Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley referred lawyer Michael Avenatti to the Justice Department for a second criminal investigation, alleging that Avenatti had submitted a fraudulent sworn statement to the committee on Oct. 2.
Grassley also referred Avenatti and his client, Julie Swetnick, to the Justice Department for a separate investigation, for three separate crimes: conspiracy, providing false statements to Congress and obstructing a Senate investigation.
Swetnick alleged that Brett and his friend Mark Judge were present at a high school party when she was gang raped by a series of boys after her drink was spiked.
Swetnick also accused Kavanaugh of helping facilitate gang rapes when he was in high school. Swetnick subsequently walked back of the allegations
In a letter to the Justice Department, Grassley wrote that his second referral stemmed "from a second declaration he submitted to the Committee that also appears to contain materially false statements." Grassley cited an NBC News report that alleged inconsistencies in a sworn statement by a woman submitted to the Judiciary Committee that was supposed to bolster Swetnick's claim.
The anonymous woman alleges that she saw Kavanaugh spike a drink. However, in an interview with NBC News before Avenatti published the statement on Twitter, the woman said she never saw Kavanaugh spike a drink, and that she met Swetnick when they were in their 30s. According to NBC News, she told the network that Avenatti "twisted" her words.
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