Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, held a woman down, covered her mouth and tried to force himself on her while drunk at a party in high school, she alleges in a letter given to the FBI.
The letter, which was referred to the bureau by Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein on Wednesday, was obtained by The New Yorker on Friday.
The unidentified woman says the incident took place at a party in the early 1980s while Kavanaugh was a student at Georgetown Preparatory School in Bethesda, Md.
She alleges Kavanaugh and a friend of his, both of whom had been drinking, cornered her in a room and turned up the music to blur out the sound of her protests.
Kavanaugh then allegedly covered the woman's mouth with his hand and attempted to force himself on her, but she says she managed to free herself and bolt out of the room.
Kavanaugh, 53, vehemently denied the woman's allegations.
"I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation," he said in a statement. "I did not do this back in high school or at any time."
Kavanaugh's friend, who has not been identified, did not outright deny the woman's claims but told the New Yorker he has "no recollection of that."
The woman says she has had to undergo psychological treatment as a result of the incident.
She first approached her congresswoman, Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., about the allegations in July shortly after Trump tapped Kavanaugh to replace outgoing Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Eshoo's office declined to comment.
The woman's letter was in turn forwarded to Feinstein, D-Calif., who shared it with the FBI and her Democratic committee colleagues on Wednesday night.
An FBI official told the New York Daily News on Thursday that the letter has not yet resulted in a criminal investigation.
The damning allegations against Kavanaugh, a longtime conservative and current federal appeals judge, come as the Senate prepares to vote on his nomination to the highest court of the land.
Democrats have excoriated their Republican colleagues for withholding hundreds of thousands of documents from Kavanaugh's tenure in the George W. Bush administration and have unsuccessfully tried to delay a Judiciary Committee vote scheduled for Sept. 21.
If confirmed by the GOP-controlled committee, Kavanaugh's nomination will be taken up for a full Senate floor vote.
In light of the sexual misconduct allegations, committee chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released a letter Friday signed by 65 women who attested to Kavanaugh's "respect" for women.
"We are women who have known Brett Kavanaugh for more than 35 years and knew him while he attended high school between 1979 and 1983," they wrote. "Brett has stood out for his friendship, character, and integrity. In particular, he has always treated women with decency and respect. That was true when he was in high school and it has remained true to this day."
