Christine Blasey Ford has become the target of a social media disinformation campaign after accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault
CLAIM: College students wrote negative reviews about her on a website that ranks college professors. (FALSE)
CLAIM: Brett Kavanaugh's mother, Martha Kavanaugh, who is a district court judge in Maryland, once ruled against Christine Blasey Ford's parents in a foreclosure case. (FALSE)
The rumor says that Christine Blasey Ford's parents, Ralph and Paula Blasey, lost their home in a 1996 foreclosure case, over which Brett Kavanaugh's mother presided.
The truth: Ralph and Paula Blasey were indeed defendants in a 1996 foreclosure case where Martha Kavanaugh was the presiding judge, CBS News White House correspondent Steven Portnoy reported, but she did not rule against them, and they did not lose their home.
CLAIM: Christine Blasey Ford allegedly accused Justice Neil Gorsuch of sexual assault last year. (FALSE)
According to The New York Times report, a Twitter user named Josh Cornett, who has a history of spreading far-right-themed misinformation online, appears to have started the rumor.
A tweet posted on the account on Tuesday claimed Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California was hesitant to bring up Christine Blasey Ford's letter accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault because she allegedly sent a similar letter about Justice Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump's first Supreme Court nominee, last year. This is false.
The truth: No such letter accusing Gorsuch of sexual assault has been found, The Times reported.
CLAIM: Ford is a major donor to the Democratic Party and left-wing activist. (MOSTLY FALSE)
Conspiracy theorists claim Ford posted the message, "[Justice Antonin] Scalia types must be banned from law" on Facebook in 2016, referring to the former Supreme Court justice who died in Texas in February 2016. Similarly, others claim that Ford wrote “Scalia types must be banned from courts.”
The truth: While Ford is a registered Democrat who has donated to progressive organizations, she is far from being a major donor. Data from the Federal Election Commission shows Ford donated less than $100 to Democratic election campaigns and committees between 2013 and 2017.
CLAIM: Ford's brother worked at a law firm that has ties to the Russia investigation (MISLEADING)
A conservative legal organization issued a press release that sought to paint Christine Blasey Ford as unreliable because, as the rumor goes, her brother worked for the law firm Baker Hostetler linked to the Russia investigation.
Broadly, the investigation is examining whether President Donald Trump or his campaign collaborated with the Russians to tilt the election in Trump's favor.
The truth: Ford’s brother stopped working at BakerHostetler in 2004, which was more than a decade before the Russia investigation began.
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