Ford willing to speak at hearing pencilled in for Friday
WASHINGTON: Christine Blasey Ford, the California woman who alleges Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in high school, is willing to ‘‘provide her firsthand knowledge’’ to the Senate judiciary committee this week, her attorneys said yesterday, and the committee has tentatively agreed to hold a hearing on Friday.
Lawyers for Ford, a research psychologist at Palo Alto University, said they wanted another meeting with committee staffers to negotiate her appearance, however, meaning a resolution to the standoff is not yet certain.
In an email to the committee, Ford’s lawyers said they were ‘‘disappointed with the leaks and the bullying that have tainted the process’’ since Ford’s name and allegations first surfaced last weekend, putting Kavanaugh’s nomination into jeopardy.
The Senate committee tentatively agreed to let Ford testify on Friday but it is not clear whether Kavanaugh will face off against his accuser, or who will conduct the questioning. Representatives of the committee will speak to Ford’s lawyers today to continue hammering out details.
Republican Senator Charles Grassley, of Iowa, the committee chairman, has not spoken publicly and may yet decide to move forward with a committee vote on Kavanaugh tomorrow, as he had wanted, or postpone a vote to accommodate Ford’s requests.
Other Republicans on the com mittee expressed frustration at the latest communication. Some dismissed it as a delaying tactic for partisan purposes less than two months before the midterm election.
‘‘This is exactly where we were on Monday morning — without agreeing to a date, time, and terms, we are no closer to hearing from Dr Ford then we were when her lawyers said Dr Ford was willing to testify during their media tour,’’ Senator Orrin Hatch, of Utah, tweeted.
Ford’s allegation that an inebriated Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed and attempted to remove her clothing while muffling her cries at a party in the early 1980s, when both were students at elite private high schools near Washington, DC, has roiled Kavanaugh’s expected confirmation.
President Donald Trump weighed in on Saturday, saying: ‘‘If the attack on Dr Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local law enforcement authorities by either her or her loving parents.’’
In response, tens of thousands of Americans began using the hashtag #whyIdidntreport to describe their own experience with assault.
Kavanaugh has vigorously denied Ford’s accusation. In a statement yesterday, White House spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said the nominee was ‘‘ready, willing and eager to testify as soon as possible’’.
Republican leaders need to tread softly as they work to get Kavanaugh on to the Supreme Court with a slim 51seat majority in the Senate. His confirmation could shift the ideological makeup of the nation’s highest court for decades.
Several Senate Republicans have indicated they are anxious to hear from Ford and then move forward with the process, fearful of repeated delays. But a handful of Republican senators considered the likeliest to join Democrats in voting against Kavanaugh have stressed that they are not comfortable moving ahead without hearing directly from Ford.
Grassley has agreed to Ford’s requests to allow just one TV camera in the hearing room and to limit news media access, to provide breaks during the testimony, and to keep Kavanaugh out of the room while she testifies.
But he baulked at her requests that Kavanaugh testify first, that only senators — and not committee attorneys — ask questions, and that subpoenas be issued to compel other potential witnesses to testify. — TCA