CLOSE President Donald Trump says Democrats are playing a "con game" against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. (Sept. 25) AP 
 
 President Donald Trump arrives with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, right, and National Security Advisor John Bolton, left, at the United Nations on Sept. 24, 2018. (Photo: JUSTIN LANE, EPA-EFE) 
 
 NEW YORK – President Donald Trump unloaded on congressional Democrats Tuesday for playing a "con game" over his Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, and he used his strongest language yet to criticize those accusing him of sexual assault. 
 
 “The second accuser has nothing,” Trump said of Deborah Ramirez, who has accused Kavanaugh of exposing himself to her at a party when they were freshmen at Yale University. “She admits that she was drunk. She admits time lapses." 
 
 Trump made the remarks to reporters during a bilateral meeting with the president of Colombia, Iván Duque Márquez, at the United Nations General Assembly. He focused most of his ire on Democrats, who have urged a delay in the face of accusations from Ramirez and Christine Blasey Ford. 
 
 “They’re really con artists,” Trump said of Democrats. “They don’t believe it themselves. They’re playing a con game, and they play it very well.” 
 
 The Democrats are playing a high level CON GAME in their vicious effort to destroy a fine person. It is called the politics of destruction. Behind the scene the Dems are laughing. Pray for Brett Kavanaugh and his family! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 26, 2018 
 
 In a late-night tweet, Trump again blasted Democrats for what he called a "vicious effort to destroy a fine person" and asked for prayers for Kavanaugh and his family. 
 
 "The Democrats are playing a high level CON GAME in their vicious effort to destroy a fine person. It is called the politics of destruction. Behind the scene the Dems are laughing. Pray for Brett Kavanaugh and his family!" Trump wrote. 
 
 But Trump, who initially took a more cautious approach to Kavanaugh's accusers, has increasingly ramped up his criticism of them. Last week he questioned why Ford had not reported the allegations to authorities at the time. 
 
 On Tuesday, he took a more direct approach in questioning Ramirez's story. 
 
 "Now a new charge comes up and she says it may not be him and there are gaps. And she was totally inebriated and all messed up, and she doesn’t know," Trump said. "It might have been him, or it might have been him. 
 
 "Gee, let’s not make him a Supreme Court judge," Trump continued. "This is a con game being played by the Democrats." 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2QXWeag ||||| President Donald Trump answers a reporters question about Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh during a meeting with Colombian President Ivan Duque at the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday,... (Associated Press) 
 
 President Donald Trump answers a reporters question about Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh during a meeting with Colombian President Ivan Duque at the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, at U.N. Headquarters. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh (all times local): 
 
 7 p.m. 
 
 The attorney for Brett Kavanaugh's second accuser says his client wants to give a sworn statement to the FBI. 
 
 John Clune tweets that he's been trying to talk to Senate Judiciary Committee staffers about how Deborah Ramirez can swear to her account of sexual misconduct by President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee. Ramirez told The New Yorker that Kavanaugh exposed his genitals to her during a party at Yale 35 years ago. 
 
 "Ms. Ramirez is ready to swear to the FBI under penalty of perjury," Clune tweeted. "Why won't the Senate Judiciary Committee welcome that?" 
 
 __ 
 
 6:30 p.m. 
 
 The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a vote Friday on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. 
 
 The committee vote is being set for the day after Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford are to testify about her allegation he sexually assaulted her when they were teens. That public hearing is set for Thursday. 
 
 The committee scheduled the vote as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Tuesday he was moving forward with Kavanaugh's nomination. 
 
 Kavanaugh has denied Ford's claim and that of another woman who has come forward with an allegation from his time at Yale. 
 
 The committee will be voting on whether to recommend Kavanaugh's nomination to the full Senate. 
 
 Senators were told to be prepared for a rare weekend session and McConnell said he was confident Kavanugh would be confirmed. 
 
 __ 
 
 3:55 p.m. 
 
 Democratic Sen. Patty Murray says President Donald Trump is sending the wrong message by diminishing the account of a woman who's accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct while both were students at Yale. 
 
 Trump says Deborah Ramirez acknowledges being drunk and having gaps in her memory, casting doubt on her account. 
 
 Murray asked, "How many women have heard that before? How many women have kept their experiences quiet because they knew they would hear that?" 
 
 Kavanaugh has denied Ramirez's accusation. 
 
 The Washington state senator was elected in 1992, a year after explosive hearings involving then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Murray says Thomas's accuser, Anita Hill, was not treated fairly. 
 
 She says, "I have been very, very focused on making sure that this time around, 27 years later, this Senate acts appropriately." 
 
 ___ 
 
 2:45 p.m. 
 
 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he's confident Brett Kavanaugh will be confirmed to the Supreme Court. 
 
 McConnell told reporters Tuesday the Senate is "moving forward" on the nomination. 
 
 The GOP leader says he's "confident we're going win." 
 
 Pressed if he had the 50 votes needed for Kavanaugh amid sexual assault allegations from the judge's time as a teenager, the Kentucky Republican indicated he did. 
 
