Christine Blasey Ford Can't Return Home Due to 'Unending' Death Threats, Lawyer Says

Tierney McAfee
Updated

A lawyer for Christine Blasey Ford says she’s unable to return home due to the “unending” death threats she’s still receiving after coming forward with allegations of sexual assault against now Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Ford’s lawyer, Debra Katz, said it will be “quite some time” before the professor and her family will be able to move back to their home in California.

“I will say, this has been terrifying,” Katz told NBC’s Kasie Hunt during an interview alongside fellow Ford attorney Lisa Banks. “Her family has been through a lot. They are not living at home. It’s going to be quite some time before they are able to live at home. The threats have been unending. It’s deplorable. It’s been very frightening.”

Katz added that Ford, 51, has also been receiving “extraordinary letters of support and encouragement” since she testified under oath to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 27 about being sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh, 53, when she was 15 and he was 17. (Kavanaugh has denied the allegation.)

Katz and Banks have reported the death threats against Ford to the FBI, the lawyers said in an email to the Senate Judiciary Committee in September.

Ford’s friend Jim Gensheimer told PEOPLE last week that the death threats prompted Ford and her family to leave their house, with friends taking in her teenage sons so they can stay in school.

“She’d been trying to forget this her whole life,” Gensheimer said. “Now her life is never going to be the same.”

Katz and Banks also told NBC that Ford was “horrified” over President Donald Trump’s comments mocking her in front of a crowd of supporters at a rally in Mississippi.

“I think she was as horrified as the rest of us were. It’s terrible, it’s disrespectful, it’s horrible,” Katz said.

“She was upset by it,” Banks added. “As any women would be who is the victim of sexual assault, who is mocked and belittled by anyone, nevermind the president of the United States.”

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Katz and Banks added that Ford remains certain that Kavanaugh was the one who sexually assaulted her, despite critics’ suggestions that she could have misidentified her attacker.

“She knew him, he knew her. She knows exactly who sexually assaulted her on that day,” Katz said.

“She’s never wavered and never questioned her testimony on that point,” Banks added.

Facing historic opposition, and allegations of sexual assault from Ford and two other women, Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court on Saturday following a 50-48 vote. (He has denied all allegations.)

Ford’s longtime friend Kate DeVarney tells PEOPLE, “On behalf of my friend, and all people who have been subjected to sexual assault, political assault, abuse of power, discrimination and bigotry, I feel ashamed of our government and pray that together we can somehow find a way to repair this terrible divide.”

  • With reporting by DIANE HERBST