Top Aide Handling GOP Response to Kavanaugh Allegations Resigns Over Past Sexual Harassment Claims

The top Republican adviser involved in the Senate Judiciary Committee’s response to a sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has resigned over a previous sexual harassment allegation against him, NBC News reports. Garrett Ventry, 29, worked as a communications aide to the committee and had been helping to coordinate the Republican party’s messaging regarding the allegations made against Kavanaugh by Christine Blasey Ford. Ford has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her decades ago at a high school party, a claim which Kavanaugh has denied. Sources cited by NBC News on Saturday said Ventry was fired from the office of North Carolina House Majority Leader John Bell in 2017 after being accused of sexual harassment by a female employee of the North Carolina General Assembly's Republican staff. “The whole thing got turned into a he said, she said, and then Garrett was fired,” the source told NBC News. Ventry has denied any wrongdoing but “decided to resign to avoid causing any distraction from the work of the committee,” Judiciary Committee Spokesman Taylor Foy said in a statement Saturday.