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Washington (CNN) - Donald Trump, president of the United States, called his Justice Department on Sunday to “rescue” Supreme Court judge Brett Kavanaugh after The New York Times published an excerpt from a new book detailing the accusations of inappropriate sexual behavior against Kavanaugh that he has previously denied.
The excerpt from “Brett Kavanaugh's education: an investigation,” written by reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, both of The New York Times, reviews a complaint filed during the Supreme Court justice confirmation process in 2018. That complaint by Deborah Ramírez accused Kavanaugh of exposing herself to her at a party when he was a freshman at Yale, according to a report published in The New Yorker. Kavanaugh has repeatedly denied the accusation.
The book reviews Ramírez's complaint and contains a new accusation, told to the authors, by a former male classmate who, according to sources, was presented to the FBI and the senators regarding an incident he witnessed. The authors said the FBI did not investigate this incident. CNN does not report any details related to the allegation because we have not independently verified it.
Trump tweeted this Sunday that Kavanaugh "should begin to sue people for defamation, or the Department of Justice should come to his rescue." (The president initially wrote the word "defamation" incorrectly before deleting the tweet and correcting the word in a later tweet.)
- Chronology of the accusations against Brett Kavanaugh
In nominating Kavanaugh, Trump seized a rare opportunity to solidify a conservative majority for a generation in the Supreme Court. The president and those who worked to get him where he is now expect to see if his calculation was correct, and to get an idea of how far and how fast the conservative majority will move.
The president's election to the Supreme Court faced accusations of inappropriate sexual behavior that threatened to make his confirmation fail in 2018.
Christine Blasey Ford, a California teacher and the first accuser to appear, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a party when they were both teenagers. He has also denied that accusation.
Trump at that time tried to discredit Ford and Ramirez, and said Kavanaugh was "under attack." He mocked and imitated Ford at a campaign rally, and accused the Democrats of planning "a scam game" against their Supreme Court candidate.
Throughout the dispute, conservatives strongly supported Kavanaugh, who was confirmed in October that he would occupy the seat of former Judge Anthony Kennedy after the fierce battle of approval and a vote in the Senate that culminated 50-48.
CNN's Ariane de Vogue contributed to this report
Brett Kavanaugh