 McConnell says he's confident Kavanaugh "will be confirmed in the very near future." 
 
 The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to hear Thursday from Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused him of sexual assault from high school. The committee could vote Friday. 
 
 Senators may stay in session over the weekend to begin voting on the nominee, with a final vote possible early next week. 
 
 ____ 
 
 2:15 p.m. 
 
 Senate Republicans are considering a weekend session to begin the process of voting on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. 
 
 A final vote on Kavanaugh could come early next week, according to a GOP aide not authorized to discuss the plans on the record and who insisted on anonymity. 
 
 Kavanaugh is set to appear Thursday for a Judiciary Committee hearing with Christine Blasey Ford, who accuses him of sexual assault when they were teens. Kavanaugh denies the allegation. 
 
 After the hearing, the Judiciary panel could vote as soon as Friday on whether to recommend Kavanaugh's confirmation to the full Senate. Then the Senate could take up the nomination over the weekend. Senators are being told to keep their schedules open. 
 
 Republicans worry that prolonging the process for Kavanaugh would open him to more rumors and accusations about his past, which they say are being orchestrated by Democrats. 
 
 —Lisa Mascaro 
 
 __ 
 
 12:20 p.m. 
 
 Republicans have hired a female attorney to handle questioning during this week's hearing with Christine Blasey Ford and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. 
 
 The attorney's name has not been released. The hire was confirmed by a GOP aide to the Senate Judiciary Committee who was not authorized to speak publicly. 
 
 Ford's lawyers have objected to Republicans hiring someone they call an "experienced sex crimes prosecutor." They say the move is inconsistent with the GOP pledge to avoid a "circus." 
 
 Attorney Michael R. Bromwich asked Republicans for the name of the attorney and the opportunity to meet with her before Thursday's hearing. 
 
 Republicans want a woman to conduct their questioning of Ford, who accuses Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teens. Kavanaugh denies the allegation. 
 
 All 11 Republicans on the Senate panel are men. 
 
 —Lisa Mascaro 
 
 ___ 
 
 12: 15 p.m. 
 
 The attorney for the second woman accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct says she wants an FBI investigation. 
 
 Attorney John Clune tweeted that he is in contact with the Senate Judiciary Committee. He said: "We remain adamant that an FBI investigation, where all witnesses are questioned under threat of perjury, is the only way to get the truth." 
 
 Clune said his client, Deborah Ramirez, stands by her account of drunken wrongdoing by Kavanaugh that she told to The New Yorker. The account was published Sunday. 
 
 Ramirez alleges that while in his first year at Yale University, Kavanaugh put his genitals in her face after a drinking game. Kavanaugh denies the accusation. 
 
 ___ 
 
 12:10 p.m. 
 
 President Donald Trump says Democrats are playing a "con game" against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. 
 
 Trump is seeking to cast doubt on sexual misconduct allegations lodged against Kavanaugh by a Yale classmate, Deborah Ramirez, who made her claims in an article published in The New Yorker magazine. 
 
 Trump says Ramirez says it might not have been Kavanaugh and there were gaps in her memory. He says she says "she was totally inebriated and all messed up." 
 
 Trump says: "This is a con game being played by the Democrats." 
 
 Kavanaugh is set to testify Thursday at a public hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers, is also expected to testify. 
 
 ___ 
 
 11:18 a.m. 
 
 A key Republican senator is indicating she believes there should be a new FBI investigation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh after allegations of sexual misconduct. 
 
 Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski is one of a handful of Senate Republicans undecided on Kavanaugh's confirmation. When asked Tuesday if there should be a full FBI investigation about the claims, she said: "Well, it would sure clear up all the questions, wouldn't it?" 
 
 President Donald Trump and most Senate Republicans have said an FBI investigation isn't needed. Kavanaugh and his initial accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, will testify Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Ford says he sexually assaulted her when both were teenagers. 
 
 A second woman told the New Yorker magazine that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her in college. Kavanaugh denies both claims. 
 
 ____ 
 
 11 a.m. 
 
 The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, says Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell owes Christine Blasey Ford an apology for calling her allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh a smear job. 
 
 Schumer says "he should apologize to her immediately." 
 
 Two women have accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct decades ago. He has denied sexually assaulting anyone. 
 
 Schumer, the minority leader, also says it is galling that McConnell is making charges of partisanship by Democrats. He says McConnell has done more than maybe anyone else to politicize the Supreme Court nomination process. 
 
 Schumer says that if McConnell truly believed the allegations were a partisan attack, he would join Democrats in calling for a background investigation. 
 
 Schumer says "I think they're afraid of the facts." 
 
 __ 
 
 10:35 a.m. 
 
 The Senate's top Republican says unconfirmed, decades-old allegations of sexual misconduct by Brett Kavanaugh are no reason to block his Supreme Court nomination. 
 
 Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says such charges are "nowhere near" a reason to "nullify someone's career." He says in the United States, accused people are supposed to be treated with fairness and a presumption of innocence. 
 
 McConnell's emphasis on fairness comes as Republican leaders have ramped up efforts to solidify support for Kavanaugh among GOP senators. 
 
