Now that the U.S. Senate has confirmed Brett’s Kavanaugh’s appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, undoubtedly there are lots of people who are hoping that the controversy will die and go away. That’s not likely to happen though, especially given that President Trump and Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have already signaled that they intend to use the Kavanaugh controversy from now until November as a way to galvanize support for Republican candidates in the mid-term elections.
Such being the case, it might be helpful to carefully analyze what has to be one of Trump’s most fascinating conspiracy theories, one in which he is now insinuating that Kavanaugh’s accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, concocted her whole story and, in the process, wrongfully sullied the reputation of an innocent man (which, of course, is contrary to the theory subscribed to by Kavanaugh, and initially by Trump as well, which accepts the truthfulness of Ford’s sexual-assault allegation but claims that she has mistaken Kavanaugh for some other person. (See my article “The Trump-Kavanaugh Lookalike Theory.”)
Trump’s supporters will no doubt immediately react by pointing out that a conspiracy necessarily involves two or more people. Since Ford is the only one who supposedly has made up this story and supposedly testified falsely, they would say that this cannot, by definition, be one of the president’s conspiracy theories.
But as we break down the president’s theory and carefully analyze it, we will see that it actually is another one of his conspiracy theories — and a fascinating one at that.
Justice Anthony Kennedy resigned his seat on the Supreme Court on June 29, 2018. On July 9, 2018, President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to take his place.
There are at least five people who attest that prior to Kennedy’s resignation from the court on June 29, 2018 and Kavanaugh’s nomination on July 9, 2018, Ford told them about the assault she suffered as a teenager at the hands of Brett Kavanaugh.
Do you see the problem?
The problem is that unless Ford is some modern-day Nostradama, there is no way that she could have known that Justice Kennedy was going to resign his seat on the Supreme Court and that President Trump was going to appoint Kavanaugh to replace him.
When Ford married her husband Russell in 2002, she told him that she was a sex-abuse victim. That was 16 years before Kavanaugh was nominated to the Supreme Court!
As reflected in written notes taken by her therapist, in 2012 Christine Ford told her therapist that she had suffered an assault by students from “an elitist boys’ school” who went on to become “highly respected and high-ranking members of society in Washington.” That was 6 years before the Kavanaugh nomination!
In that same year — 2012, 6 years before the Kavanaugh nomination! — Christine’s husband Russell stated that in a therapy session that he attended, Christine, specifically mentioning Kavanaugh, described being sexually assaulted by two boys, one of whom pinned her to a bed, molested her, and prevented her from screaming.
The therapist’s notes reflect that in 2013 — 5 years before the Kavanaugh nomination! — Christine described a “rape attempt” in her late teens.
Adela Gildo-Mazzon has been a California realtor for 15 years. She is also a friend of Christine. In June 2013 — 5 years before the Kavanaugh nomination! — she was having lunch with Christine at a restaurant in Mountain View, California. Gildo-Mazzon submitted a sworn statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee stating that at that lunch, Christine told her about almost being raped by a man who is a federal judge. Gildo-Mazzon also swore that the last time she spoke to Ford was in May 2018, which was the month prior to Justice Kennedy’s resignation.
Keith Koegler is a friend of the Fords and also their son’s softball coach. Koegler sent a sworn statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee stating that in 2016, while he and Christine were standing in a public place watching their children play, she told him that she had been assaulted by a man who is now a federal judge. That was 2 years before the Kavanaugh nomination!
Rebecca White, one of the Fords’ neighbors, submitted an affidavit to the Senate Judiciary Committee stating that in 2017 — the year before the Kavanaugh nomination! — Christine told her that she had been assaulted by an older teen who is now a federal judge.
What does all this mean? It means that these five people — the therapist, Russell Ford, Adela Gildo-Mazzon, Keith Koegler, and Rebecca White — have to be part of Trump’s conspiracy theory regarding Christine Blasey Ford. There is no way around it because their statements documenting prior consistent statements by Christine Blasey Ford — statements that accused Kavanaugh of the assault long before he was nominated — provide powerful corroborating evidence that she was telling the truth about the assault. Thus, under Trump’s conspiracy theory, those five people necessarily have to be lying too and concocting a false story about Ford’s prior consistent statements to them.
