Senate panel nixes accuser’s requests
Woman who said nominee assaulted her to face senators
The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman on Friday rejected key concessions sought by Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser if she is to testify about her claim that Kavanaugh assaulted her.
WASHINGTON — Lawyers for Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers, said Saturday that she has accepted the Senate Judiciary Committee’s request to testify about her allegation this week while signaling that a final deal on her testimony has not been reached.
In an email sent to the committee Saturday, attorneys Debra Katz and Lisa Banks asked the staff of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to set up a phone conversation later Saturday towork out specifics.
“Dr. Ford accepts the Committee’s request to provide her first-hand knowledge of Brett Kavanaugh’s sexual misconduct (this) week,” the lawyers wrote. “Although many aspects of the proposal you provided via email, 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 email doesn’t specifically say whether Ford has agreed to appear Wednesday, although that was themost recent offer that Grassley had made to her attorneys. Yet Ford’s legal team plans to continue to press for a Thursday hearing, according to a person familiar with the lawyers’ thinking.
Minutes after that email, Michael Bromwich, a lawyer who has been repre- senting former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, announced Saturday that he was resigning from his law firm, Robbins Russell, to join Ford’s legal team.
Aides to Grassley did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But other Republicans working on Kavanaugh’s confirmation were skeptical of the lawyers’ latest response.
“It’s a clever way to push off the vote Monday without committing to appear Wednesday,” a senior White House official said.
Ford has alleged that while she and Kavanaugh were teenagers at a house party in the early 1980s, he drunkenly pinned her to a bed, groped her and put his hand over her mouth to stifle her screamsas he tried to take off her clothes. Kavanaugh has repeatedly denied the allegation.
If a final agreement on the details of the hearing is reached, that would set the stage for a dramatic, searing confrontation this week. Kavanaugh has categorically denied Ford’s allegation and says he wants to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the matter, and the commit- tee and Ford’s lawyerswere in negotiations over the conditions of her testimony until Saturday afternoon.
Republicans said they would accommodate several of Ford’s requests, including ensuring that she had adequate security at the Capitol and that Kavanaugh would not be in the room when she speaks. But the GOPalso declined her other asks, including that Kavanaugh testify first and that the committee subpoena Mark Judge — a K ava na ugh friend who Ford says was present during the alleged incident — and call other potential witnesses to the hearing.
“If this process to secure her testimony falls apart, the fault is totally and clearly on the Republican leadership,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in an interview Saturday.
Senate GOP leaders have argued that they have been very accommodating to Ford’s requests, while Democrats say Republicans have bullied Ford with unreasonable deadlines.
Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence joined the chorus of renewed Republican support for Kavanaugh on Saturday, telling a crowd of around 2,000 conservative activists at the Values Voters Summit that Kavanaugh “is a man of integrity, with impeccable credentials and a proven judicial philosophy” and that he would soon be confirmed.