 Christine Blasey Ford has accused Kavanaugh of molesting her during an early 1980s high school party. Deborah Ramirez has said Kavanaugh forced her to touch his penis during a Yale dormitory party when both were freshmen. Kavanaugh has denied both allegations. 
 
 McConnell says the Senate will vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation soon. 
 
 __ 
 
 7:25 a.m. 
 
 White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says "we would be open" to Deborah Ramirez, a second woman accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, testify before the Senate Judiciary panel this week. 
 
 Sanders says that "process could take place on Thursday," when Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who has separately accused him of assaulting her in high school, are scheduled to testify. 
 
 She says President Donald Trump "has said a number of times these individuals should be heard." At the same time, she noted that Kavanaugh has been "unequivocal in his denial" of sexual assault allegations. She adds, "This is a country where you're innocent until proven guilty except when you're a conservative Republican." 
 
 Republicans have accused Democrats of a smear campaign by using the women's accusations of misconduct by Kavanaugh in high school and college to try to defeat his nomination. 
 
 __ 
 
 12:40 a.m. 
 
 Brett Kavanaugh says he won't let "false accusations" drive him from his quest to win Senate confirmation to the Supreme Court. That's part of an aggressive drive by President Donald Trump and top Republicans to rally the public and GOP senators behind Kavanaugh's teetering nomination. 
 
 Trump and Republican leaders are accusing Democrats of a smear campaign by using accusations by two women of sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh in the 1980s to try scuttling his Senate confirmation. 
 
 There were no immediate indications that the emergence of a second accuser had fatally wounded Kavanaugh's prospects. But Republicans tried projecting unflinching support for Kavanaugh that included the nominee taking the unusual step of defending himself in a television interview. 
 
 Kavanaugh said Monday on Fox News Channel, "I've never sexually assaulted anyone." ||||| President Trump attacked one of the women who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct in harsh and stark language Tuesday, as senators escalated their partisan warfare over his confirmation ahead of a highly anticipated hearing. 
 
 After his speech at the United Nations, Trump took aim at Deborah Ramirez, a classmate of Kavanaugh’s at Yale University and the second woman to accuse the nominee. She told the New Yorker magazine that he exposed himself to her at a party when they were both first-year students. Dismissing Ramirez’s account because she was “totally inebriated and all messed up,” Trump also accused Democrats of playing a “con game” in an attempt to derail his Supreme Court choice. 
 
 “The second accuser has nothing,” Trump told reporters. “The second accuser thinks maybe it could have been him, maybe not. She admits she was drunk. She admits time lapses.” 
 
 The president dismissed the notion that the allegation could be disqualifying, saying sarcastically: “Oh, gee, let’s not make him a Supreme Court judge because of that.” 
 
 Trump’s charged rhetoric against his nominee’s accusers came as Republicans quickly closed ranks around Kavanaugh, even as a handful of pivotal swing votes remained quiet on whether they would ultimately support his confirmation in the coming days. 
 
 The high court begins its new term Monday, and Republicans are under intense political pressure from conservatives to confirm Kavanaugh amid warnings that failure could cost the GOP in November’s midterm elections. 
 
 
 
 Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh has strongly denied accusations from two women of sexual misconduct. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) 
 
 Late Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee sent out a notice scheduling a 9:30 a.m. committee vote Friday in the case “that a majority of the members are prepared” to vote then. The full Senate could vote next Tuesday. 
 
 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was defiant, speaking confidently about Kavanaugh’s prospects, assailing Democrats and casting the nominee as a victim of “the weaponization of unsubstantiated smears.” 
 
 “We’re going to be moving forward. I’m confident we’re going to win,” McConnell told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “He will be confirmed in the very near future.” 
 
 And asked Tuesday whether he could envision any scenario in which the White House withdraws Kavanaugh’s nomination, principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah said on MSNBC: “Absolutely not.” 
 
 Looking ahead to Thursday’s hearing, Republicans hired a female lawyer from outside the panel to lead the questioning as the GOP faced the politically tough optics of the all-male Republican lineup questioning an accuser. 
 
 “We have hired a female assistant to go on staff and to ask these questions in a respectful and professional way,” said McConnell. 
 
 The committee’s chairman, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), confirmed in a statement late Tuesday that it had hired Arizona prosecutor Rachel Mitchell to do the questioning, shortly after The Post first reported the decision. A registered Republican, Mitchell is the sex crimes bureau chief for the Maricopa County attorney’s office in Phoenix, where she has worked for 26 years. 
 
 “I’m very appreciative that Rachel Mitchell has stepped forward to serve in this important and serious role,” Grassley said. “Ms. Mitchell has been recognized in the legal community for her experience and objectivity.” 
 
 Kavanaugh has vehemently denied the allegation from Ramirez, as well as the accusation from Christine Blasey Ford, who told The Washington Post that he sexually assaulted her when they were high school students in Maryland. Top panel staffers held a call with Kavanaugh earlier Tuesday to interview him about the allegation outlined in the New Yorker. As he has done publicly, he again denied the allegation in the staff interview, a panel spokesman said. 
 
