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Several Democratic presidential candidates on Sunday called for the dismissal of Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh after the New York Times published new information about allegations of sexual behavior against him, while Republican leaders condemned the information as irresponsible and defended it.
On Twitter, President Trump accused media outlets of trying to put pressure on the judiciary to adopt more liberal positions and suggested, without further details, that the "Ministry of Justice come to his rescue" .
On Saturday, The Times published an essay in its Opinion section, adapted from a forthcoming book "Brett Kavanaugh's Education: An Inquiry," by two Times reporters, Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, who helped cover his confirmation hearings.
The reporters wrote that they had spent 10 months investigating allegations of sexual misconduct and sexual assault at the hearings center, including one of Deborah Ramirez, a former classmate at Yale. She remembered attending a party in a dormitory where the participants drank a lot and Mr. Kavanaugh poked the penis in her face, causing her to inadvertently crush and touch him.
Although Senate investigators concluded at the time that Ms. Ramirez's story was not corroborated, the authors indicated that at least seven people "had heard of the Yale incident long before Mr. Kavanaugh be a federal judge, "including Mrs. Ramirez's mother and her two classmates just days after the party.
The book also mentions that Ms. Ramirez's lawyers gave the F.B.I. a list of at least 25 people likely to have corroborating evidence, but that the office did not interview any of them. The two officers who interviewed Ms. Ramirez told her that they had found her "credible," according to the excerpt.
The authors also stated that they discovered a second, unreported incident involving similar behavior by Mr. Kavanaugh at a different party in his first year.
The excerpt said that a classmate, Max Stier, who now runs a nonprofit organization in Washington, warned Senators and the F.B.I. about what he had seen but that the office did not investigate.
The extract quotes two anonymous officials who contacted Stier, who declined to discuss the episode in public. Judge Kavanaugh declined to answer questions on this subject, according to the extract.
At the center of Justice Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing was testimony of allegations of sexual misconduct by Christine Blasey Ford, a university professor in California who attended a high school in the Washington area near her home.
She testified that, when they were teenagers, he tackled her in a bed, fumbled and tried to remove her clothes while covering her mouth. He denied the two women's allegations.
"These latest revelations are troubling," Elizabeth Warren, Democratic Senator of Massachusetts wrote on Twitter about The Times essay. "Like the man who named him, Kavanaugh should be dismissed."
Kamala Harris, Democratic Senator from California and member of the Senate committee who chaired her confirmation hearings, on Twitter echoes the call for dismissal.
"It has been presented to the court in a factitious process and its place in the court is an insult to the search for truth and justice," she wrote.
Julián Castro, who was housing secretary under President Barack Obama, and Bernie Sanders, a Vermont senator, also called for his dismissal.
Mr. Trump, who appointed Justice Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, defended him on Twitter on Sunday.
"It's an innocent man who has been treated HORRIBLY" he wrote. "Such lies about him. They want to scare him so that he becomes liberal!
In another tweet, the president suggested that Judge Kavanaugh "start suing people for defamation, or that the Justice Department come to his aid".
The Republican Majority Leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, says on Twitterthat "the far-left's willingness to take up completely unsubstantiated and unsubstantiated allegations during the confirmation process of last year was a dark and embarrassing chapter for the Senate".
Ronna McDaniel, the president of the Republican National Committee, wrote on Twitter that "The New York Times should be ashamed of this defamation of Judge Kavanaugh".
James Dao, deputy editor of The Times, said in a statement that the essay was "a media and media report that sheds new light on a topic that has sparked significant national debate."
The Times was heavily criticized for a tweet – which was later deleted – published Saturday in its opinion report about the test that read as follows: "Have a penis depressed in the face when an intoxicated party may seem like a safe amusement. But when Brett Kavanaugh pointed it out, Deborah Ramirez confirmed that she did not belong to Yale. "
Mr. Dao said the tweet "was clearly offensive and that it should never have been released and we sincerely apologize".
Christopher Cameron contributed to the reports.
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