In other words, let’s assume that Trump is right — that Christine has made up the whole thing and that she testified falsely about Kavanaugh’s having sexually assaulted her. That necessarily means that those five people are speaking falsely as well because their statements constitute convincing corroborative evidence that Christine was telling the truth about the assault, especially since she made the statements years before Kavanaugh was even nominated. Thus, under Trump’s conspiracy theory, those five people would necessarily have had to conspire with Christine Ford to come up with false statements about Christine’s having told them about Kavanaugh’s assault prior to the Kavanaugh nomination in order to buttress her supposedly false accusation against Kavanaugh.
Thus, Trump’s conspiracy theory would necessarily entail having Christine send a letter to Senator Diane Feinstein detailing the false assault, but asking Feinstein to keep the letter confidential, but also knowing that it would be leaked at the last minute, enabling her to fly to Washington, D.C., where she could deliver her false testimony, backed by her therapist, husband, and three friends, all of whom would be prepared to come forward and falsely testify that she told them about Kavanaugh’s assault before he was even nominated to the Supreme Court in order to buttress her supposedly false testimony.
For an excellent article summarizing the affidavits that Russell Ford, Adela Gildo-Mazzon, Keith Koegler, and Rebecca White filed with the Senate Judiciary Committee, see the following article at pbs.org: “Here’s What the 4 Affidavits Supporting Christine Blasey Ford Say.” For an excellent article pointing out how members of the Senate Judiciary Committee were seemingly unaware that the affidavits of Adela Gildo-Mazzon, Keith Koegler, and Rebecca White had been filed with the committee or were indifferent to the fact that they had been filed, see the following article at HuffPost: “The Forgotten Affidavits.”
Let’s ponder how this conspiracy may have come into existence.
After the Kavanaugh nomination is announced, Christine approaches her therapist and says, “Hey, I want to block the Kavanaugh nomination. Will you help me?”
Her therapist responds, “Sure. But why do you want to block his nomination?”
Christine says, “Oh, no particular reason. I just thought I’d do it.”
The therapist asks, “Oh, okay, what do you want me to do?”
Christine says, “I would like you to prepare some notes in which I mention a sexual assault he made on me while we were in high school and then backdate the notes so that it will look like I told you about this 6 years ago. If people see that I brought this up long before the nomination, they naturally will conclude that I’m telling the truth about the assault.”
The therapist asks, “You mean, he didn’t really assault you?”
Christine says, “Oh, no. I’m just making that up.”
The therapist says, “Sounds like a great plan! I am going to risk my entire career to participate in this scheme. Count me in! I’ll prepare the false notes immediately and backdate them so that people will think you told me about the assault before Kavanaugh even got nominated.”
Christine then approaches her husband Russell and enlists him in the scheme. “Hey, Russell, I want to block Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. I’m going to say that he sexually assaulted me in high school.”
Russell asks “Did he really?”
Christine responds, “Of course not. I’m just making that up. But I want you to say that I mentioned it years ago when we got married and then again in therapy. My therapist is on board with my scheme and is already preparing some false notes saying that I mentioned the assault and is backdating them several years to buttress my false story.”
Russell: “This sounds like an absolutely awesome plan. I’m on board too. I’ll say whatever you want me to say because I love you.”
Then Christine approaches her three friends, Adela Gildo-Mazzon, Keith Koegler, and Rebecca White. She explains her scheme to them. They are so excited about participating in it. They say to her, “We are happy to help you with this, even if it means the ruination of our careers and reputations if we get caught. We will send affidavits to the Senate Judiciary Committee falsely stating that you told us about the assault prior to Kavanaugh’s being nominated. Everyone knows that Congress doesn’t care about perjury anyway.”
Perhaps it’s worth mentioning the polygraph operator who conducted the lie-detector test on Christine. After all, since according to Trump she supposedly made all this up, he too could easily be a member of the conspiracy, given that he said that she passed the test with flying colors.
So, there you have it — the latest Donald Trump conspiracy theory, one involving six, maybe seven people, including Christine Blasey Ford, her husband Russell, her therapist, three of her friends, and possibly even a former FBI agent in Washington, D.C., who conducts lie-detector tests.
I would be remiss if I failed to mention that some people (who, as far I know, do not yet include Trump) are now saying that the CIA (which has connections to the FBI, where the lie-detector operator used to work) is also part of the Christine Blasey Ford conspiracy, which obviously would add another fascinating dimension to Trump’s conspiracy theory. (See here and here.) Of course, a question naturally arises with respect to motive: Why in the world would the CIA want to block the appointment of someone who, based on his conservative background and ideology, could reasonably be relied upon to rubber-stamp anything and everything the CIA and the rest of the national-security establishment do? Does that really make any sense?
As the late, great Bill Haley titled one of his songs, “Crazy man, crazy.”
