Grassley rebukes Dem Sen. Coons for sending ‘tabloid’ Kavanaugh allegations

close

Video

Sen. Grassley scolds staffer: Speak plainly with me please

Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Chuck Grassley reacts to confusion over documents.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has rebuked Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., after Coons submitted new allegations to Grassley involving Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Grassley, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, said the allegations had "all the makings of a tabloid headline" and deserved "unqualified condemnation."

The accuser claims to have hosted a party in the late 1980s, during a time when Kavanaugh would've been in his first year at Yale, and claims that the party had "salacious behavior." The accuser claims that the party, which he hosted, had a local prostitute come and perform a public sex act to a "semi-circle of cheering frat brothers."

The accuser, according to Grassley, "freely admits" to not having any evidence that Kavanaugh was present at the party, writing in his original letter that he couldn't "say for certain that Judge Kavanaugh was present in the frat house during the event." The accuser provided "investigative advice" in the form of recommending investigators comb through Kavanaugh's submitted calendars, which Grassley noted that Democrats had "dismissed and derided."

The Iowa Republican said in the letter to Coons that he has taken every allegation "seriously and dedicated significant resources" to every lead, but wrote that he was disappointed in Coons forwarding the allegations.

"All he alleges is that he once witnessed a salacious party at a house owned by Judge Kavanaugh's undergraduate fraternity," Grassley wrote. "He proposes that someone search Judge Kavanaugh's calendars ... to determine whether he attended a fraternity party at some point in 1987 or 1988. And that's it."

Click for more from Washington Examiner.