Courts

Brett Kavanaugh Seems Like He Was A Real Jerk In High School

The story Brett Kavanaugh's yearbook tells is very different than the one he remembers.

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(Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Brett Kavanaugh really wants — no, needs — the world to believe he was an angel in high school. It’s all part of a carefully orchestrated attempt to cast doubt on Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation of attempted rape. Toward that end, yesterday he went on Fox News to peddle that tale, saying, “The vast majority of the time I spent in high school was studying or focused on sports and being a good friend to the boys and the girls that I was friends with.”

That’s a nice story, and may well be enough to land him a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land, but that story stands in sharp contrast with the artifacts of his past. Take, for example, his high school yearbook. There he gleefully boasts about his drinking:

Then there’s this delightful reference to the “FFFFFFFourth of July.” Michael Avenatti, who represents a potential additional accuser who has yet to come forward with her full story, believes the reference is to sex acts, which, if true, portrays a very different image of who Kavanaugh was in high school than he would like the Senate to believe right now.

In the yearbook, Kavanaugh also references being a “Renate Alumnus.” According to the New York Times, that’s a reference to Renate Schroeder, now Renate Dolphin. There’s also a picture in the yearbook of nine members of Georgetown Prep’s football team — Kavanaugh is pictured and played on the team — with the caption “Renate Alumni.” It certainly seems like these are references to sexual conquests, real or imagined. And that’s in line with how Dolphin was treated at the time:

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“They were very disrespectful, at least verbally, with Renate,” said Sean Hagan, a Georgetown Prep student at the time, referring to Judge Kavanaugh and his teammates. “I can’t express how disgusted I am with them, then and now.”

When Dolphin learned of the references recently (you’ll recall, despite all the references to women in the yearbook, Kavanaugh actually attended an all-boys high school), she described them as “horrible, hurtful and simply untrue.”

“I learned about these yearbook pages only a few days ago,” Ms. Dolphin said in a statement to The New York Times. “I don’t know what ‘Renate Alumnus’ actually means. I can’t begin to comprehend what goes through the minds of 17-year-old boys who write such things, but the insinuation is horrible, hurtful and simply untrue. I pray their daughters are never treated this way. I will have no further comment.”

And here’s the kicker: Dolphin was one of the 65 women who signed a letter insisting that Kavanaugh “behaved honorably and treated women with respect” during high school. I guess now she knows that even people she thought were nice at the time really acted in “horrible, hurtful” ways.

In a statement by Kavanaugh’s lawyer, the want-to-be Supreme Court justice downplays his relationship with Dolphin and the references to her in his yearbook:

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Alexandra Walsh, a lawyer for Judge Kavanaugh, said in a statement: “Judge Kavanaugh was friends with Renate Dolphin in high school. He admired her very much then, and he admires her to this day.

“Judge Kavanaugh and Ms. Dolphin attended one high school event together and shared a brief kiss good night following that event,” the statement continued. “They had no other such encounter. The language from Judge Kavanaugh’s high school yearbook refers to the fact that he and Ms. Dolphin attended that one high school event together and nothing else.”

But even the truth of that statement is being challenged:

Ms. Dolphin said she had never kissed Judge Kavanaugh. “I think Brett must have me confused with someone else, because I never kissed him,” she said through her lawyer.

Right now Kavanaugh has a vested interest in having the world believe that despite the raunchy references in his yearbook, that was not the kind of man he was then or is now. That’s why he went on television last night and said, “I did not have sexual intercourse or anything close to sexual intercourse in high school or for many years thereafter.” But remember — even if that statement is 100 percent true (and we know he’s not the most reliable of narrators) that does nothing to disprove the allegations of Christine Blasey Ford or Deborah Ramirez.

Of course drinking, having consensual sex, or even being an asshole in high school shouldn’t automatically disqualify any person from a job. But the subterfuge he seemingly continues to insist upon undermines the recollections he puts forth.  It’s currently unclear if a majority of senators will believe Blasey Ford’s recollections about Kavanaugh over his blanket denial, but the story his yearbook tells seems to support her.

headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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