 Unlike a previous staff interview, Democratic aides listened in on the Tuesday afternoon call, another person briefed on the conversation said. But the Democrats — who have called for the FBI to reopen its background investigation of Kavanaugh — made their objections to the process clear and subsequently refused to ask the judge questions, the person said. 
 
 One of the biggest points of contention remained the outside counsel who would question Ford and Kavanaugh. Republicans sought to avoid a repeat of 1991, when an all-male panel’s questioning of Anita Hill about her allegations of sexual impropriety against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas angered female voters, who elected dozens of women in November 1992. Thomas was confirmed to the court. 
 
 All 11 Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are men (as are six of the 10 Democrats). 
 
 “We’ve done it because we want to depoliticize the whole process, like the Democrats politicized the Anita Hill thing,” said Grassley, who was on the panel in 1991. “The whole point is to create an environment where it’s what Dr. Ford has asked for, to be professional and to not be a circus.” 
 
 Senate Democrats plan to ask questions of Kavanaugh and Ford, and the Democratic panel members met midday Tuesday to strategize about the hearing. 
 
 “It’s up to them,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), the top Democrat on the committee, said of Republicans’ plan to use an outside lawyer. “It’s certainly their right to do that, and we’ll see how it goes. I’ve been on the committee for 24 years, and I’ve never seen it before. But we’ll see.” 
 
 Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) pushed back at McConnell and Senate Republicans in unusually personal terms, criticizing him for a promise last week to “plow right through” the proceedings despite the drama over the accusers. “Does that sound like someone who’s treating these allegations with respect and fairness and evenhandedness?” Schumer asked. “Does that sound like someone who wants to get the real facts no matter where they fall? Certainly not to me. Not to the American people.” 
 
 Ford has alleged that Kavanaugh drunkenly pinned her to a bed, groped her and put his hand over her mouth to stifle her screams as he tried to take off her clothes at a house party in the early 1980s. Kavanaugh has denied being at the party. 
 
 Meanwhile, the committee continued its outreach to Ramirez. Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.) said Republicans had been rebuffed after trying to contact her lawyer, and a committee spokesman said it has not received a statement or additional evidence from her legal team after requesting them. 
 
 White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday that while the White House is open to testimony from Ramirez, she stressed that the confirmation process needs to come to a close. 
 
 The New Yorker reported Sunday that in Ramirez’s initial conversations with the publication, “she was reluctant to characterize Kavanaugh’s role in the alleged incident with certainty.” 
 
 But “after six days of carefully assessing her memories and consulting with her attorney, Ramirez said that she felt confident enough of her recollections to say that she remembers Kavanaugh had exposed himself at a drunken dormitory party, thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away,” the magazine said. 
 
 Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) remained quiet about her intentions but stressed that the Thursday hearing should continue — even while the senator called for Ramirez to speak to the Judiciary Committee under oath. 
 
 Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), another potential swing vote, said it was hard to assess Ramirez’s credibility at this point. 
 
 “If there are allegations out there, then Ms. Ramirez needs to be willing to come forward with them, just as Dr. Ford has been willing to come forward, albeit reluctantly and understandably so,” Murkowski said. “And so in order for us to take them under consideration, she needs to take the next steps.” 
 
 Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said Ramirez’s accusations seem “pretty thinly sourced.” As to whether they should be explored, he said he will leave that to the Judiciary Committee. “Whatever they decide is fine with me,” Corker said. 
 
 By the time the panel holds its hearing Thursday, there could be a third Kavanaugh accuser. 
 
 Lawyer Michael Avenatti has said he is representing a woman who has accusations about Kavanaugh’s behavior in high school. In a Tuesday tweet, Avenatti said the woman would come forward only when she is ready but said he expects that to be within 36 hours. 
 
 At their regular Tuesday party lunch, Republicans were told to be prepared to be in Washington this weekend to process Kavanaugh’s nomination, senators said. 
 
 Meanwhile, another misconduct allegation threatened to play out Thursday on the other side of Capitol Hill. The House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday invited a woman who has accused Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt, a former Democratic congressman, of sexual harassment and retaliation. 
 
 Gabriel Pogrund, Josh Dawsey, Rosalind S. Helderman, Karoun Demirjian and Mike DeBonis contributed to this report. ||||| As Senate Republicans press for a swift vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Senate Democrats are investigating a new allegation of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh. The claim dates to the 1983-84 academic school year, when Kavanaugh was a freshman at Yale University. The offices of at least four Democratic senators have received information about the allegation, and at least two have begun investigating it. Senior Republican staffers also learned of the allegation last week and, in conversations with The New Yorker, expressed concern about its potential impact on Kavanaugh’s nomination. Soon after, Senate Republicans issued renewed calls to accelerate the timing of a committee vote. The Democratic Senate offices reviewing the allegations believe that they merit further investigation. “This is another serious, credible, and disturbing allegation against Brett Kavanaugh. It should be fully investigated,” Senator Mazie Hirono, of Hawaii, said. An aide in one of the other Senate offices added, “These allegations seem credible, and we’re taking them very seriously. If established, they’re clearly disqualifying.” 
 
