--- title: Read Brett Kavanaugh's Senate Hearing Opening Testimony Transcript description: Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh shared prepared testimony for Senate Judiciary Committee. Read the transcript. canonical: https://time.com/5407189/brett-kavanaugh-transcript-senate-testimony/ author: Gina Martinez article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-09-26T18:46:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-24T11:26:32.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Here's What Brett Kavanaugh Plans to Say in His Defense og:description: "In retrospect, I said and did things in high school that make me cringe now." og:url: https://time.com/5407189/brett-kavanaugh-transcript-senate-testimony/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbffe6774b169420d/69893b0c4ee262108c312f10/gettyimages-1027754774.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Senate Holds Confirmation Hearing For Brett Kavanaugh To Be Supreme Court Justice og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What Brett Kavanaugh Plans to Say in His Defense twitter:description: "In retrospect, I said and did things in high school that make me cringe now." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbffe6774b169420d/69893b0c4ee262108c312f10/gettyimages-1027754774.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's What Brett Kavanaugh Plans to Say in His Defense on Thursday > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Gina Martinez](https://time.com/author/gina-martinez/) ## Gina Martinez Updated: Jan 24, 2024 11:26 AM UTCPublished: Sep 26, 2018 6:46 PM UTC  Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 6, 2018. Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 6, 2018.Alex Wong—Getty Images by [Gina Martinez](https://time.com/author/gina-martinez/) ## Gina Martinez Updated: Jan 24, 2024 11:26 AM UTCPublished: Sep 26, 2018 6:46 PM UTC Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh released a prepared testimony he plans to share at his hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday — and he continues to vehemently deny any accusations of sexual misconduct. Kavanaugh released the prepared statement on Wednesday, shortly before third accuser Julie Swetnick came forward with claims that she witnessed him “consistently engage in excessive drinking and inappropriate contact of a sexual nature with women in the early 1980s.” Kavanaugh [denied the latest accusations under oath in a closed-doors Judiciary Committee hearing, according to an email seen by TIME.](http://time.com/5407129/kavanaugh-denies-third-sexual-misconduct-allegations/) His first accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, came forward on Sept. 15 and claimed that Kavanaugh[ sexually assaulted her](http://time.com/5397627/brett-kavanaugh-sexual-assault/) in a bedroom during a high school party in 1982\. On Sunday, a second accuser, Deborah Ramirez, came forward and claimed that [Kavanaugh exposed himself](http://time.com/5404577/brett-kavanaugh-deborah-ramirez-hearing/) in front of her during a college party. Kavanaugh swiftly denied both Ford and Ramirez’s allegations. [In his prepared statement,](https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/BK%20Written%20Testimony%20-%20Submitted%20Sept%2026.pdf) Kavanaugh denies Ford’s accusation “immediately, unequivocally, and categorically,” and calls Ramirez’s accusation “false and uncorroborated.” He says that the accusations are an effort to block his nomination. Kavanaugh also says he will not be intimidated into withdrawing and says he has never sexually assaulted anyone “not in high school, not in college, not ever.” Kavanaugh also admits that he was not a perfect person in high school but the misconduct he is being accused of is “inconsistent with the rest of his life.” “I spent most of my time in high school focused on academics, sports, church, and service,” he says in the statement. “But I was not perfect in those days, just as I am not perfect today. I drank beer with my friends, usually on weekends. Sometimes I had too many. In retrospect, I said and did things in high school that make me cringe now.” Below is Kavanaugh’s full prepared written testimony: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5407189/brett-kavanaugh-transcript-senate-testimony/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5407189/brett-kavanaugh-transcript-senate-testimony/"},"headline":"Here's What Brett Kavanaugh Plans to Say in His Defense on Thursday","datePublished":"2018-09-26T18:46:38.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-24T11:26:32.000Z","description":"\"There has been a frenzy to come up with something — anything, no matter how far-fetched or odious —that will block a vote on my nomination,\" Kavanaugh said","url":"https://time.com/5407189/brett-kavanaugh-transcript-senate-testimony/","keywords":["Supreme Court","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbffe6774b169420d/69893b0c4ee262108c312f10/gettyimages-1027754774.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Gina Martinez","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/gina-martinez/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbffe6774b169420d/69893b0c4ee262108c312f10/gettyimages-1027754774.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Senate Holds Confirmation Hearing For Brett Kavanaugh To Be Supreme Court Justice","caption":"Senate Holds Confirmation Hearing For Brett Kavanaugh To Be Supreme Court Justice","creditText":"Alex Wong—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/supreme-court/","name":"Supreme Court"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5407189/brett-kavanaugh-transcript-senate-testimony/","name":"Here's What Brett Kavanaugh Plans to Say in His Defense on Thursday"}}]}] ```