Potential 2020 Democratic presidential nominee and Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti said he does not know when he first spoke to his client, Julie Swetnick, about new sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Swetnick claimed she was a victim of a gang rape around 1982, after she graduated high school, and she alleges Kavanaugh and his friend, Mark Judge, were "present" there while they were still high schoolers.
She says 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."
Kavanaugh denied the allegations, calling the claims "ridiculous and from the Twilight Zone."
"I don't know who this is and this never happened," Kavanaugh said.
"When did you first hear from Julie Swetnick, before or after Christine Blasey Ford's story was published in the Washington Post two Sundays ago?" CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Avenatti.
"Within the last month," Avenatti responded.
"Within the last month, but after Professor Ford's allegations came out?"
"I don't know, frankly," Avenatti said.
Tapper followed by asking Avenatti about witnesses to Swetnick’s allegations.
"You say that there are two witnesses. Witnesses to what? What can they back up?" Tapper asked.
"Well, there's more than two witnesses," Avenatti said. There were two witnesses to the actual assault involving my client, but there are multiple witnesses that can attest to the balance of the conduct, which is set forth within this declaration. There's many, many witnesses, Jake."
Asked about the identity of the witnesses, Avenatti said "there's a number of men and women that can attest to the facts and circumstances in this declaration, and we're going to provide those witnesses to the FBI as soon as we're contacted."
Tapper pointed out that the FBI is not likely to investigate the allegations against Kavanaugh, and asked Avenatti if he would give CNN the names of the witnesses.
"Well, Jake, CNN and the Jake Tapper show is not the investigatory bodies that pass judgment ultimately on allegation, so we're going to consider what to do with the names of these witnesses, to corroborate these accusations," Avenatti said.