 The woman at the center of the story, Deborah Ramirez, who is fifty-three, attended Yale with Kavanaugh, where she studied sociology and psychology. Later, she spent years working for an organization that supports victims of domestic violence. The New Yorker contacted Ramirez after learning of her possible involvement in an incident involving Kavanaugh. The allegation was conveyed to Democratic senators by a civil-rights lawyer. For Ramirez, the sudden attention has been unwelcome, and prompted difficult choices. She was at first hesitant to speak publicly, partly because her memories contained gaps because she had been drinking at the time of the alleged incident. In her initial conversations with The New Yorker, she was reluctant to characterize Kavanaugh’s role in the alleged incident with certainty. After six days of carefully assessing her memories and consulting with her attorney, Ramirez said that she felt confident enough of her recollections to say that she remembers Kavanaugh had exposed himself at a drunken dormitory party, thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away. Ramirez is now calling for the F.B.I. to investigate Kavanaugh’s role in the incident. “I would think an F.B.I. investigation would be warranted,” she said. 
 
 In a statement, Kavanaugh wrote, “This alleged event from 35 years ago did not happen. The people who knew me then know that this did not happen, and have said so. This is a smear, plain and simple. I look forward to testifying on Thursday about the truth, and defending my good name—and the reputation for character and integrity I have spent a lifetime building—against these last-minute allegations.” 
 
 The White House spokesperson Kerri Kupec said the Administration stood by Kavanaugh. “This 35-year-old, uncorroborated claim is the latest in a coordinated smear campaign by the Democrats designed to tear down a good man. This claim is denied by all who were said to be present and is wholly inconsistent with what many women and men who knew Judge Kavanaugh at the time in college say. The White House stands firmly behind Judge Kavanaugh.” 
 
 Ramirez said that, when both she and Kavanaugh were freshmen at Yale, she was invited by a friend on the women’s soccer team to a dorm-room party. She recalled that the party took place in a suite at Lawrance Hall, in the part of Yale known as Old Campus, and that a small group of students decided to play a drinking game together. “We were sitting in a circle,” she said. “People would pick who drank.” Ramirez was chosen repeatedly, she said, and quickly became inebriated. At one point, she said, a male student pointed a gag plastic penis in her direction. Later, she said, she was on the floor, foggy and slurring her words, as that male student and another stood nearby. (Ramirez identified the two male onlookers, but, at her request, The New Yorker is not naming them.) 
 
 A third male student then exposed himself to her. “I remember a penis being in front of my face,” she said. “I knew that’s not what I wanted, even in that state of mind.” She recalled remarking, “That’s not a real penis,” and the other students laughing at her confusion and taunting her, one encouraging her to “kiss it.” She said that she pushed the person away, touching it in the process. Ramirez, who was raised a devout Catholic, in Connecticut, said that she was shaken. “I wasn’t going to touch a penis until I was married,” she said. “I was embarrassed and ashamed and humiliated.” She remembers Kavanaugh standing to her right and laughing, pulling up his pants. “Brett was laughing,” she said. “I can still see his face, and his hips coming forward, like when you pull up your pants.” She recalled another male student shouting about the incident. “Somebody yelled down the hall, ‘Brett Kavanaugh just put his penis in Debbie’s face,’ ” she said. “It was his full name. I don’t think it was just ‘Brett.’ And I remember hearing and being mortified that this was out there.” 
 
 Ramirez acknowledged that there are significant gaps in her memories of the evening, and that, if she ever presents her story to the F.B.I. or members of the Senate, she will inevitably be pressed on her motivation for coming forward after so many years, and questioned about her memory, given her drinking at the party. 
 
 And yet, after several days of considering the matter carefully, she said, “I’m confident about the pants coming up, and I’m confident about Brett being there.” Ramirez said that what has stayed with her most forcefully is the memory of laughter at her expense from Kavanaugh and the other students. “It was kind of a joke,” she recalled. “And now it’s clear to me it wasn’t a joke.” 
 
 By his freshman year, Kavanaugh was eighteen, and legally an adult. During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kavanaugh swore under oath that as a legal adult he had never “committed any verbal or physical harassment or assault of a sexual nature.” 
 
 The New Yorker has not confirmed with other eyewitnesses that Kavanaugh was present at the party. The magazine contacted several dozen classmates of Ramirez and Kavanaugh regarding the incident. Many did not respond to interview requests; others declined to comment, or said they did not attend or remember the party. A classmate of Ramirez’s, who declined to be identified because of the partisan battle over Kavanaugh’s nomination, said that another student told him about the incident either on the night of the party or in the next day or two. The classmate said that he is “one-hundred-per-cent sure” that he was told at the time that Kavanaugh was the student who exposed himself to Ramirez. He independently recalled many of the same details offered by Ramirez, including that a male student had encouraged Kavanaugh as he exposed himself. The classmate, like Ramirez, recalled that the party took place in a common room on the first floor in Entryway B of Lawrance Hall, during their freshman year. “I’ve known this all along,” he said. “It’s been on my mind all these years when his name came up. It was a big deal.” The story stayed with him, he said, because it was disturbing and seemed outside the bounds of typically acceptable behavior, even during heavy drinking at parties on campus. The classmate said that he had been shocked, but not necessarily surprised, because the social group to which Kavanaugh belonged often drank to excess. He recalled Kavanaugh as “relatively shy” until he drank, at which point he said that Kavanaugh could become “aggressive and even belligerent.” 
 
