Kavanaugh’s accuser calls for FBI probe
Ford says she has had death threats over allegations
ACalifornia university professor wants the FBI to investigate her allegation that she was sexually assaulted by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh before she testifies at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing next week, her lawyers said in a letter to the panel.
Christine Blasey Ford’s lawyers wrote that Ford, a clinical psychology professor at Palo Alto University in California, wants to co-operate with the committee. But in the days since she publicly accused Kavanaugh of the assault when they were teens at a party 35 years ago, the lawyers said she has been the target of “vicious harassment and even death threats”. Her family has relocated, they said.
An FBI investigation “should be the first step in addressing the allegations”, the lawyers wrote.
The development came after President Donald Trump showered sympathy on his nominee and as Senate Republicans and Democrats fought determinedly over who should testify at a high-stakes hearing on the allegation just six weeks before major congressional elections.
Trump has already rejected the idea of bringing in the FBI to reopen its background check of Kavanaugh. Should he order such a review, it would likely delay a confirmation vote until after the November election. Republicans hope to have Kavanaugh confirmed by October 1, the start of the next Supreme Court term.
In a tweet yesterday, Trump wrote: “The Supreme Court is one of the main reasons I got elected President. I hope Republican Voters, and others, are watching, and studying, the Democrats Playbook.”
Meanwhile, Republicans are suggesting that Ford, whose allegations have upended Kavanaugh’s nomination — the committee’s vote was already pushed from tomorrow to likely next week — will have one chance to testify, and one chance only.
“Monday is her opportunity,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said yesterday, a line that was echoed by other Republicans.
McConnell expressed confidence that Kavanaugh would be confirmed. “I’m not concerned about tanking the nomination,” he said.
The GOP chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, said an FBI investigation wouldn’t have bearing on Ford’s testimony so “there is no reason for further delay”.
Grassley said the committee offered Ford “the opportunity to share her story” in a public or a private hearing, or staff interviews, “whichever makes her most comfortable. The invitation for Monday still stands”.
The furious jockeying over Ford’s testimony underscores the political potency so close to an election that will decide control of both the House and Senate, not to mention the confirmation of a conservative justice likely to serve on the high court for decades.
Democrats complain that Ford was
not consulted before the hearing was announced. They also want more witnesses besides Kavanaugh and Ford, hoping to avoid a he-said-shesaid moment.
The lawyers for Ford predicted the hearing, as now scheduled, “would include interrogation by senators who appear to have made up their minds” that she is “mistaken” and mixed up.
But Democrats also said they were planning to attend the hearing even if Ford did not show up. Senator Dick Durbin said he had “a lot of questions” for Kavanaugh. “A simple denial is not the end of questioning.”
Kavanaugh, 53, was at the White House on Tuesday for a second straight day, but again did not meet with Trump. The President said he was “totally supporting” Kavanaugh and felt “terribly” for him and his family. “This is not a man that deserves this,” he said.
The No. 2 Senate Republican leader, John Cornyn of Texas, noted that Ford has admitted she doesn’t remember some details of the incident. He called the allegations a “drive-by attack” on the judge’s character.
“There are gaps in her memory,” Cornyn said. “She doesn’t know how she got there, when it was and so that would logically be something where she would get questions.”
Criticism like that fed a Democratic narrative that the GOP’s handling of Ford could jeopardise that party’s election prospects in the age of #MeToo, the response to sexual abuse that has torched the careers of prominent men.
“Now this is really what #MeToo is all about, if you think about it,” said Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Judiciary Committee Democrat. “That’s sort of the first thing that happens, it’s the woman’s fault. And it is not the woman’s fault.” Meanwhile, Kavanaugh has been calling Republican senators, who said the nominee was committed to moving forward. “He’s not happy, he’s upset,” Senator John Kennedy said. “He said very clearly and unequivocally, ‘This did not happen’.”
Ford went public with her story on Monday, telling the Washington Post that Kavanaugh had forced himself on her in a bedroom at a party when he was 17 and she was 15, attempting to remove her clothes and clapping his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream. She says she escaped when someone else jumped on the bed.