Ronan Farrow admits second Kavanaugh accuser only came forward after Senate Dems 'began looking

Investigative reporter Ronan Farrow, who helped break a second story of alleged sexual misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, admitted Monday the accuser's story was only investigated after Senate Democrats "began looking" for new dirt on Kavanaugh.

Farrow and longtime New Yorker reporter Jane Mayer published a bombshell story Sunday night detailing new allegations from a woman who attended Yale with Kavanaugh. She claims that during a party, in which she herself was drunk, Kavanaugh exposed himself to her.

The New Yorker and the New York Times, in a separate investigation, was unable to find a single corroborating witness. Kavanaugh denies the claim, characterizing it as "a smear, plain and simple."

What did Farrow say?

During an interview with George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning America," Farrow confirmed the fears of many Republicans — that Kavanaugh is the victim of a well-orchestrated smear campaign meant to derail his Supreme Court nomination — admitting the second accuser only came forward after Democrats snooped for additional dirt on Kavanaugh.

"She came forward because Senate Democrats began looking at this claim. She did not flag this for those Democrats. This came to the attention of people on The Hill independently, and it's really cornered her into an awkward position," Farrow said.

"She said, point-blank, 'I don’t want to ruin anyone’s life,' but she feels this is a serious claim. She considers her own memories credible and she felt it was important that she tell her own story before others did without her consent," he explained.

Prior to Farrow's admission, Stephanopoulos asked the reporter how the accuser's accusations could be credible if just last week she was questioning their legitimacy due to heavy drinking and holes in her memory. The ABC host said the revelation "jumped out" at him.

Farrow responded that unreliable memory is "extremely typical of these stories when you are dealing with trauma, alcohol, many years in between."

"The more cautious witnesses that I have dealt with in cases like this very frequently say, 'I want to take time to decide, I want to talk to other people involved, I want to search myself and make sure that I can affirmatively stand by these claims' in the face of what she knew would be a crucible of partisan pushback, which is what she is receiving now," he said.