 Another classmate, Richard Oh, an emergency-room doctor in California, recalled overhearing, soon after the party, a female student tearfully recounting to another student an incident at a party involving a gag with a fake penis, followed by a male student exposing himself. Oh is not certain of the identity of the female student. Ramirez told her mother and sister about an upsetting incident at the time, but did not describe the details to either due to her embarrassment. 
 
 Mark Krasberg, an assistant professor of neurosurgery at the University of New Mexico who was also a member of Kavanaugh and Ramirez’s class at Yale, said Kavanaugh’s college behavior had become a topic of discussion among former Yale students soon after Kavanaugh’s nomination. In one e-mail that Krasberg received in September, the classmate who recalled hearing about the incident with Ramirez alluded to the allegation and wrote that it “would qualify as a sexual assault,” he speculated, “if it’s true.” 
 
 One of the male classmates who Ramirez said egged on Kavanaugh denied any memory of the party. “I don’t think Brett would flash himself to Debbie, or anyone, for that matter,” he said. Asked why he thought Ramirez was making the allegation, he responded, “I have no idea.” The other male classmate who Ramirez said was involved in the incident commented, “I have zero recollection.” 
 
 In a statement, two of those male classmates who Ramirez alleged were involved in the incident, the wife of a third male student she said was involved, and one other classmate, Dan Murphy, disputed Ramirez’s account of events: “We were the people closest to Brett Kavanaugh during his first year at Yale. He was a roommate to some of us, and we spent a great deal of time with him, including in the dorm where this incident allegedly took place. Some of us were also friends with Debbie Ramirez during and after her time at Yale. We can say with confidence that if the incident Debbie alleges ever occurred, we would have seen or heard about it—and we did not. The behavior she describes would be completely out of character for Brett. In addition, some of us knew Debbie long after Yale, and she never described this incident until Brett’s Supreme Court nomination was pending. Editors from the New Yorker contacted some of us because we are the people who would know the truth, and we told them that we never saw or heard about this.” 
 
 (Two students who initially signed the statement, Louisa Garry and Dino Ewing, approached The New Yorker after the publication of this article and asked that their names be removed from it. “I never saw or heard anything like this,” Garry said. “But I cannot dispute Ramirez’s allegations, as I was not present.” Ewing also said he had no direct knowledge of the allegation and considered it out of character for Kavanaugh, but emphasized, “I also was not present and therefore am not in a position to directly dispute Ramirez’s account.”) 
 
 The former friend who was married to the male classmate alleged to be involved, and who signed the statement, said of Ramirez, “This is a woman I was best friends with. We shared intimate details of our lives. And I was never told this story by her, or by anyone else. It never came up. I didn’t see it; I never heard of it happening.” She said she hadn’t spoken with Ramirez for about ten years, but that the two women had been close all through college, and Kavanaugh had remained part of what she called their “larger social circle.” In an initial conversation with The New Yorker, she suggested that Ramirez may have been politically motivated. Later, she said that she did not know if this was the case. 
 
 Ramirez is a registered Democrat, but said that her decision to speak out was not politically motivated and, regarding her views, that she “works toward human rights, social justice, and social change.” Ramirez said that she felt “disappointed and betrayed” by the statements from classmates questioning her allegation, “because I clearly remember people in the room whose names are on this letter.” 
 
 Several other classmates said that they believed Ramirez to be credible and honest, and vouched for her integrity. James Roche was roommates with Kavanaugh at the time of the alleged incident and is now the C.E.O. of a software company in San Francisco. “Debbie and I became close friends shortly after we both arrived at Yale,” he said. “She stood out as being exceptionally honest and gentle. I cannot imagine her making this up.” He said that he never witnessed Kavanaugh engage in any sexual misconduct, but did recall him being “frequently, incoherently drunk.” He described Ramirez as a vulnerable outsider. “Is it believable that she was alone with a wolfy group of guys who thought it was funny to sexually torment a girl like Debbie? Yeah, definitely. Is it believable that Kavanaugh was one of them? Yes.” Another acquaintance from college, Jennifer Klaus, similarly said that she considered the allegation plausible, adding, “Debbie’s always been a very truthful, kind—almost to the point of being selfless—individual.” A third classmate, who Ramirez thought had attended the party, said that she was not present at the incident. The former student, who asked not to be named, said that she also found Ramirez credible. 
 
