A Top GOP Advisor Has Resigned After A Report Of Sexual Harassment Resurfaced

The Senate Judiciary Committee hearings to move Judge Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination forward have taken another turn. A Republican communications aide to the committee, Garrett Ventry, resigned after sexual harassment allegations surfaced on Saturday, according to NBC News. Bustle has reached out to Ventry for comment.

A woman on the North Carolina General Assembly Republican staff reportedly accused the 29-year-old of sexual harassment when he was "a social media adviser" on North Carolina House Majority Leader John Bell's staff in 2017, according to the news network.

Bell told NBC News that he fired Gentry, but declined to give specifics as to why. "Mr. Ventry did work in my office and he’s no longer there, he moved on,” he told the network.

Additionally, Ventry reportedly embellished his resume, NBC News reported. Ventry's resume reportedly said he held a paid position on Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's presidential campaign in 2016 in North Carolina, despite only working as a volunteer, according to NBC News.

"I deny allegations of misconduct," Ventry told NBC News.

The network reported that Ventry also resigned from the PR company that previously employed him, CRC Public Relations. "Garrett was on a leave of absence from the company and as of this morning we have accepted his resignation," the company told NBC News.

Ventry denied all allegations, but decided to resign from his position with the committee to keep the focus on the committee's work, according to committee's majority spokesman Taylor Foy. "Garrett was one of several temporary staff brought on to assist in the committee’s consideration of the Supreme Court nomination, a team that has done outstanding work. While he strongly denies allegations of wrongdoing, he decided to resign to avoid causing any distraction from the work of the committee," Foy told The Washington Post.

Politico reported on Friday that the CRC Public Relations — Ventry's previous employer — worked with Ed Whelan, a Republican legal activist, to guide his bizarre mistaken identity theory aimed at discrediting Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's accusation of attempted assault against Kavanaugh.

Whelan alleged Ford's accusation was a case of mistaken identity, and that it's possible a classmate of Kavanaugh's at Georgetown Prep was the perpetrator. Ford denied Whelan's theory. "I knew them both, and socialized with [the man named by Whelan]. I even visited [the man] when he was in the hospital," Ford said, according to CNBC on Friday. "There is zero chance that I would confuse them."

By Friday, Whelan walked back his accusations against a man who appeared to look similar to Kavanaugh and attended Georgetown Prep, like the judge. "I made an appalling and inexcusable mistake of judgment in posting the tweet thread in a way that identified Kavanaugh's Georgetown Prep classmate," Whelan tweeted. "I take full responsibility for that mistake, and I deeply apologize for it. I realize that does not undo the mistake."

Whelan also offered his "deepest apologies" to the man and his family. "I grievously and carelessly wronged the person I identified, and I owe him and his family my deepest apologies," he tweeted. "And I of course do not deserve to have him accept my apologies."

On Thursday, Gentry tweeted that the Senate Judiciary Committee was not involved in the theory put forth by Whelan. "To reporters asking: The Senate Judiciary Committee had no knowledge or involvement," Gentry tweeted.

Politico also reported that Ventry took a temporary position with the Senate Judiciary Committee at the request of the Federalist Society — the same conservative legal society which put forth Kavanaugh as an approved nominee — for a CRC Public Relations staffer to be at the Capitol.