Ronan Farrow talked with John Berman for CNN's New Day about last night's bombshell story about Brett Cavanaugh.
First, Farrow makes clear that the alleged victim did not approach them. Farrow and Jane Mayer heard the story from other people and contacted her.
"This is a woman that did not come forward with a press release. She was placed at the center of a firestorm. The fact that she took several days to carefully think about whether she wanted to cast herself into this storm is acknowledgment that there were gaps in her memory, which is often the case with experiences that involve alcohol, and this is not a woman that is behaving in a way that would suggests she has a agenda, or making something up," Farrow said.
"So people understand, what exactly does she remember or what does she not?" Berman said.
"She remembers Kavanaugh laughing at her at this incident, and pulling his pants up afterwards, and another classmate that she identified, saying another classmate yelling it, and she was religious and had not engaged in this type of activity before, and it was a significant experience for her. This was something that always stayed with her," Farrow said.
"But she does not exactly remember the moment?"
"She does," he said. "She remembers the moment, she described it in detail.
"We called several dozen classmates who were around at the time in general, and many did not respond and many did not wish to comment, and several were working, in fact, with Kavanaugh's team, and signed on to a statement saying they did not have direct knowledge but did not think it was something he would have done, and we included that.
"Other individuals that she said were directly involved in this were people that egged Brett Kavanaugh on, and we did include the statements and there were other several statements that say we trust Brett Kavanaugh on this. We did receive, however, several direct accounts from people who said they were told right after or saw her describing it right after, and who independently of Ms. Ramirez had the same fact pattern about Kavanaugh doing this," Farrow said.
"That's interesting, and that's something that doesn't always exist when you are dealing with allegations of sexual assault or battery, correct?"
"I am glad you make that point, John. This is a fairly high level of evidence for this kind of a case. when you look at the other reporting I have done for instance, on sexual assault and harassment. The last story Jane and I did was about the New York attorney general, and we used the same caution and standards there."
