Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh faces a second allegation of sexual misconduct after another woman came forward accusing him of inappropriate sexual behaviour during his college years at Yale University.

The New Yorker magazine reported on Sunday evening that a 53-year-old woman, Deborah Ramirez, who attended university with Kavanaugh, has alleged that the judge appeared to have thrust his genitals in her face at a drunken party during their freshman year in 1983-4 academic calendar. She said she clearly remembers the judge, then a teenager, pulling up his pants after a penis was thrust in her face during a drinking game. She also accused Kavanaugh of laughing at her in the aftermath and has said the FBI should investigate the incident.

The judge already faces a separate allegation of sexual assault made by Christine Blasey Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University, who claims Kavanaugh attempted to sexually assault her at a drunken high school party in the early 1980s.

Ford and Kavanaugh are set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday to address the allegations after a week of fraught public negotiations between Ford’s attorneys and Senate Republicans.

With the conservative judge’s confirmation prospects already hanging the balance, the news of a second set of allegations is likely to alarm Republicans who are hoping to push Kavanaugh’s nomination through the Senate, where they hold a slim 51-49 majority.

Kavanaugh, who currently sits on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, is a former Bush administration official who has been nominated to the seat vacated by Anthony Kennedy who was considered the swing justice on the court, particularly in cases involving issues like abortion and gay rights.

On Sunday evening Kavanaugh issued a statement through the White House press office categorically denying the allegations made by Ramirez.

“This alleged event from 35 years ago did not happen. The people who knew me then know that this did not happen, and have said so. This is a smear, plain and simple. I look forward to testifying on Thursday about the truth, and defending my good name – and the reputation for character and integrity I have spent a lifetime building –against these last-minute allegations,” Kavanaugh said.

The White House continued to back Kavanaugh’s nomination on Sunday evening. Kerri Kupec, an administration spokesperson, claimed that the new allegation was part of a “coordinated smear campaign by the Democrats designed to tear down a good man.”

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