In the absence of corroboration, a sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh has become something of a Rorschach test.
People who are already opposed to Kavanaugh’s nomination to the highest court in the land have rushed to express their belief in the accusation made by California clinical psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford — while the nominee’s supporters find it lacking.
Kavanaugh’s critics have employed circular logic: They say Ford’s accusation is credible because women deserve to be believed. That shifts the burden of proof from the accuser to the accused.
It puts Kavanaugh (pictured above left) in the position of having to prove a negative from 36 years ago, when Ford alleges he pinned her to a bed at a house party when they were teenagers — and tried to disrobe her.
A version of the circular argument played out Friday on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”
Steve Cortes, who was an informal adviser to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, noted that there is nothing to substantiate Ford’s claim.
“The only witness [to the alleged event] says it didn’t happen,” he noted, referring to Mark Judge, a high school friend of Kavanaugh’s whom Ford claims was in the room when the supposed assault occurred.
CNN contributor Symone Sanders, who served as a spokeswoman for the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders, responded with an assertion that is inaccurate.
“And he didn’t say it under oath,” she said.
Cortes corrected her, pointing out that Mark Judge (pictured above right) provided a sworn statement under penalty of perjury to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Unbowed, Sanders said, “He’s lied before.”
Oh, so the reasoning goes like this.
Ford’s story of assault is believable because she named a witness to the event. But even when the witness contradicted the accuser’s claim, it should be believed anyway — because the witness has “lied before.”
Related: Kavanaugh’s Sexual Assault Accuser Misses Another Committee Deadline
But insisting that a supposed witness cannot be believed is hardly evidence that the original allegation is true.
Three people have provided sworn statements about the alleged incident at the house party.
Kavanaugh himself denied it. Judge said he never saw anything like what Ford describes. And Patrick J. Smyth, a Georgetown Prep classmate of Kavanaugh’s, told the committee that he believes he is the “P.J.” that Ford says was at the party but not in the room.
CNN contributor Symone Sanders, who served as a spokeswoman for the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders, responded with an assertion that is inaccurate.
He wrote in the statement that he had no knowledge of a party such as the one Ford has referenced.
The result, Cortes said, is that there is “literally a complete void of evidence.”
So people either believe the uncorroborated allegation — or they don’t.
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