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Yale law professor denies reports she groomed Kavanaugh's prospective clerks

"Substance is the most important thing," Amy Chua said in email statement to the Yale Law community.
Image: Amy Chua
Amy Chua appears on NBC News' "Today" show on Jan. 3, 2012.Peter Kramer / NBC NewsWire via Getty Images

The prominent Yale professor reported to have advised prospective female clerks of Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh to dress a certain way issued a statement on Saturday calling the allegations, "outrageous" and "100% false."

Amy Chua, a vocal supporter of Kavanaugh, denied allegations that she advised women on their physical appearance to help them land the prestigious clerkship.

"I always tell students to prep insanely hard — that substance is the most important thing," Chua defended in an email to the school's law community. "I advise them to read every opinion, including dissents, the judge has ever written as well as important recent cases from the circuit and Supreme Court."

The law school professor, who is also known for her best-selling book on parenting titled "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother," was alleged to have told students that it was "not an accident" that all female clerks on Kavanaugh's staff "looked like models," according to The Guardian on Thursday.

In her email on Saturday, she said that she advises "students, male and female, to dress professionally — not too casually — and to avoid inappropriate clothing. I remind them that they are interviewing with a member of the judiciary."

Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken responded shortly after the initial reports came out about Chua's controversial remarks on Thursday.

"While we cannot comment on individual complaints or investigations, the Law School and the University thoroughly investigate all complaints regarding violations of University rules and take no options off the table," Gerken wrote.

According to reports, Jed Rubenfeld, who is also a professor at Yale Law School and Chua's husband, also once told a student seeking a clerkship that Kavanaugh "hires women with a certain look."

"He did not say what the look was and I did not ask," the student said, according to The Guardian.

In July, three days after President Trump nominated Kavanaugh, Chua wrote an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal titled "Kavanaugh Is a Mentor To Women."

Kavanaugh is currently under intense scrutiny as he faces nomination hearings for the Supreme Court amid sexual assault allegations by a California professor, Christine Blasey Ford, who alleges that the judge sexually assaulted her when they were in high school, 36 years ago.

Ford conditionally accepted the GOP's offer on Saturday to testify about her encounter with the nominee during next week's hearing.