CNN anchor Jake Tapper noted Thursday there is "no contemporaneous, corroborating evidence" for any of the sexual misconduct allegations made against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Tapper and Wolf Blitzer anchored special coverage of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, where Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford will testify on Thursday.
Ford has accused Kavanaugh of drunkenly sexually assaulting her at a high school party in the early 1980s. Her therapist's notes in 2012 show she accused Kavanaugh of the act in a session with her husband, although her account of who was at the party has shifted over time, and no other witnesses have been able to confirm her charges. She is also unsure of the location and exact date of the attack.
"They're brutal accusations, and his denial is so unequivocal, that there's nothing that happened that he can even understand why these charges would be brought forward," Tapper said, calling them upsetting and significant. "At the same time, there is, as of now, no contemporaneous, corroborating evidence for any of the charges, as far as we know. We haven't seen anybody emerge and say, 'Yes, I remember that.'"
"And that is an important part of this story as well," Tapper added.
In her opening statement set to be delivered to the committee, Ford says the incident has haunted her as an adult and she positively identifies Kavanaugh as her attacker.
Kavanaugh has emphatically denied Ford's accusation, in addition to two others leveled at him.
A Yale classmate said he exposed himself to her at a party, and another woman said Kavanaugh routinely engaged in drunken, lewd behavior at high school parties and spiked the drinks of women who would then become victims of gang rapes. She says she saw Kavanaugh lined up outside rooms at parties to participate in such gang rapes of drugged women.
No witnesses have directly confirmed either of these stories.