krappe’s credibility among some employees began to suffer as his long-promised IPO never materialized.

For two years, Krappe had told employees and the public that Apttus would IPO imminently. A $55 million funding round in late September 2017 meant Apttus was flush with cash, but employees were starting to lose hope that they would ever see a big payout on the equity that many were offered as part of their pay packages.

Krappe told TechCrunch that Apttus would IPO in 2016 if it didn’t get bought, and, later that year, he told MarketWatch that the company intended to go public in 2017. In October 2017, Bloomberg reported that Apttus hired Goldman Sachs to manage the offering.

With so much compensation wrapped up in equity, the IPO was highly personal to employees. But when staff members inquired into the delay, one person said, management would claim that the company just wasn’t ready, and would invoke the IPO quiet period as a reason they couldn’t explain the situation more in depth.

“We’d go to all-hands meetings where he’d speak and try to be inspirational,” one former employee said of Krappe. “He always talked about being a team and being on a rocket. When you hear something repetitively, you’re, like, ‘This is something I’ve heard over and over.'”

The poor employee morale has outlived Krappe within Apttus.

In a recent letter to David Murphy, the Apttus executive chairman installed by Thoma Bravo, a former Apttus employee describes a place overrun by fear, bullying, and discrimination, and hints at more forthcoming legal claims. The author of the letter, Kyle Bouchard, was employee 33 at the startup and had moved up to vice president of strategic accounts. He resigned from the company soon after its acquisition in September.

“As a human being, you only can take so much of this brutality and for me, I chose not to be a part of a company where employees are devalued, bullied, and treated like dirt,” Bouchard wrote in the letter obtained by Business Insider.

The letter singled out Krappe’s handpicked chief strategy officer, Raj Verma, who is now COO, for many of the ongoing problems. According to insiders, Verma and Krappe worked closely together until the spring, when things came to a head. Bouchard declined to comment.

Verma did not return a request for comment.

‘Never give up’

Whether Krappe will attempt to return to the business world is unclear. Business Insider is not aware of any criminal charges filed against him as a result of the alleged assault.

On the February night of the Presidents Club award ceremony in Cabo, just hours after the alleged sexual assault, Krappe and the rest of Apttus team headed to a farmhouse restaurant called Flora Farms, known for frequent celebrity guests such as Jennifer Aniston.

During the dinner, Krappe took the stage to pass out trophies to his star employees, according to people who were present. In the background, a video projected on the wall played Krappe’s biography, tracing his life from his roots in Africa to the founding of Apttus. The video ends with Krappe’s youngest daughter, now a toddler, running up and jumping into his arms during a staff photo in San Mateo.

In Swahili, and then English, words flash across the screen: “Never give up.”

As the video played, the audience could see Krappe well up with tears.

[admin]

NY State Senator Alessandra Biaggi Says Cuomo Has Abused His Power for Years & Must Resign
by Amy Goodman
Democracy Now!
March 16, 2021

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GUESTS
Alessandra Biaggi, New York state senator.
LINKS
Alessandra Biaggi on Twitter

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is refusing to step down despite growing calls for his resignation after multiple accusations of sexual harassment and misconduct, as well as his cover-up of thousands of COVID-19 nursing home deaths. Alessandra Biaggi, a New York state senator representing parts of the Bronx and Westchester, says it’s long past time for Cuomo to go and that the many scandals surrounding the governor reveal a consistent pattern. “The governor has not only abused his position of power, but he has used it in a way that is political and as a way to have the executive branch essentially protect himself and not the people of New York,” says Biaggi.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is refusing to step down despite growing calls following multiple accusations of sexual harassment and misconduct, as well as his cover-up of thousands of COVID-19 nursing home deaths. Both Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand have called for his resignation.

SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND: Because of the multiple credible sexual harassment and misconduct allegations, it’s clear that Governor Cuomo has lost the confidence of his governing partners, as well as the people of New York. That’s why I believe that the governor has to resign.

AMY GOODMAN: President Biden, who’s a longtime friend of Cuomo’s, has yet to weigh in. He said the investigations should be allowed to happen.

We’re joined by New York state Senator Alessandra Biaggi. She is a Democrat who represents parts of the Bronx and Westchester, one of the first lawmakers to call for Cuomo’s resignation.

So, there are six women who have accused him of sexual misconduct, and then you have the nursing home scandal of the thousands of undercounted deaths in nursing homes. State Senator Biaggi, we had you on talking about the issue of sexual harassment and assault many months ago. What are you demanding now?

SEN. ALESSANDRA BIAGGI: So, I mean, thank you for having me, and good morning.

You know, I think, just zooming out for a second, the totality of the circumstances here are not, frankly, for the faint of heart. I mean, the details of the growing sexual harassment allegations and the nursing home death cover-up, as you’ve mentioned. We also have reports about the governor’s vaccine czar calling county officials to gauge their loyalty to the governor with regard to whether or not a county will receive vaccines. All of this, collectively, and other things that I haven’t mentioned, reveal a same and similar underlying issue and pattern, which is that the governor has not only abused his position of power, but he has used it in a way that is political and as a way to have the executive branch essentially protect himself and not the people of New York.

