I rarely mention President Trump's tweets on this blog, but this one from Friday warrants a mention:
I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents.
That's the old "fresh report" problem that I mentioned in this post Tuesday.
Whatever value the "fresh report" rule has as a rule of evidence (and I believe its costs outweigh its benefits), as an empirical matter the inference the President draws is simply not correct. A solid majority of sexual assaults are not reported, including a great many as bad as the one alleged. As for the parents, the most likely reason they did not report it is that they did not know.
In Smith v. Murray (1986), the Supreme Court noted that it is the hallmark of effective advocacy to winnow out the weak claims and focus on the strong ones. There are strong arguments that Judge Kavanaugh's advocates can make. (For example, the third person who was supposedly in the room said no such incident involving him and Kavanaugh ever happened.) An advocate does not do the "client" any good by garbaging up the case with clearly invalid arguments when strong ones are available apotheek.
The President personally does not need to advocate at all. He commendably refrained from public statements on this matter for some time. That was the way to go.