 Former students described an atmosphere at Yale at the time in which alcohol-fuelled parties often led to behavior similar to that described by Ramirez. “I believe it could have happened,” another classmate who knew both Kavanaugh and Ramirez said. Though she was not aware of Kavanaugh being involved in any specific misconduct, she recalled that heavy drinking was routine and that Ramirez was sometimes victimized and taunted by male students in his social circle. “They were always, like, ‘Debbie’s here!,’ and then they’d get into their ‘Lord of the Flies’ thing,” she said. While at Yale, Kavanaugh became a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, or “DKE,” which several students said was known for its wild and, in the view of some critics, misogynistic parties. Kavanaugh was also a member of an all-male secret society, Truth and Courage, which was popularly known by the nickname “Tit and Clit.” 
 
 Ramirez said that she continued to socialize with one of the male classmates who had egged Kavanaugh on during the party during college; she even invited the classmate to her house for Thanksgiving one year, after he told her that he had nowhere to go. She also attended his wedding, years later, as a guest of his wife, and said that she posed for photographs with Kavanaugh, smiling. 
 
 Ramirez said that she remained silent about the matter and did not fully confront her memories about it for years because she blamed herself for drinking too much. “It was a story that was known, but it was a story I was embarrassed about,” she said. More recently, she has begun to reassess what happened. “Even if I did drink too much, any person observing it, would they want their daughter, their granddaughter, with a penis in their face, while they’re drinking that much?” she said. “I can say that at fifty-three, but when I was nineteen or twenty I was vulnerable. I didn’t know better.” Reflecting on the incident now, she said she considers Kavanaugh’s male classmates culpable. “They’re accountable for not stopping this,” she said. However, “What Brett did is worse.” She added, “What does it mean, that this person has a role in defining women’s rights in our future?” 
 
 As Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings became a national story, the discussions among Ramirez and Kavanaugh’s classmates took on heightened urgency, eventually spreading to news organizations and to the Senate. Senate aides from Ramirez’s home state of Colorado alerted a lawyer, Stanley Garnett, a former Democratic district attorney in Boulder, who currently represents her. Ramirez ultimately decided to begin telling her story publicly, before others did so for her. “I didn’t want any of this,” she said. “But now I have to speak.” 
 
 Ramirez said that she hoped her story would support that of Christine Blasey Ford, the California professor who has raised an allegation of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh that bears several similarities to Ramirez’s claim. Like Ramirez, Ford said that Kavanaugh was involved in sexual misconduct at a party while drunk and egged on by a male friend. In July, she sent a letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein alleging that, at a party in the summer of 1982, when she was fifteen and Kavanaugh was seventeen and in high school, Kavanaugh pushed her into a bedroom, locked the door, pinned her to a bed, and covered her mouth to stop her screams as he attempted to pull off her clothes. Details of Ford’s allegation were initially made public by The New Yorker, which did not name her at the time. Subsequently, she disclosed her name in an interview with the Washington Post. In her letter, Ford said that during the incident she feared that Kavanaugh might inadvertently kill her. She alleged that a male friend and Georgetown Prep classmate of Kavanaugh’s, Mark Judge, was present in the room, alternately urging Kavanaugh to “go for it” and to “stop.” Kavanaugh has denied the allegation. 
 
 Ford’s allegation has made Judge a potentially pivotal witness for Kavanaugh. Judge told The New Yorker that he had “no recollection” of such an incident. Judge, who is a conservative writer, later gave an interview to The Weekly Standard in which he called Ford’s allegation “just absolutely nuts,” adding, “I never saw Brett act that way.” Asked by the interviewer whether he could remember any “sort of rough-housing with a female student back in high school” that might have been “interpreted differently by parties involved,” Judge told the publication, “I can’t. I can recall a lot of rough-housing with guys.” He added, “I don’t remember any of that stuff going on with girls.” 
 
 After seeing Judge’s denial, Elizabeth Rasor, who met Judge at Catholic University and was in a relationship with him for about three years, said that she felt morally obligated to challenge his account that “ ‘no horseplay’ took place at Georgetown Prep with women.” Rasor stressed that “under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t reveal information that was told in confidence,” but, she said, “I can’t stand by and watch him lie.” In an interview with The New Yorker, she said, “Mark told me a very different story.” Rasor recalled that Judge had told her ashamedly of an incident that involved him and other boys taking turns having sex with a drunk woman. Rasor said that Judge seemed to regard it as fully consensual. She said that Judge did not name others involved in the incident, and she has no knowledge that Kavanaugh participated. But Rasor was disturbed by the story and noted that it undercut Judge’s protestations about the sexual innocence of Georgetown Prep. (Barbara Van Gelder, an attorney for Judge, said that he “categorically denies” the account related by Rasor. Van Gelder said that Judge had no further comment.) 
 
 Another woman who attended high school in the nineteen-eighties in Montgomery County, Maryland, where Georgetown Prep is located, also refuted Judge’s account of the social scene at the time, sending a letter to Ford’s lawyers saying that she had witnessed boys at parties that included Georgetown Prep students engaging in sexual misconduct. In an interview, the woman, who asked to have her name withheld for fear of political retribution, recalled that male students “would get a female student blind drunk” on what they called “jungle juice”—grain alcohol mixed with Hawaiian Punch—then try to take advantage of her. “It was disgusting,” she said. “They treated women like meat.” 
 
