Kavanaugh Accuser Christine Blasey Ford Is Willing to Testify in Front of the Senate Judiciary Committee

Bridget Read
Updated
The California professor who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault said she is willing to publicly testify.

Christine Blasey Ford, the California professor who has come forward as the previously unnamed woman with allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, has said that she is willing to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Her lawyer Debra Katz said on Monday that her client was “willing to do whatever it takes to get her story forth.” The Senate is scheduled to vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation on Thursday.

Ford initially detailed the allegations (which date back to the 1980s, when she and Kavanaugh were high school students in suburban Maryland) in a letter via the office of her California congressional representative, Democrat Anna G. Eshoo, to Senator Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Feinstein did not reveal the letter to the rest of the committee, citing Ford’s request for anonymity—a decision for which Feinstein has been criticized heavily, considering the contents of the letter clearly have bearing in a discussion of Kavanaugh’s moral fitness as a Supreme Court nominee, (especially one with very outspoken opinions on what women should be allowed to do with their bodies.

In Ford’s harrowing account, she recounts how a drunken Kavanaugh and his friend and classmate at Georgetown Preparatory School, Mark Judge, corralled her into a bedroom at a party. She says that Kavanaugh pinned her down, tried to remove her clothing, and covered her mouth when she tried to yell. Though after Judge jumped on top of the pair and sent them all "tumbling," Ford was able to get away—first seeking shelter in a locked bathroom before fleeing the house—she "thought [Kavanaugh] might inadvertently kill me,” Ford said, “He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing.” She did not tell anyone about the incident, or the subsequent years of trauma it caused her, until 2012, when she discussed it in a couples therapy session. Ford now teaches clinical psychology at Palo Alto University in California.

Before Ford's name became public, Kavanaugh issued this statement: “I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. I did not do this back in high school or at any time.” White House senior counsel Kellyanne Conway said on Monday morning that Ford "should not be ignored or insulted; she should be heard"; but even with a person now attached to the formerly anonymous allegation, many (mostly male) Republicans were still excusing the behavior in Ford's story and questioning its validity. Judiciary Committee Republicans called the timing of the accusation against Kavanaugh “disturbing," and said that it provoked “questions about Democrats’ tactics and motives." In an attempt to minimize the violence described in Ford's letter, a lawyer close to the White House told Politico that all men in power should be worried about being "brought down" by a story like Ford's. “If somebody can be brought down by accusations like this, then you, me, every man certainly should be worried. We can all be accused of something," he said.

Kavanaugh needs to be confirmed by 50 votes in the U.S. Senate; as of Monday, two Senate Republicans, Bob Corker of Tennessee and Jeff Flake of Arizona, said that the confirmation should be delayed until Ford is given the opportunity to testify. Lisa Murkowski, Republican senator from Alaska, also said that the allegations should be heard. Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr. shared a photo on Instagram mocking Ford's allegations, showing her "letter" written in a child's handwriting in crayon (his father, President Donald Trump, has been accused of sexual misconduct by at least 19 women). Late on Monday morning, all 10 Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote to Chuck Grassley, asking to delay the vote and give the FBI time to "perform its due diligence" and fully investigate the allegations. "Throughout the hearings, Judge Kavanaugh provided incomplete and misleading responses to our questions—from his work on the FDA's attempt to block contraception from being available over the counter to his involvement in Enron; and from his engagement on torture, warrantless wiretapping, and detainees to his efforts to push controversial judicial nominations," the letter details: "The lack of the nominee's full record, combined with his incomplete and misleading answers during the hearing and beyond, demonstrate a clear need for this Committee to postpone moving forward this week."

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