Kavanaugh's third accuser

Julie Swetnick is the third woman to publicly accuse Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.  Swetnick's allegations have been treated less seriously than accusations against Kavanaugh from two other women: Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez. Swetnick's lawyer, Michael Avenatti, demanded she be interviewed by the FBI as part of an investigation into the allegations against Kavanaugh.

In a sworn declaration released last week, Swetnick claimed she was gang raped at a high school party that Kavanaugh and his friend, Mark Judge, attended in the 1980s. She also accused Kavanaugh and Judge of sexual misconduct at other parties.
Swetnick's allegations have been treated less seriously than accusations against Kavanaugh from two other women: Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez.

Who is Julie Swetnick?

In her sworn declaration, Swetnick identified herself as a resident of Washington, DC.
Swetnick, 55, graduated from Gaithersburg High School in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and attended Montgomery College, a community college in the area, according to The Washington Post.
She's the child of government bureaucrats. Her father worked on the lunar orbiter for NASA and her mother was a geologist at the Atomic Energy Commission, The Post reported.
Swetnick is a web developer and has held multiple security clearances doing work for various government agencies.
 
What we know about Swetnick's allegations against Kavanaugh

Swetnick's sworn declaration, which was made public by her attorney Michael Avenatti, says she attended "well over" 10 parties where Kavanaugh and Judge were present during the early 1980s.
She claims she saw both men "consistently engage in excessive drinking and inappropriate contact of a sexual nature with women" at these parties.

"I also witnessed efforts by Mark Judge, Brett Kavanaugh and others to cause girls to become inebriated and disoriented so they could then be 'gang raped' in a side room or bedroom by a 'train' of numerous boys. I have a firm recollection of seeing boys lined up outside rooms and many of these parties waiting for their 'turn' with a girl inside the room. These boys included Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh," Swetnick states in the declaration.
Swetnick also claimed she "became the victim of one of these 'gang' or 'train' rapes where Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh were present," though she did not explicitly accuse either of them of raping her.

Elisabeth Rasor, an ex-girlfriend of Mark Judge, told The New Yorker that Judge once confessed to "an incident that involved him and other boys taking turns having sex with a drunk woman."
Judge, who is also accused of being involved in Kavanaugh's alleged assault of Christine Blasey Ford, a California professor, seemed to believe the incident was consensual, Rasor said. But some have taken this as corroborative evidence of Swetnick's allegations. Kavanaugh and Judge have both vehemently denied Swetnick's allegations.

Questions arise about her allegations

Statements Swetnick made in an interview on Monday have raised questions about her allegations, and she appeared to walk back some of her initial claims. In her sworn declaration, Swetnick claimed she was "aware" of "efforts" from Kavanaugh, Judge, and others to spike drinks with drugs "and/or" grain alcohol so they would "lose their inhibitions" and their ability to say "no."
When asked by NBC's Kate Snow if she directly saw Kavanaugh or Judge spike drinks, she said "around the punch containers" and had seen him "giving red cups to quite a few girls during that time frame."
"I don't know what he did. But I saw him by them, yes," Swetnick said.

On Tuesday, a letter written by a former TV weatherman named Dennis Ketterer that made claims about Swetnick's alleged sexual preferences was released by Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee in what was widely viewed by critics as an effort to undermine her allegations.
Responding to the letter, Avenatti tweeted, "The letter from Dennis Ketterer is garbage - the GOP is desperate. The allegations he makes are false and without any basis."
—Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) October 2, 2018

Swetnick's credibility has also been called into question due to the fact she's been involved in at least six lawsuits over the past quarter century, including one in which a former employee accused her of falsifying her college and work history on her job application. The suit was ultimately dismissed.
Moreover, an ex-boyfriend of Swetnick's, Richard Vinneccy, has also said she's not credible and claims he filed a restraining order against her in 2001. But records show the suit was dismissed two weeks after he filed a petition for the order.
During her recent interview with NBC, Swetnick said of Vinneccy's claims, "That is absolutely preposterous, and honestly, I never received a restraining order."
Swetnick has been excluded from an FBI investigation into allegations against Kavanaugh

After Ford and Kavanaugh delivered dramatic, emotional testimony on her allegations before the Senate Judiciary Committee last Thursday, the White House authorized an FBI investigation into the matter to be completed prior to a Senate floor vote on Kavanaugh's nomination.
The FBI investigation concluded on Wednesday and the White House received a report from investigators. The report was passed on to senators on Thursday morning for review.

Swetnick was not contacted by the FBI, a fact Avenatti has been highly critical of. He said on Monday that the investigation is a "farce" being run by President Donald Trump and claimed the White House and Republicans are "afraid" of what Swetnick might say.
Avenatti also rejected the notion that her claims cannot be corroborated and on Wednesday tweeted a declaration from another women he said "confirms a number of Ms. Swetnick's claims."
"These women deserve to be heard & interviewed by the FBI before any vote on the nomination," Avenatti added.

Judge, who is also accused of being involved in the alleged assault of Ford, was interviewed.
Ramirez, who accuses Kavanaugh of shoving his penis in her face at a party when they were both at Yale University, has also been interviewed, among others with potentially relevant knowledge about the allegations the Supreme Court nominee faces.

But Kavanaugh and Ford were not interviewed, a fact that has led to criticism from Democrats who have noted that Trump said he wanted the investigation to be "comprehensive."
Critics, particularly Avenatti, feel the FBI investigation was not extensive enough.

On Thursday morning, Avenatti tweeted, "The FBI investigation was no investigation at all. [President Donald Trump], [Sen. Mitch McConnell], and [Sen. Chuck Grassley] ensured that numerous key witnesses, including six very damaging witnesses I am aware of, were never even interviewed. Their conduct is a disgrace - they never wanted the truth."

Meanwhile, the president tweeted that that the treatment of Kavanaugh as "harsh" and "unfair" and described the allegations against him as "uncorroborated."