A third accuser of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh publicly identified herself Wednesday and alleged that Kavanaugh and others in the early 1980s spiked the drinks of girls at high school parties with intoxicants to make it easier for them to be gang raped.
The woman, Julie Swetnick, said Kavanaugh lined up with other boys, including his close friend Mark Judge, waiting to rape those girls at many parties — and that she once became a victim herself.
The allegations were detailed in an affidavit, signed under penalty of perjury, that was released by Swetnick's lawyer, Michael Avenatti. Her statement was sent to a senior staffer on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Swetnick's stunning claims came on the eve of scheduled testimony at that committee by Kavanaugh, 53, and Christine Blasey Ford, who has said he "physically and sexually assaulted me" in the early 1980s.
The now-51-year-old research psychologist Ford claims Kavanaugh held her down on a bed when she was 15, groped her and tried to pull off her clothes asJudge watched. Republicans who hold the majority on the committee have refused to subpoena Judge to testify despite calls to do so from Democrats, Ford's lawyers and Avenatti.
Another woman, Kavanaugh's Yale University classmate Deborah Ramirez, has accused him of exposing himself and causing her to touch his penis at a boozy dorm party.
The latest accusations from Swetnick against Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court judge, could make his already imperiled nomination to the Supreme Court even less likely to succeed.
All 10 Democrats on the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday urged President Donald Trump to either "immediately withdraw the nomination or order an FBI investigation into all the allegations."
Kavanaugh, 53, called Swetnick's claims "ridiculous and from the Twilight Zone."
"I don't know who this is and this never happened," said Kavanaugh, who earlier this week told Fox News "I've never sexually assaulted anyone."
In a letter to Judiciary Committee leaders made public after Swetnick's claims, Kavanaugh vowed not to withdraw his nomination.
But Avenatti, during an interview with MSNBC, said, "There should be an immediate investigation" of her accusations "and there should be no rush to confirm him to the U.S. Supreme Court."
"The allegations in this declaration are shocking," Avenatti said.
Trump blasted the claims in a tweet calling Avenatti "a third rate lawyer who is good at making false accusations like he did on me and like he is now doing on Judge Brett Kavanaugh."
Avenatti immediately fired back:
Trump's press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, told CNBC that the White House "stands with Kavanaugh."
Later, when Trump was asked by a reporter in New York if he thinks "all three women are lying," Trump replied: "What's your next question."
Judge's lawyer, Barbara Van Gelder, said, "Mr. Judge vehemently denies the allegations contained in the Swetnick affidavit." Judge has said said he no memory of events described by the other accuser Ford. Senate Republicans have cited his claim to justify the decision no to call him to testify Thursday.
The Washington Post reported later that Judge's ex-girlfriend, Elizabeth Rasor, informed the Judiciary Committee through her lawyer on Wednesday that she is willing to speak to the committee and the FBI about her recollection of what Judge allegedly told her an incident involving group sex.
The New Yorker, in a story about Ramirez's allegations, reported Sunday that "Rasor recalled that Judge had told her ashamedly of an incident that involved him and other boys taking turns having sex with a drunk woman. Rasor said that Judge seemed to regard it as fully consensual. She said that Judge did not name others involved in the incident, and she has no knowledge that Kavanaugh participated in it."
Swetnick, a 55-year-old certified systems engineer who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, identified herself in the affidavit as a resident of Washington, D.C. While Avenatti had generally described Swetnick's allegations in an email to the Judiciary Committee on Sunday, he had not previously identified her until Wednesday.
A 1980 graduate of Gaithersburg High School in Maryland, she said she has held multiple clearances for work done at the Treasury Department, U.S. Mint, IRS, State Department and Justice Department, among other government agencies.
Swetnick says in her affidavit that she saw Kavanaugh in the early 1980s "drink excessively at many" house parties in suburban Maryland. At the time, Kavanaugh and Judge were students at Georgetown Prep, a private Catholic all-boys school.
She said Kavanaugh and Judge engaged in "abusive and physically agressive behavior toward girls," which "included the fondling and groping of girls without their consent" and "not taking 'No' for an answer."
During the years of 1981 and 1982, she said, she learned of efforts by Kavanaugh, his friend Judge and others "to spike the drinks of girls at house parties I attended with grain alcohol and/or drugs so as to cause girls to lose inhibitions and their ability to say 'No.' "
Certain girls were targeted by those boys, and "it was usually a girl that was especially vulnerable because she was alone at the party or shy," Swetnick claimed.
Swetnick said she "witnessed efforts by Mark Judge, Brett Kavanaugh and others to cause girls to become inebriated and disoriented so they could then be 'gang raped' in a side room or bedroom by a 'train' of numerous boys."
"I have a firm recollection of seeing boys lined up outside rooms at many of these parties waiting for their 'turn' with a girl inside the room," Swetnick said. "These boys included Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh."
She also said in her affidavit sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee that in approximately 1982 "I became the victim of one of these 'gang' or 'train' rapes where Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh were present."
"Shortly after the incident, I shared what had transpired with at least two other people," Swetnick said.
"During the incident, I was incapacitated without my consent and unable to fight off the boys raping me. I believe I was drugged using Quaaludes or something similar placed in what I was drinking."
She says that she shared the story of her own rape with "at least two other people" shortly afterward.
Avenatti told MSNBC that "My client has been issued a number of security clearances by the federal government over the years. She has been fully vetted time and time again, and she is an honest and courageous woman."
"And I'm going to caution Donald Trump, Brett Kavanagh, [Senate Judiciary] Chairman [Chuck] Grassley and others, if they try to come after my client or engage in some smear campaign, they better pack a lunch because we're going to respond twofold," Avenatti said.
"We are going to respond double as it relates to force. So they better be very careful before they start spewing nonsense and trying to call my client a liar."
A spokesman for Grassley, R-Iowa, said the committee's lawyers "are in the process of reviewing" Swetnick's affidavit.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he believed Kavanaugh's nomination should withdrawn, or that Trump should order the FBI to reopen its background check investigation of the judge.
"There are now multiple, corroborated allegations against Judge Kavanaugh, made under penalty of perjury, all of which deserve a thorough investigation," Schumer said.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., called Swetnick's allegations "horrifying."
"It is important to note that it is an affidavit and she has signed it under [penalty of perjury]. So people don't do this randomly. It needs to be investigated, absolutely," Murray said during an interview with MSNBC.
"I believe that there are responsible Republicans who are going to share the view that it is not just a Supreme Court nominee that is on trial right now. It is the United States Senate."
Before he took Swetnick's case, Avenatti already was well-known as the attorney for Stormy Daniels, the porn star who says she had sexual affair with Trump in 2006, months after his wife Melania gave birth to their son.
Daniels was paid $130,000 in hush money by Trump's then-personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, shortly before the 2016 presidential election that sent Trump to the White House.
Cohen last month pleaded guilty to tax crimes and to violating campaign finance law with the payment to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
Cohen during his plea hearing told a judge that he had paid Daniels at the behest of Trump for the purpose of affecting the presidential election.
Trump, who has admitted reimbursing Cohen, has not been charged in the case.
Avenatti has said he is exploring a run for the presidency himself in 2020.
— Additional reporting by CNBC's Tucker Higgins, Christina Wilkie, and John Schoen
Download Swetnick's affidavit or read it here: