Just minutes after Christine Blasey Ford, a California-based psychologist, went public with accusations of teenage sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh, internet investigators began combing her past for clues about her possible motives and trying to cast doubt on the veracity of her claims.
Since then, Ford has been the subject of a torrent of misinformation online. Some viral rumors about Ford have been quickly debunked. But false claims have continued to spread on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and other social networks.
Internet sleuths quickly zoomed in on a 22-year-old civil court case involving Kavanaugh's mother, Martha Kavanaugh, a district court judge in Maryland, in which Ford's parents, Ralph and Paula Blasey, were the defendants. Martha Kavanaugh, some said, had ruled against the Blaseys, costing them their house and creating a revenge motive for Ford.
There was, in fact, a 1996 foreclosure case involving Martha Kavanaugh and Ford's parents. But according to CBS News, the Blaseys settled with their bank, and Martha Kavanaugh dismissed the case. Citing court records, Snopes noted that Martha Kavanaugh's ruling actually allowed the Blaseys to keep their home.
But the story nevertheless made it onto conservative news sites including Gateway Pundit, which used the headline "Bad Blood: Judge Kavanaugh's Mother Foreclosed on Far Left Accuser's Parents' Home." The story has not yet been corrected.
