Assault accuser agrees to testify
The woman whose sexual assault allegation threatens to bring down President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee has agreed to testify in the Senate, setting up a dramatic showdown this week.
Christine Blasey Ford’s decision followed days of negotiations and came after Trump turned against her and said her accusation could not be true.
After the Senate Judiciary Committee received a message from Ford’s lawyers, several members confirmed that she had accepted their committee’s request to testify.
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein tweeted: “Dr Blasey Ford will testify next week.
“She has shown tremendous courage in the face of death threats and harassment and deserves respect as final details for the hearing are worked out.”
Hours later, multiple outlets reported that the hearing would take place on Thursday.
The committee’s Republican leader Chuck Grassley had wanted the hearing to take place on Wednesday, but Ford asked that it be held on Thursday at the earliest and to be able to call as a witness a man she says was present during the assault.
The tentative deal capped a day of frenetic developments, with time running out for Trump to get his hand-picked conservative judge confirmed – thereby tilting the Supreme Court firmly to the right for years to come – before November elections in which Republicans risk losing control of Congress.
Earlier, the panel had given the California professor a time limit to decide whether to appear, after she had rejected a Friday evening deadline.
“Although many aspects of the proposal you provided via e-mail, on [Friday] are fundamentally inconsistent with the committee’s promise of a fair, impartial investigation into her allegations, and we are disappointed with the leaks and the bullying that have tainted the process, we are hopeful that we can reach agreement on details,” the lawyers’ letter cited by The Washington Post read.
The White House criticised Ford for allegedly dithering.
Ford alleges that nominee Brett Kavanaugh drunkenly assaulted her at a party when he was 17 and she 15 in the 1980s.
Kavanaugh denies knowledge of any such assault.
The White House later also pushed back on Ford’s claims.
It came as Trump on Friday declared that Ford was lying.
Trump tweeted, blaming “radical left wing politicians” for the controversy.
Democrats say Republicans are mounting an unseemly rush to get Kavanaugh into the Supreme Court while they still control the legislature. –