Kavanaugh accuser’s classmate clarifies she has no ‘first-hand knowledge’ of alleged assault
A former classmate of the woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault is clarifying that she has “no first-hand knowledge” of the alleged assault, walking back her comments this week in which she said “the incident did happen” and “many students” knew about it at the time.
“That it happened or not, I have no idea,” Cristina King Miranda told NPR on Thursday. “I can’t say that it did or didn’t.”
{mosads}Miranda has attracted attention over the last few days for a Facebook post, which has since been deleted, in which she wrote that students at Christine Blasey Ford’s alma mater, an all-girls private school in Maryland, discussed the alleged assault at the time.
“In my [Facebook] post, I was empowered and I was sure it probably did [happen],” Miranda added. “I had no idea that I would now have to go to the specifics and defend it before 50 cable channels and have my face spread all over MSNBC News and Twitter.”
Miranda in the original post wrote that she knew both Kavanaugh and the other man who was in the room during the alleged incident, Mark Judge.
“Christine Blasey Ford was a year or so behind me,” King wrote in the post, according to NBC News. “I did not know her personally but I remember her. This incident did happen.”
Miranda told NPR on Thursday that she does not know the specifics of what happened at the party during which Ford is alleging Kavanaugh assaulted her.
She added she remembers “buzz” that weekend about an incident involving students from her school and Kavanaugh’s.
In a tweet, Miranda said that she will no longer be doing media interviews.
“I do not have first hand knowledge of the incident that Dr. Christine Blasey Ford mentions, and I stand by my support for Christine,” Miranda wrote. “That’s it. I don’t have more to say on the subject.”
Ford is accusing Kavanaugh of groping her and attempting to remove her clothes during a party in the 1980s, when the two attending neighboring D.C.-area high schools.
Her lawyers in recent days have said she is not willing to attend the public Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Monday, during which she and Kavanaugh were invited to testify. Her lawyers are calling for the FBI to open an investigation into her allegation.