Washington Post columnist slammed for falsely claiming Kavanaugh hearing prosecutor worked for Sheriff Joe Arpaio
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin -- who claims to be a conservative -- is under fire for declaring that the woman selected by the “clueless old white guys” on the Senate Judiciary Committee to assist Republicans in questioning Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's accuser is “from Sheriff Joe's operation.”
Rachel Mitchell was hired to question both Kavanaugh and his accuser. She works in the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office in Phoenix as the chief of the Special Victims Division and deputy county attorney.
Mitchell is a highly decorated prosecutor, but Rubin only seems to care that she is from the same county as a divisive pro-Trump figure.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Only this crowd of clueless old white guys wold [sic] pick someone from Sheriff Joe's operation. I was saying no self-respecting lawyer would take the job of giving cover to GOP cowards. I was right,” Rubin tweeted.
Rubin was referring to controversial former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, an ally of President Trump who was sheriff of Maricopa County in Arizona from 1993 to 2016. The self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff in America,” was pardoned by Trump in August 2017 after he was found guilty of criminal contempt for denying a judge’s order to stop traffic patrols that allegedly targeted immigrants.
“The Maricopa County Attorney's Office is a completely separate agency than the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office,” Maricopa County Attorney Office spokesperson Amanda Steele told Fox News.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Senator Orrin Hatch took notice, saying Rubin was “maligning someone with patently false information.”
“Mitchell works for the Maricopa County Attorney, not Maricopa County Sheriff,” Hatch’s office wrote.
The Daily Caller called Rubin’s tweet “fake news."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Washington Post did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Mitchell works for the Maricopa County Attorney, not Maricopa County Sheriff. It’s simple,” one user responded to Rubin’s tweet.
Christine Blasey Ford, a California psychology professor, alleged Kavanaugh assaulted her while at a house party in the 1980s when they were both teenagers. She said he pinned her to a bed, attempted to forcibly remove her clothes and prevented her from screaming.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rubin’s misleading tweet had nearly 8,000 retweets and 25,000 likes before noon ET on Wednesday.
Rubin eventually sent a follow up-tweet.
“To be clear: The county atty represents the sheriff's office but she did not. She works in sex crimes division,” she wrote roughly 12 hours after the initial version.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Kavanaugh has vehemently denied the allegations and the GOP side of the Judiciary Committee – which is made up of 11 men – seemingly selected Mitchell to question Ford’s accusations to avoid an unwanted message on live television against the backdrop of the #MeToo era.
Fox News’ Nicole Darrah and Kaitlyn Schallhorn contributed to this report.