Many of the major 2020 Democratic candidates for president over the weekend released statements calling for Congress to impeach Kavanaugh, citing the Times' reporting of an uncorroborated and disputed college-era allegation of sexual misconduct as a reason to impeach.
But late Sunday, the paper revised its portrayed blockbuster story to include the fact that several friends of the alleged victim said she told them she did not recall the reported sexual assault in question.
But that didn’t prompt Democrats to revise or walk back their calls: In one case, billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer called for impeachment proceedings even after the Times’ update.
The Times piece by Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, adapted from their forthcoming book, asserted that a Kavanaugh classmate, Clinton-connected nonprofit CEO Max Stier, "saw Mr. Kavanaugh with his pants down at a different drunken dorm party, where friends pushed his penis into the hand of a female student."
The Times did not mention Stier's work as a Clinton defense attorney, or his legal battles with Kavanaugh during the Whitewater investigation. According to the Times, Stier "notified senators and the FBI about this account" last year during the Kavanaugh hearings, "but the FBI did not investigate and Mr. Stier has declined to discuss it publicly."
However, the Times' article also initially did not mention that Pogrebin and Kelly's book found that the female student in question did not recall the alleged episode.
In its update, the paper later said, “Editors' Note: An earlier version of this article, which was adapted from a forthcoming book, did not include one element of the book's account regarding an assertion by a Yale classmate that friends of Brett Kavanaugh pushed his penis into the hand of a female student at a drunken dorm party. The book reports that the female student declined to be interviewed and friends say that she does not recall the incident. That information has been added to the article."
"This is the weakest of the weak type of allegations. It's really a shameful attempt to reignite these smears against Judge Kavanaugh that are utterly baseless," Carrie Severino, the founder of the Judicial Crisis Network who recently wrote a sympathetic book about Kavanaugh, said on "Fox & Friends."
Source: 2020 Democrats ignore Kavanaugh story correction after demanding impeachment
So Max Stier is the one who made the accusation. He was Clinton's defense attorney and also may hold a grudge over his legal battles with Kavanaugh during the Whitewater investigation. Sounds like a potential conflict of interest. Then the alleged female student doesn't recall the incident. Where is the corroborating evidence?