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Classmate of Kavanaugh's accuser who said the assault "did happen" now takes it back

Christina King Miranda deleted her Facebook post because she "can't say" if it really happened.

A former classmate of Christine Blasey Ford at Holton-Arms School wrote a Facebook post Wednesday saying she remembered hearing about Ford's alleged assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

But she soon deleted the post and on Thursday walked it back, seeming genuinely surprised by the furor it caused. “I had no idea that I would now have to go to the specifics and defend it before 50 cable channels and have my face spread all over MSNBC news and Twitter,” Cristina King Miranda told NPR's Nina Totenberg.

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In a now-deleted Facebook post, King said the alleged sexual assault was an open secret at the school and that many of Ford’s classmates knew about it.

Read: Republicans are saying Monday is the last day they’ll deal with Kavanaugh assault allegations

“This incident did happen. Many of us heard about it in school and Christine’s recollection should be more than enough for us to truly, deeply know that the accusation is true. We are all in some way from that time, at least me, Christine, and I applaud her courage and her dignity,” King wrote.

But faced with having to potentially be a witness in an investigation, King told Totenberg that she had no direct knowledge of the facts. She said the Senate Judiciary Committee reached out to her, but she told NPR she wouldn’t go through with an interview if asked.

“That it happened or not, I have no idea,” she said. “I can't say that it did or didn't.”

Over the years, Ford told her husband about the incident and a therapist in 2012, who preserved the notes.

The letter King wrote alleges that she knew Kavanaugh, Mark Judge, and Blasey in high school and described the culture of underaged partying that infused life at these elite private suburban-D.C. schools. (Kavanaugh and Judge went to Georgetown Prep, an all-boys Jesuit school.)

“We were teenagers and did really stupid, abusive, dangerous things,” King continued in the now-deleted post. “Nobody here has the moral authority over anyone else no matter what elite school or college or brilliant career and beautiful family he or she may now have.”

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The post comes days after Ford, a 51-year-old research psychologist in northern California, accused Kavanaugh of attempted rape at a party in 1982. She said Kavanaugh pinned her down on a bed, tried to remove her one-piece bathing suit and clothes, and put his hand over her mouth when she attempted to scream.

Ford’s attorney, Debra Katz, told NBC's "Today" show that she “believes that if it were not for the severe intoxication of Kavanaugh, she would’ve been raped.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is giving Ford a Friday-morning deadline to decide whether she’ll testify at a hearing Monday.

Kavanaugh and the White House vehemently denied the allegation immediately after it came to light.

“This is a completely false allegation,” Kavanaugh said in a statement released by the White House on Monday. “I have never done anything like what the accuser describes — to her or to anyone. Because this never happened, I had no idea who was making this accusation until she identified herself yesterday. I am willing to talk to the Senate Judiciary Committee in any way the Committee deems appropriate to refute this false allegation, from 36 years ago, and defend my integrity.”

Cover: Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on Thursday September 6, 2018. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)