Trump pushes Supreme Court pick’s sex accuser to testify

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump piled pressure on the woman accusing his Supreme Court pick of sexual assault by insisting that she testify next week if she wants to be heard.

Trump echoed Republican leaders in suggesting that time is running out for Christine Blasey Ford, the California psychology professor whose allegation that she was assaulted as a teenager threatens to derail confirmation of conservative Judge Brett Kavanaugh to America’s highest court.

Ford has backtracked from earlier statements that she is ready to face a grilling in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Instead, she is calling for an FBI probe into her allegation that Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed and muffled her cries as he tried to pull off her clothes when she was 15 and he was 17.

Kavanaugh, now 53, denies any such incident took place and no other direct witnesses have come forward.

Trump told journalists at the White House that he retained full faith in the judge, saying it was ‘very hard for me to imagine that anything happened.’

He urged Ford to take her chance at the committee hearing set for Monday, where Kavanaugh is likewise invited to explain his side of the story.

Trump indicated that his patience is wearing thin, even telling political website The Hill that the scandal resembles what he called ‘the witch hunt’ by a special prosecutor into allegations his campaign colluded with Russia to bring about his surprise 2016 election.

“We continue to give her a lot of time. We’ve held up the whole hearing,” Trump told reporters.

The Republican chairman of the Senate committee, Chuck Grassley, wrote to Ford’s lawyers, ruling out any FBI role and saying that the sole venue for airing the allegations would be the Senate hearing.

“You have stated repeatedly that Dr Ford wants to tell her story. I sincerely hope that Dr Ford will accept my invitation to do so, either privately or publicly, on Monday,” Grassley said.

Late Wednesday, a lawyer for Ford, Lisa Banks, was quoted by The Washington Post saying that the ‘ rush to a hearing is unnecessary and contrary to the Committee discovering the truth.’ But Susan Collins, a Republican senator seen as potentially voting against party lines, also said that Ford needed to testify.

“I think it’s not fair for Judge Kavanaugh for her not to come forward and testify,” she said. — AFP