Clock ticking on Kavanaugh accuser
Hearing set for Monday; Ford given 10 a.m. Friday deadline
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday bluntly questioned the allegation that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted a fellow high school student over 30 years ago, and Republicans warned the accuser the window was closing to tell her story before a confirmation vote.
Trump’s skepticism came as GOP Senate leaders tried to firm up support for Kavanaugh. A potentially climactic Judiciary Committee showdown is scheduled for next Monday with both Ford and Kavanaugh invited, but her attendance is uncertain, casting doubt on whether the hearing will be held at all.
Christine Blasey Ford has said she wants the FBI to investigate her allegation before she will testify. Democrats support that, but Trump and Senate Republicans have been emphatic that it won’t happen.
Leaving the White House to survey flood damage in North Carolina from Hurricane Florence, Trump conceded that “we’ll have to make a decision” if Ford’s account proves convincing.
“I can only say this: He is such an outstanding man. Very hard for me to imagine that anything happened,” Trump said.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-iowa, wrote to Ford’s attorneys that the hearing was still scheduled for Monday morning, and he pointedly said she must submit her written statement by 10 a.m. Friday “if she intends to testify” that day. Lisa Banks, a lawyer for Ford, released a statement late Wednesday that cast no light on whether her client will appear.
Banks wrote that Ford wants “a full nonpartisan investigation” and said Ford is willing to cooperate. But she said Grassley’s plan to call just Kavanaugh and Ford “is not a fair or good faith investigation” and said “multiple witnesses” — whom she didn’t name — should appear.
One key Democrat, Missouri
Sen. Claire Mccaskill, announced Wednesday she will vote against Kavanaugh, depriving Trump’s nominee of a possible swing vote.
Mccaskill called the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh troubling, but said she based her decision on the judge’s views on issues like presidential power and “dark money” in campaigns.
Moderate GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said she hoped Ford would reconsider a decision not to testify and “it’s not fair to Judge Kavanaugh” if she refuses.
Going further, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Democrats’ demands for an FBI investigation were a ploy to delay a confirmation vote.
As for a possible FBI intervention, Grassley said in his letter to Ford’s lawyers, “We have no power to commandeer an Executive Branch agency into conducting our due diligence.”
In a separate letter to Democrats, Grassley wrote that committee aides were “even willing to fly to California, or anywhere else, to meet her.”
He also wrote that GOP aides tried to arrange interviews with two other “alleged witnesses.” The letter mentioned no names and committee staff declined to name them.