This certainly isn’t going to help Christine Blasey Ford’s case.
Ford told the Washington Post that she remembered a friend of hers from high school, Leland Keyser, attending the infamous party where, she says, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her.
But Keyser, communicating with the Senate Judiciary Committee which had queried her about the incident, said through her attorney that she did not know Kavanaugh and had no recollection of attending a party where he was present.
“Simply put, Ms. Keyser does not know Mr. Kavanaugh and she has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present, with, or without, Dr. Ford,” said Howard Walsh, who said he has been “engaged in the limited capacity” of corresponding with the committee on behalf of Keyser.
Walsh’s email was in response to a missive from one of the lawyers for the GOP majority staff, which stated: “I understand that you have been identified as an individual who was in attendance at a party that occurred circa 1982 described in a recent Washington Post article.”
One of Ford’s attorneys, Debra Katz, claims this isn’t surprising:
Ford’s attorney Debra Katz dismissed the significance of the email because “she did not share her story publicly or with anyone for years following the incident with Judge Kavanaugh.”
“It’s not surprising that Ms. Keyser has no recollection of the evening as they did not discuss it. It’s also unremarkable that Ms. Keyser does not remember attending a specific gathering 30 years ago at which nothing of consequence happened to her. Dr. Ford of course will never forget this gathering because of what happened to her there,” Katz said.
No, it’s not surprising Keyser would remember a party from 30 years ago. But it points up the absurdity of trying to find a corroborating witness.
The Post story reported that Ford named two other teenagers at the party where the incident allegedly occurred, in addition to Mark Judge, who said he had “no memory” of the alleged assault more than 30 years ago.
Patrick J. Smyth said earlier this week that he has “no knowledge” of the party. He told the committee that he understands that “I have been identified by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford as the person she remembers as ‘PJ’ who supposedly was present at the party she described in her statements to the Washington Post.”
This doesn’t debunk Ford’s allegations. What it does is show how tricky memory is and how easy it is to misremember details of something that happened decades ago — even if the memory is a traumatic one.
The White House makes an obvious point:
In a statement released late Saturday, White House spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said: “One week ago, Dr. Christine Ford claimed she was assaulted at a house party attended by four others. Since then, all four of these individuals have provided statements to the Senate Judiciary Committee denying any knowledge of the incident or even having attended such a party,” according to a pool report.
The recklessness of Democrats — and their desperation to stop Kavanaugh — has led to several innocents being pulled into this media feeding frenzy with more to come. Unfortunately, the effort to destroy Kavanaugh now has its own momentum and the drama must be played out to its end — to the detriment of some who never asked to be thrown into the vortex of media scrutiny to begin with.
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