Former Employer Sued 3rd Kavanaugh Accuser Over Sexual Harassment Allegations
Julie Swetnick, the woman who claims she was gang-raped at a party where Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was present, had a lawsuit filed against her by a former employer that alleged she engaged in “unwelcome, sexually offensive conduct” towards two male co-workers, according to court documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
In November 2000, WebTrends, a web analytics company headquartered in Portland, filed the defamation and fraud lawsuit against Swetnick in Oregon and also alleged that she lied about graduating from Johns Hopkins University.
Swetnick is represented by Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with President Donald Trump. Kavanaugh has vehemently denied Swetnick’s allegation.
WebTrends voluntarily dismissed its suit after one month. Avenatti told The Daily Caller News Foundation that the case was ended because it was “completely bogus.”
Swetnick’s alleged conduct took place in June 2000, just three weeks after she started working at WebTrends, the complaint shows. WebTrends conducted an investigation that found both male employees gave similar accounts of Swetnick engaging in “unwelcome sexual innuendo and inappropriate conduct” toward them during a business lunch in front of customers, the complaint said.
Swetnick denied the allegations and, WebTrends alleged, “in a transparent effort to divert attention from her own inappropriate behavior … [made] false and retaliatory allegations” of sexual harassment against two other male co-workers.
“Based on its investigations, WebTrends determined that Swetnick had engaged in inappropriate conduct, but that no corroborating evidence existed to support Swetnick’s allegations against her coworkers,” the complaint said.
After a WebTrends human resources director informed Swetnick that the company was unable to corroborate the sexual harassment allegations she had made, she “remarkably” walked back the allegations, according to the complaint.
In July, one month after the alleged incident, Swetnick took a leave of absence from the company for sinus issues, according to the complaint. WebTrends said it made short-term disability payments to her until mid-August that year. One week after the payments stopped, WebTrends received a note from Swetnick’s doctor claiming she needed a leave of absence for a “nervous breakdown.”
The company said it continued to provide health insurance coverage for Swetnick, despite her refusal provide any additional information about her alleged medical condition.
In November, the company’s human resources director received a notice from the Washington, D.C. Department of Unemployment that Swetnick had applied for unemployment benefits after claiming she left WebTrends voluntarily in late September.
“In short, Swetnick continued to claim the benefits of a full-time employee of WebTrends, sought disability payments from WebTrends’ insurance carrier and falsely claimed unemployment insurance payments from the District of Columbia,” the complaint states.
Swetnick allegedly hung up the phone on WebTrends managers calling to discuss why she applied for unemployment benefits, according to the complaint. She then sent letters to WebTrends’ upper management, detailing new allegations that two male co-workers sexually harassed her and said that the company’s human resources director had “illegally tired [sic] for months to get privileged medical information” from her, her doctor and her insurance company.
WebTrends also alleged that Swetnick began her fraud against the company before she was hired by stating on her job application that she graduated from John Hopkins University. But according to the complaint, the school had no record of her attendance.
An online resume posted by Swetnick makes no reference to John Hopkins University. It does show that she worked for WebTrends from December 1999 to August 2000.
It’s unclear what transpired after the complaint was filed against Swetnick. One month after WebTrends filed the action, the company voluntarily dismissed the action with prejudice.
The complaint against his client was “[c]ompletely bogus which is why it was dismissed almost immediately,” Avenatti told TheDCNF in an email. “The lawsuit was filed in retaliation against my client after she pursued claims against the company.”
WebTrends did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
In March 2001, three months after WebTrends dismissed its action, Swetnick’s ex-boyfriend, Richard Vinneccy, filed a restraining order against Swetnick, claiming that she threatened him after he ended their four-year relationship.
“She’s not credible,” Vinneccy told Politico. “Not at all.”
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A version of this article appeared on The Daily Caller News Foundation website.
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