 Kavanaugh’s attitude toward women has come to play a central role in his confirmation process. His backers have offered portrayals of his strong support for girls and women. When Kavanaugh accepted Trump’s nomination to the Court at a White House event in July, he and Trump both stressed that he had numerous female law clerks, and that he coached his young daughters’ school basketball teams. During his Senate confirmation hearings, Kavanaugh at one point ushered into the Senate hearing room a large group of school girls whose basketball games he had coached, showcasing his warm and supportive relationships with women. Earlier this month, on the same day The New Yorker reported details of Ford’s allegation, Republicans on the Judiciary Committee released a letter from sixty-five women defending the nominee. On Monday, CNN reported that the White House has been contacting many of those women again, hoping to present their perspective to the media, perhaps as part of a group news conference. 
 
 The very different portrayals of Kavanaugh and his social scene offered by Ford, and now Ramirez, come at a crucial point in the confirmation process. On Friday, the Republican Senator Charles Grassley, of Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued a public ultimatum to Ford, announcing that he would schedule the committee’s vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation for Monday morning if she did not respond to an invitation to testify by a deadline, set first for Friday night and then for Saturday afternoon. Lawyers for Ford had pushed back, demanding an outside investigation of Ford’s allegation by the F.B.I. before she offered testimony, and said that she needed additional time to prepare. The White House and F.B.I. have declined to pursue that F.B.I. investigation, though Grassley has stated that his office has conducted its own inquiries into the matter. On Sunday, Ford’s lawyer and the committee reached an agreement for her to testify on Thursday. 
 
 In a statement, Kavanaugh’s attorneys Beth Wilkinson and Alexandra Walsh wrote, “Judge Kavanaugh fully and honestly answered the Judiciary Committee’s questions over multiple days only to have unsubstantiated allegations come out when a vote on his confirmation was imminent. What matters in situations like these are facts and evidence.” Like Kavanaugh, they said that, on Thursday, “testimony and evidence will confirm what Judge Kavanaugh has made clear all along—that he did not commit the sexual assault Dr. Blasey Ford describes.” 
 
 The issue has proved to be politically delicate for the White House. Last week, Vanity Fair reported that White House officials were concerned about additional allegations against Kavanaugh emerging, and cited a source who claimed that Ivanka Trump, the President’s daughter and adviser, had urged him to withdraw Kavanaugh’s nomination. Trump has defended Kavanaugh in the wake of Ford’s allegations. In a series of tweets on Friday, he sought to undermine her account of events, writing, “I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents.” He described Kavanaugh as “a fine man,” who he wrote was “under assault by radical left wing politicians.” 
 
 Ramirez said that witnessing the attempts to discredit Ford had made her frightened to share her own story, which she knew would be attacked due to the gaps in her memory and her level of inebriation at the time. “I’m afraid how this will all come back on me,” she said. Her attorney, Garnett, said that he and Ramirez had not yet decided when and how she would convey the details of her allegation to the Senate Judiciary Committee and whether new counsel would represent her in Washington. “We’re carefully evaluating what the appropriate next steps would be,” he said. They both said that an F.B.I. investigation of the matter was merited. “I do believe an F.B.I. investigation of this kind of character-related information would be appropriate, and would be an effective way to relay the information to the committee,” Garnett said. Of Ramirez, he added, “She’s as careful and credible a witness as I’ve encountered in thirty-six years of practicing law.” Ramirez said that she hoped an investigation could be carried out before the committee voted on Kavanaugh’s nomination. “At least look at it,” she said of her claim. “At least check it out.” 
 
 This story was updated with comments from two former classmates of Kavanaugh, Louisa Garry and Dino Ewing, who initially signed a statement of support for Kavanaugh provided by his attorneys. They approached The New Yorker after this story was published and asked that their names be removed from the statement, saying that they did not wish to dispute Ramirez’s claims.
– President Trump amped up the rhetoric Tuesday by calling Democrats "con artists" and saying Brett Kavanaugh's second accuser "has nothing" on the Supreme Court nominee, USA Today reports. "She admits that she was drunk," says Trump of Deborah Ramirez, who accuses Kavanaugh of exposing himself to her at a drunken dormitory party years ago. "She admits time lapses." Talking Points Memo notes that Trump was at UN headquarters in New York with the president of Colombia, Ivan Marquez, when he said, "As the president of a great country, Colombia, you must say, 'How is this possible?' Thirty-six years ago and nobody ever knew about it, nobody ever heard about it?” "And now a new charge comes up and she said, well, it might not be him, and there were gaps, and she said she was totally inebriated and she was all messed up and she doesn’t know it was him, but it might have been him?" adds Trump. "Oh gee, let’s not make him a Supreme Court judge because of that?" Of the Democrats, he says: "They’re really con artists. They don’t believe it themselves. They're playing a con game, and they play it very well." Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Ramirez could testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday—the same day Christine Ford plans to speak—and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican who remains undecided on Kavanaugh, suggests she supports a full FBI investigation, per the AP.