Ryan Grim of The Intercept recently wrote this report on the fact U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is refusing to release a letter, for whatever reason, that may implicate Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump’s appointee to the U.S. Supreme Court seat that was vacated by Anthony Kennedy, in a sexual misconduct scandal. It is important to note that, as of this writing, what is contained in the letter in question is not publicly known, and, due to the fact that the contents of the letter in question are unknown, this piece should not be interpreted as an accusation of sexual misconduct against Kavanuagh.
Here is how the letter ended up in Feinstein’s control:
The letter took a circuitous route to Feinstein, the top-ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. It purportedly describes an incident that was relayed to someone affiliated with Stanford University, who authored the letter and sent it to Rep. Anna Eshoo, a Democrat who represents the area.
Different sources provided different accounts of the contents of the letter, and some of the sources said they themselves had heard different versions, but the one consistent theme was that it describes an incident involving Kavanaugh and a woman while they were in high school. Kept hidden, the letter is beginning to take on a life of its own.
Eshoo passed the letter to her fellow Californian, Feinstein. Word began leaking out on the Hill about it, and Feinstein was approached by Democrats on the committee, but she rebuffed them, Democratic sources said. Feinstein’s fellow senators want their own opportunity to gauge whether or not the letter should be made public, rather than leaving it to Feinstein to make that call unilaterally. The sources were not authorized to speak on the record, and said that no senators on the committee, other than Feinstein, have so far been able to view the letter.
While the contents of the letter are not publicly known at this time, it appears that there may have been an act of sexual misconduct that was committed by Kavanaugh against an unnamed woman. However, because the letter is not available for the public to view, I cannot say whether or not there was an act of sexual misconduct committed by Kavanaugh.
You may be wondering why Feinstein is not releasing the letter, and Feinstein may have a very valid reason to do so. If the letter details an act of sexual misconduct, then it would be reasonable to assume that Feinstein may be sitting on the letter in order to protect the identity of the victim. Grim did not divulge the identity of the woman that their sources are claiming is the subject of the letter, although they did claim that an attorney with prior experience in representing victims of sexual misconduct is representing the woman that Grim’s report claims is the subject of the letter.
Even though Kavanaugh’s potential confirmation to our nation’s highest judicial bench represents a serious threat to the rights of the American people, if it were me as a U.S. Senator in possession of such a letter, and the letter described an act of sexual misconduct, I would not release such a letter to the general public unless the victim and her legal representation agreed to the release of the letter. I should note that I am not an attorney, and I do not claim to be an attorney.