Kavanaugh Book Authors: NY Times Removed Detail About Alleged Victim Not Remembering Assault

Monday on MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” The New York Times’ Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, the co-authors of a new book about Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, said a Times essay about the book initially included a detail about an alleged sexual assault victim involving Kavanaugh. However, was removed in the Times’ editing process.

That detail was that the alleged victim has said she did not remember the incident.

“The Last Word” anchor Lawrence O’Donnell inquired about the omission.

“In your draft, did it include those words that have since been added to the article?” O’Donnell said.

Both Kelly and Pogrebin replied, “It did.”

O’Donnell followed up, “So somewhere in the editing process, those words were dropped?”

“It was in editing, done in haste in the editing process — as you know for closing the section,” Pogrebin replied. “I think what happened, actually, was we had her name and, you know, the Times doesn’t usually include the name of the victim. And so I think in this case the editors felt like maybe it was probably better to remove it. And in removing her name, they removed the other reference to the fact that she didn’t remember it.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.