And so, I am calling for Governor Cuomo to resign. And I also — just, you know, pausing for a second — there are many of us, of course, who are calling for the governor to resign. It does not mean that the governor is going to resign, as I’m sure that the public watching can see. And so, if the governor does not resign, I do believe that the next step has to be starting the process for impeachment. Now, I’m sure also that many people are hearing what I’m saying and thinking to themselves, “Well, I thought that the Assembly actually did start the articles of impeachment or did start he impeachment process.” The Assembly started an investigation through their Judiciary Committee, which is not the same as drafting the articles of impeachment. In fact, there is only one other example in the entire United States history where an investigation begins before the articles of impeachment are drafted. In fact, the investigation piece is actually for the Senate. And so, I do think that is the next prudent step because of what is in front of us in terms of our responsibility as lawmakers and elected officials.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Senator Biaggi, I wanted to ask you the — you worked for a time in the governor’s office. Could you talk about your own experiences in that workplace? And you’ve also said that you haven’t met a person in New York City politics who has a good relationship with Andrew Cuomo. Why is that?

SEN. ALESSANDRA BIAGGI: So, I did work for the governor. I worked in his executive chamber right after coming off of the 2016 election, thinking, like many people, that I was going to join an administration that was going to be this progressive beacon of New York and do a lot of good to push back against the Trump administration. Not only was I wrong, but I entered an administration that was part of this culture of fear, of toxicity, of berating people, of yelling at people. Many people that were surrounding me and my colleagues, in things that I personally experienced, were just constantly living day to day in a state of fear and intimidation.

And not only was that, in and of itself, sufficient to think that that is a workplace that not only is toxic, but also abusive, there was a lack of progress happening. So, that behavior and that pattern of abuse by the governor and his top aides is something that actually leads to bad governance. And so, you know, when I look back now, thinking about just what was possible at that time, there was so much more that New York could have done, and yet we were stopped because of the governor’s obsessiveness, frankly, with controlling everything around him. And so, there was not an email that went out the door without his approval, or a press release that went out the door without his or his top aides’ approval. And you might think that that’s a very normal way to operate an office, but when you have an office full of very ambitious, smart people who want to do their job and serve the people of New York but are prevented from doing so because there is one person who wants to have all of the control, you soon find that you cannot actually do your job.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And in terms of those who say that the governor should be given the benefit of having an actual investigation verify these allegations, what do you say to them?

SEN. ALESSANDRA BIAGGI: Well, you know, the governor is guaranteed due process under the law, of course. But calling for the governor to resign is absolutely not a judgment about his liability for any alleged criminal acts that we’re talking about here. The formal investigations, right now there are several of them. There are two federal investigations, two for nursing homes — the FBI and the EDNY, Eastern District of New York — and then there’s the attorney general’s investigation with regard to the sexual harassment, assault and misconduct claims. Those are all allegations that can continue to move forward, and should continue to move forward. But there is a very stark difference between investigations, that may lead or end in criminal charges, and the question of confidence in our political leadership.

And that’s why I continue to stand by my call for the governor to resign, especially, again, in this moment that we are in, which is not a moment to take lightly. We are in the midst of budget. We are about to start planning for the recovery of the state of New York. We have a $16 billion deficit. There is a lot of work to do. And I think what we are hearing in the days — as each day goes on, is the governor saying, “We have work to do. We have to get back to work,” as if all of the things that we’re describing here are a distraction that he doesn’t want to think about — and I’m sure that he doesn’t want to think about it. But the point is that these are distractions that have been created because of the behavior of our governor. And the rest of us want to get back to work to be able to do our jobs.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you think that Governor Cuomo, in his hatred for Mayor de Blasio, and also the kind of pressure he’s under now as de Blasio calls also for him to resign, is actually shortchanging the city, de Blasio said, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of vaccines? And do we see this in other places in New York? And also, you shared text messages with New York magazine showing the kind of harassment that one receives, particularly you, from his aide, Melissa DeRosa, who’s often at his side. And just remember, we have to abide by FCC rules on not expressing curses on the air.

SEN. ALESSANDRA BIAGGI: Yes, I will surely not repeat the curse words of members of the governor’s administration, so you have my word on that.

Listen, I think that when we listen to what de Blasio was saying about shortchanging the city, that’s not something that’s an anomaly. It’s not unusual. In fact, the governor’s decisions about how he governs are very political. He oftentimes makes decisions based on those who are loyal to him. So, you know, the stories coming out about his vaccine czar calling people, calling county executives, and trying to gauge their loyalty about their relationship to the governor, and then decisions being made about vaccines, it’s not an unusual thing for those of us who have been working in New York state government under this executive administration. But it’s also not acceptable, because —

AMY GOODMAN: We have 10 seconds.

SEN. ALESSANDRA BIAGGI: Sure — to make decisions based on politics in a moment where we can save lives is outrageous. And so, you know, I think that there is a lot of work to be done here, and I think that this is a governor who’s not able or fit to do it.

AMY GOODMAN: Alessandra Biaggi, New York state senator representing parts of the Bronx and Westchester.