Spokeswoman for group supporting Kavanaugh says sexual assault allegations could have been 'rough horseplay'

Screenshot/CNN

Carrie Severino, chief counsel at the conservative Judicial Crisis Network, speaks on CNN.

• The chief counsel for a conservative judicial group backing Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination described the sexual assault allegations made by Christine Blasey Ford against the judge as potentially "rough horseplay." 
• "Her allegations cover a whole range of conduct from boorishness to rough horseplay to actual attempted rape," the lawyer Carrie Severino said during a Tuesday interview on CNN.
• Ford has alleged that Kavanaugh attacked her and has described the incident as an attempted rape.

The chief counsel for a conservative group backing Judge Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination described on Tuesday the sexual assault allegations Christine Blasey Ford made against the judge as potential "rough horseplay." 

"Her allegations cover a whole range of conduct from boorishness to rough horseplay to actual attempted rape," the lawyer, Carrie Severino, said during an interview on CNN. "And so, obviously, if you go to rape, yes, that is a very serious allegation." 

Ford, who identified herself to The Washington Post in an article published Sunday, says that when she was 15 years old, Kavanaugh, then 17, pinned her to a bed and groped her while his friend watched in a home in Montgomery County, Maryland. Kavanaugh, she alleges, covered her mouth with his hand and turned up the music to mask her screams.

CNN host Kate Bolduan pushed back on Severino.

"I don't think anywhere in there she's saying this is boorish horseplay - at all," the CNN host said. 

But Severino insisted that Ford's allegations could be interpreted in many ways. 

"She's certainly implying that it's attempted rape," Severino replied. "I'm saying the behavior she described could describe a whole range of things." 

The conservative attorney went on to note that Kavanaugh has flatly denied the allegations and said that he did not attend the party where Ford said the attack took place. 

The Judicial Crisis Network, which has poured millions of dollars into pressuring senators to confirm Kavanaugh, is planning a $1.5 million ad campaign to support Kavanaugh amid the allegations, multiple news outlets reported Monday.