Trump pick denies sexual assault claim by professor
● Professor says sex attack by Trump nominee changed her life
US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh last night fought back against allegations he had sexually assaulted a psychology professor when they were both were high school students, telling Congress that claims by her and others had “totally and permanently destroyed” his family and his reputation.
The conservative jurist branded his confirmation process as “a national disgrace”.
Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh last night told a US Senate panel his family and his name “have been totally and permanently destroyed” as he denied allegations of sexual assault.
Mr Kavanaugh spoke at a Senate judiciary committee hearing after Christine Blasey Ford testified he sexually assaulted her when they were both were in high school.
She said she was terrified to come forward, but did so because she felt it was her civic duty. Appearing to hold back tears at times, Mr Kavanaugh said his confirmation process had become “a national disgrace” and a “character assassination”.
He lashed out at the committee over the time it had taken to convene the hearing after Dr Ford’s allegation first emerged, describing the process as a “circus”.
The nominee urged senators to listen to the people who know him and not those making grotesque allegations against him as he declared he had “never had any sexual or physical encounter of any kind” with Dr Ford.
The father of two daughters, Mr Kavanaugh claimed one of his girls had said they should “pray for the woman” making the allegations.
Dr Ford had earlier recounted her allegations to Congress and a riveted nation, testifying she had been sexually assaulted by Mr Kavanaugh and one of his friends as they shared “uproarious laughter” in a locked room at a 1980s high school gathering.
The 51-year-old California psychology professor delivered her account in a soft and sometimes halting voice.
She said Mr Kavanaugh trapped her on a bed and tried undressing her, grinding his body against her and muffling her cries with her hand. “I believed he was going to rape me,” she said in her opensupreme
ing statement. Democrats have rallied strongly behind Dr Ford. Dr Ford’s testimony came as the Senate judiciary committee held an extraordinary session that Republicans hope will salvage Mr Kavanaugh’s chances of joining the high court.
She showed no hesitancy in affirming the crucial question about the alleged incident, telling senators her certainty that Mr Kavanaugh was her attacker was “100 per cent”.
Rachel Mitchell, a veteran sex crimes prosecutor from
Arizona who asked all the questions for the committee’s all-male GOP senators, seemed to elicit no significant inconsistencies in her testimony.
When Dr Ford finished, several women in the audience stood and said loudly “thank you Dr Ford”.
She appeared relieved and blew kisses to some of them. Democratic senators gathered around her for handshakes.
Mr Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation had seemed assured until Dr Ford came for- ward and then other women emerged with additional allegations of sexual misconduct.
The conservative jurist, now 53, has denied them all.
Dr Ford testified for about three hours, not including time senators took out for breaks and lunch.
In an election-season battle being waged along a polarised nation’s political and cultural fault lines, US president Donald Trump and most Republicans have rallied behind Mr Kavanaugh, with a chance to cement the conservative majority of the court for a generation. But it has become less clear whether they will be able to hold GOP senators behind Mr Trump’s nominee.
Republicans have accused Dr Ford and the other women of making unproven allegations and have questioned why they had not publicly revealed them for decades.
Among the television viewers was Mr Trump, who has mocked the credibility of Mr Kavanaugh’s accusers. The president watched aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington from the United Nations.