LogFAQs > #909379073

GreenKnight127 posted...

So he is entitled to an assumption of innocence, to a point.....but the burden still falls onto him to prove that he didn't do something?

I mean...that kinda contradicts itself, doesn't it?

Not at all. Again, if you are accused of something in a job interview, it's not your potential employer who has to prove beyond all doubt that it happened; it's your job to prove to them that it didn't.

Plus, "prove" isn't really the correct term here. Yes, Kavanaugh will never be able to prove, beyond any doubt, that the allegations against him are untrue. However, if a thorough investigation turns up absolutely zero witnesses or corroborating evidence and fails to in any way corroborate the accuser's version of events, that will satisfy most impartial people - including those evaluating him in the senate - that the allegations are likely false and the chance of them being true is small enough to be discounted.

If I was responsible for hiring the CEO of a major corporation and someone phoned me with an allegation that "this guy started a fight with me at a party last September" and, when confronted, the CEO was able to say "I know that guy, he's hated my guts for a long time because I'm a huge, vocal supporter of Net Neutrality and he hates it. Here's an e-mail log of things that he sent to me, oh, and I was out of town at the time, which some friends I was visiting will attest to" - that doesn't completely disprove the allegations but, unless some additional evidence comes forward, it would be enough to satisfy me that said allegation was probably spurious.

In this particular case, we can do one better because we have the FBI and lying to the FBI is a crime. If, in my hypothetical, the FBI could haul the accuser into a room and say "OK, we want you to make your allegation on record, oh and by the way we're stopping by the club you said this party was at and will be pulling security footage to confirm that you and the accused were there that night" and all of a sudden the guy doesn't want to make the accusation anymore, that more or less settles it.
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