NYT omits major detail that Kavanaugh accuser has NO memory of alleged assault, revises article later undercutting earlier claim
A report on another allegation of sexual assault by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was updated by the New York Times on Sunday with significant details that were omitted in the original. The update was made hours after several 2020 Democratic presidential candidates called for Kavanaugh's impeachment, citing the original article that was published on Saturday.
The revision included accounts of the alleged victim's friends who said that she did not recall the alleged sexual assault. The report also added that the alleged victim refused to be interviewed by the outlet.
The Times, on Saturday, had reported that Kavanaugh's classmate, Max Stier, told them that he saw the current Supreme Court Justice with his pants down at a drunken Yale University party where friends pushed his penis into the hands of a female student. The report was similar to an allegation made against Kavanaugh last year by one of his former classmates Deborah Ramirez. The report stated that Stier attempted to inform senators and the FBI of the incident during Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings, however, his account was not investigated by the federal agents.
The outlet, however, later updated its article, with the revision saying: "Editors' Note: An earlier version of this article, which was adapted from a forthcoming book, did not include one element of the book's account regarding an assertion by a Yale classmate that friends of Brett Kavanaugh pushed his penis into the hand of a female student at a drunken dorm party. The book reports that the female student declined to be interviewed and friends say that she does not recall the incident. That information has been added to the article."
The update reportedly came hours after The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway, who reviewed an advance copy of 'The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation' written by journalists Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, pointed out the particular omission in the NYT article on Twitter. Shortly after the paper's note, multiple conservative personalities took to social media to slam the outlet for such crucial omission.
"It’s important to point out that this correction almost certainly would have never occurred if conservative media folks like @MZHemingway and others hadn’t obtained the copy of the actual book itself the same day the excerpt/article was released," author James Hasson said.
The original article had prompted a slew of criticism against Kavanaugh and the Department of Justice by 2020 Democratic contenders, including Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Beto O'Rourke, Cory Booker and Julian Castro, who sought for Kavanaugh's impeachment.