Meet Max Stier — Brett Kavanaugh's Yale Classmate Who Witnessed Him Harassing Co-Ed And Tried To Report To FBI
A new allegation of sexual harassment has cropped up for Justice Kavanaugh.
Getty People who were dismayed about Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation despite the credible accusations of sexual assault and harassment against were unsurprised this week to discover that there are more such allegations surfacing now. New York Times reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly have a new book coming out called The Education of Brett Kavanaugh, that delves into the elite private school life of the Justice. In an excerpt printed in the Times last week, they report for the first time that a DC non-profit CEO named Max Stier alleged that he also saw Kavanaugh sexually harass a woman at a party in college. Stier did not speak to the authors but they found that he had taken his recollections to the FBI and the Senate during Kavanaugh's confirmation.
Hearing these allegations from a man instead of a woman could lend them credibility, although in a kind of Republic of Gilead way, where only men are considered viable witnesses. Stier, however, is not speaking to reporters about his history with Kavanaugh.
Who is Max Stier? Read on for all the details.
1. Christine Blasey Ford's story
The most prominent of Kavanaugh's accusers is Christine Blasey Ford, a professional psychologist who shared a story of being attacked by Kavanaugh and a friend when they were all in high school. In her telling of the story, she went to a house party attended by students from a number of private schools in the DC suburbs in Maryland. During the course of the party, Kavanaugh and a friend trapped Blasey Ford in a bedroom. The two young men were noticeably drunk and pinned her to bed. Laughing, Kavanagh lay on top of her and attempted to remove the swimsuit she was wearing. She was able to get away before the assault progressed.
It was years before the shared he story, only doing so in couples therapy with her counselor and her husband.
Blasey-Ford's allegations prompted the FBI to open an additional background check on Kavanaugh and she was invited to testify before the Senate, which she did. Kavanaugh denied the allegations, saying that he didn't remember the party.
2. Deborah Ramirez's story
A second accuser, Deborah Ramirez, recalled being a freshman at Yale and attending a party with Kavanaugh. Once again, he was alleged to be intoxicated at the time. The New York Times reports that Ramirez remembers "a freshman named Brett Kavanaugh pulled down his pants and thrust his penis at her, prompting her to swat it away and inadvertently touch it."
She found the incident traumatic and she said in an interview earlier this year: "I had gone through high school, I’m the good girl, and now, in one evening, it was all ripped away."
Ramierez is one of several women accusing Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.
3. Twenty-five corroborating witnesses
Ramirez came forward during Kavanaugh's confirmation to share her memories of his harassment but she was never given an opportunity to testify in the Senate. She did provide the FBI with a list of 25 people who could have corroborated her memory of the events from the party. Included on the list were people who heard about the penis incident in the days after the party and other witnesses who knew about it before Kavanaugh was appointed to his first judgeship. The FBI didn't contact any of the witnesses.
Agents did interview Ms. Ramierz and said they found her to be a credible witness. But, as the Times reports: "We have to wait to get authorization to do anything else,” Bill Pittard, one of Ms. Ramirez’s lawyers, recalled the agents saying. “It was almost a little apologetic."
4. New harassment allegations
In the new reporting by the New York Times, authors Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly learned of Max Stier in the course of writing their upcoming book The Education of Brett Kavanaugh. Stier went to authorities to say that, while he didn't witness what Kavanaugh did to Deborah Ramierez, he did see him do something similar at a different party, involving a different woman. The article reports: "A classmate, Max Stier, saw Mr. Kavanaugh with his pants down at a different drunken dorm party, where friends pushed his penis into the hand of a female student."
This incident wasn't something Stier forgot. Pogrebin and Kelly discovered that he tried to share his memories with the FBI and with staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee but never got any sort of response. Once the FBI declined to investigate his recollections, Stier has not granted any interviews.
As for the woman who Kavanaugh allegedly abused, the Times has not named her and reports that she claims not to remember the incident. However, in a report posted on September 16, ABC News seems to indicate that their reporters spoke to the unnamed woman. The article says "A woman reportedly involved in a second allegation of sexual misconduct by Brett Kavanaugh during his freshmen year at Yale University had a simple response when asked by ABC News if there are other people who can speak to her story: 'All I can say is, ask Brett.'" ABC goes on to report that she also said "she can’t do it again" referring to speaking about the allegations."
Senators knew about the additional allegations.
5. Who is Max Stier?
In addition to attending college with Brett Kavanaugh, Steir has had a distinguished career in public service. According to his official bio, he worked for Congressman Jim Leach in 1982 before working as a law clerk for many years. "Max clerked for Chief Judge James Oakes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1992 and clerked for Justice David Souter of the United States Supreme Court in 1994," his bio notes. "Between these two positions, Max served as Special Litigation Counsel to Assistant Attorney General Anne Bingaman at the Department of Justice."
He also worked in private law practice and at the US Department for Housing and Urban Development. He is currently the founding president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service which is "a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that strives for a more effective government for the American people. that strives for a more effective government for the American people."
While Stier does not list his personal political affiliations, the Congressman he worked for was a Republican and he clerked for Justice Souter, a conservative appointed by President George H.W. Bush.
Conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin comments on Stier's credibility.
6. Total lack of accountability or remorse
Throughout all of the questions about his conduct, Kavanaugh has vehemently denied that he ever harassed or assaulted anyone. However, there have now been enough stories about his behavior while drinking during his college and high school years that it seems likely that he was guilty of at least some of the things of which he was accused. His failure to acknowledge that he engaged in wrongdoing has possibly increased the scrutiny into his past in a way that might have been avoided had he taken responsibility for his misdeeds. If he had issued a statement where he said “When I was younger, I had a bad habit of drinking far too much. I know I harmed others during those episodes and I am very sorry for what I did,” America probably would have forgiven him. We all want to believe in personal growth. We like giving second chances.
It's also worth noting that he could have avoided all of this by not sexually abusing anyone in the first place. I cannot stress how important it is for people not to sexually abuse other people. It shouldn’t have to be said, yet here we are.
Despite the allegations against him, Kavanaugh holds a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. Though some politicians have suggested impeaching him, it seems like he will remain in his seat until he retires or dies.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. Her work has been seen at Ravishly, Babble, Scary Mommy, The Mid, Redbook online, and The Broad Side. She is the creator of the blog Stay at Home Pundit and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.