NBC Can’t ‘Independently Verify’ Swetnick’s Kavanaugh Allegations

NBC News “has not been able to independently verify” the inconsistent sexual assault allegations by Julie Swetnick (pictured above left) against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, reporter Kate Snow admitted Monday to MSNBC on “The Beat with Ari Melber.”

“What we want to do here is lay out all that [Swetnick] said, her story, our reporting. We want to be very transparent because these are very serious allegations,” Snow said. “NBC News, for the record, has not been able to independently verify her claims. There are things that she told us on camera that differ from her written statement.”

Snow added: “We’ve been trying independently to reach out to anyone who remembers attending parties with Julie Swetnick and Brett Kavanaugh, and we’ve been asking her attorney for names. So far, we’ve not found anyone who remembers that. She’s also unclear about when she first decided to come forward.”

Swetnick was the third woman who came forward publicly during the final days of Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation process to accuse the judge of sexual assault.

Christine Blasey Ford was the first woman; Deborah Ramirez was the second.

Related: Kavanaugh Won’t Return to Harvard Law to Teach — Was He Chased Out by Protesters?

Swetnick wrote in her sworn affidavit that she was raped at one of 10 high school parties in suburban Maryland that she attended around 1982, even though she graduated from high school in 1980, according to The New York Times.

She alleged that Kavanaugh and Mark Judge would “cause girls to become inebriated and disoriented so they could then be ‘gang-raped’ in a side room or bedroom by a ‘train’ of numerous boys” at those parties.

Michael Avenatti (above right), attorney for porn star Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against President Donald Trump, also represents Swetnick.

Kavanaugh denied all of the sexual assault allegations against him in testimony last week before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. FBI officials are now conducting a week-long investigation into the allegations before the full Senate votes on Kavanaugh’s final confirmation.

Swetnick gave NBC News an exclusive interview that aired Monday on “The Beat with Ari Melber.”

“I mean, that is a term, that’s an allegation that you cannot walk away from. Now NBC News has not been able to independently corroborate any of these claims.”

“[Kavanaugh] was very aggressive — very sloppy drunk, very mean drunk. I saw him — go up to girls and paw on them, try to, you know, get a little too handsy, touching them in private parts. I saw him try to shift clothing,” Swetnick told Snow.

Although Swetnick claims that Kavanaugh and his friend, Mark Judge, were present at the party where she was allegedly raped, she admitted to Snow, “I cannot specifically say that he was one of the ones who assaulted me.”

She also admitted that she couldn’t say for certain whether Kavanaugh or Judge spiked the punch at the parties she attended, even though she claimed in her sworn affidavit that she “became aware of efforts” from Kavanaugh and Judge to “spike the punch at house parties I attended with drugs and/or grain alcohol so as to cause girls to lose their inhibitions and their ability to say ‘no.'”

“Well, I saw him giving red Solo cups to quite a few girls during that time frame, and there was green punch at those parties,” Swetnick told Snow. “And I would not take one of those glasses from Brett Kavanaugh. I saw him around the punch, I won’t say bowls, or the punch containers … I don’t know what he did, but I saw him by them.”

To make matters worse for Swetnick, the supposed witnesses who could back up her story, whose names she gave to NBC News, were either deceased or unreachable.

Related: Swetnick ‘Never Once’ Brought Up Alleged Gang Rape, Ex-Boyfriend Says

“This morning, Swetnick provided four names of friends she says went to the parties with her. One of them says he does not recall a Julie Swetnick. Another of the friends she named is deceased,” Snow said. “We’ve reached out to the other two and haven’t heard back.”

Even MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle frowned upon Swetnick’s “massive” allegations Tuesday on “MSNBC Live.”

“This woman alleges that Kavanaugh was at a party where women were gang-raped. I mean, that is a term, that’s an allegation that you cannot walk away from,” Ruhle said. “Now NBC News has not been able to independently corroborate any of these claims, and when we asked her attorney, Michael Avenatti, for any witnesses, any witnesses, who could back up her account, he provided four names of friends Swetnick says went to parties with her.”

“One of them says he does not recall anyone named Julie Swetnick, another of the friends is dead, and NBC News has reached out to two others and have not heard back. Swetnick’s mother’s name was also provided, but she has also passed away,” Ruhle noted. “So how should we treat this allegation?”

“How do you get to the bottom of something like this? These are serious allegations that, if Brett Kavanaugh was involved with them, have to be taken seriously, but what if there are many holes and this is now out there for all the world to see?” Ruhle asked.

“I mean, her lawyer is putting forth people who aren’t currently alive.”