Kavanaugh sex-attack accuser willing to testify, says her lawyer as judicial nomination now in doubt
A LAWYER for Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who said Judge Brett Kavanaugh assaulted her when the two were in high school, has said that Ford is willing to testify about the allegations before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“She is. She’s willing to do whatever it takes to get her story forth,” lawyer Debra Katz said on NBC’s ‘Today’ show yesterday when asked if her client would speak publicly about President Donald Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court.
Mr Kavanaugh has denied the allegations.
The White House indicated that it is continuing to stand by Mr Kavanaugh, but expects Ms Ford will offer testimony to the Judiciary Committee.
“This woman should not be insulted and should not be ignored,” White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway said during an interview on Fox News’s ‘Fox and Friends’.
Ms Conway called Mr Kavanaugh “a man of character and integrity” but said, based on conversations with Mr Trump and senators, she expects Ms Ford to tell her story to the committee, which is due to vote on Mr Kavanaugh’s nomination on Thursday.
Earlier yesterday, the White House issued a statement reiterating that Mr Kavanaugh denies the allegations, which surfaced last week without the name of the accuser.
In a story published on Sunday, Ms Ford told the ‘Washington Post’ that one summer in the early 1980s, Mr Kavanaugh and a friend – both “stumbling drunk”, Ms Ford alleges – corralled her in a bedroom during a gathering of teenagers at a house in Montgomery County, Maryland.
During the NBC interview, Ms Katz characterized Mr Kavanaugh’s actions as “attempted rape”, adding that her client feels “that if it were not for the severe intoxication of Brett Kavanaugh, she would have been raped”. (© The Washington Post)
‘This woman should not be insulted and should not be ignored’