Sen Chuck Grassley has asked the DOJ to investigate Michael Avenatti and Julie Swetnick, for the purpose of bringing criminal charges against them for making false statements in documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Grassley is upset by the fact that they both made false filing statements to the committee.
Swetnick has a long history of being a scam artist, including a civil suit against the DC transit system for an injury she said cost her $420,000 in modeling jobs. The agency she listed as her employer didn’t exist and she was never a model.
“When a well-meaning citizen comes forward with information relevant to the committee’s work, I take it seriously. It takes courage to come forward, especially with allegations of sexual misconduct or personal trauma. I’m grateful for those who find that courage,” Grassley said in a statement.
“But in the heat of partisan moments, some do try to knowingly mislead the committee. That’s unfair to my colleagues, the nominees and others providing information who are seeking the truth. It stifles our ability to work on legitimate lines of inquiry. It also wastes time and resources for destructive reasons.”
Avenatti responded on social media, vowing to “get to the bottom of Judge Kavanaugh’s lies and conduct.”
On the eve of then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate testimony, Avenatti released a sworn statement by Swetnick in which she claimed she witnessed the judge “consistently engage in excessive drinking and inappropriate contact of a sexual nature with women in the early 1980s.”
In the statement, which was provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Swetnick said she had been sexually assaulted at a party attended by members of Kavanaugh’s social circle, but did not accuse him of assaulting her. Two other women have publicly accused Kavanaugh of sexually abusing them.
Swetnick then did an interview where she directly contradicted herself, that is if Avenatti didn’t fudge the affidavit. If he didn’t then her statements are false. If he did, then he lied. Either way, someone was less than truthful, probably both.