A spokesman for the Republican majority on the Senate Judiciary Committee has stepped down over his history of sexual harassment, NBC News first reported Saturday.
Garrett Ventry was helping to shape messaging around the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh until his abrupt departure, according to NBC.
Ventry told NBC that he denied any “allegations of misconduct.” Judiciary Committee Spokesman Taylor Foy told the network that he agreed to resign “to avoid causing any distraction from the work of the committee.”
Sources told NBC that Ventry was fired as an adviser to North Carolina House Majority Leader John Bell because Ventry embellished his resume and was accused of sexually harassing a female employee on the state assembly’s Republican staff.
Ventry’s departure is the latest bombshell in what has been a rocky confirmation process for Senate Republicans. Lawyers for Christine Blasey Ford, the woman accusing Kavanaugh of attempted sexual assault, have blamed Senate Judiciary leaders for putting undue pressure their client. Ford has faced death threats and had to flee her home with her family.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R) has given Ford’s attorneys a Saturday afternoon deadline to agree to the terms of her public testimony.
Per NBC, Ventry previously worked for CRC Public Relations, the firm that reportedly promoted a bizarre conspiracy theory that a former Kavanaugh classmate and doppleganger was behind the attempted assault on Ford. Conservative activist Ed Whelan was forced to apologize after pushing the theory on Twitter.
In a statement to the Washington Post’s Seung Min Kim, a CRC spokesperson said, “Garrett was on a leave of absence from the company and as of this morning we have accepted his resignation.”
