Kavanaugh’s accuser wants FBI investigation before she testifies
Ford says she’s being threatened
WASHINGTON — Christine Blasey Ford wants the FBI to investigate her allegation that she was sexually assaulted by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh before she testifies at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing next week, her lawyers said in a letter sent Tuesday to the panel.
The lawyers wrote that Ms. Ford, who is now a college professor in California, wants to cooperate with the committee. But in the days since she publicly accused Judge Kavanaugh of the assault when they were teens at a party 35 years ago, the lawyers said, she has been the target of “vicious harassment and even death threats.” Her family has relocated, they said.
An FBI investigation “should be the first step in addressing the allegations,” the lawyers wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press.
The development comes after President Donald Trump showered sympathy on his embattled nominee and as Senate Republicans and Democrats fought determinedly over who should testify at a high-stakes hearing on the allegation just six weeks before major congressional elections.
Mr. Trump has already rejected the idea of bringing in the FBI to reopen its background check of Judge Kavanaugh. Should he order such a review, it would likely delay a confirmation vote until after the election. Republicans hope to have Judge Kavanaugh confirmed by Oct. 1, the start of the next Supreme Court term.
Meanwhile, Republicans are suggesting that Ms. Ford, whose allegations have upended Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination — the committee’s vote was already pushed from Thursday to likely next week — will have one chance to testify, and one chance only.
“Monday is her opportunity,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, RKy., said Tuesday, a line that was echoed by other Republicans throughout the day.
Mr. McConnell expressed confidence that Judge Kavanaugh would be confirmed. “I’m not concerned about tanking the nomination,” he said.
“We should proceed as planned,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, a key Republican on the panel.
The furious jockeying over Ms. Ford’s testimony underscores the political potency so close to an election that will decide control of both the House and Senate, not to mention the confirmation of a conservative justice likely to serve on the high court for decades.
Democrats complain that Ms. Ford was not consulted before the hearing was announced. They also want more witnesses besides Judge Kavanaugh and Ms. Ford, hoping to avoid what they said would turn into a “he-said-she-said” moment.
The lawyers for Ms. Ford predicted the hearing, as now scheduled, “would include interrogation by senators who appear to have made up their minds” that she is “mistaken” and mixed up.
But Democrats also said Tuesday they were planning to attend the hearing even if Ms. Ford did not show up.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said he had “a lot of questions” for Judge Kavanaugh. “A simple denial is not the end of questioning.”
As Democrats press for more time to investigate, Republicans have been careful to say that Ms. Ford should have her chance to speak, and they have stressed that they are willing to move Monday’s hearing behind closed doors, if she prefers.
“We’re planning on a hearing Monday. It can be open. It can be closed, whatever Ms. Ford wants,” said Sen. John Kennedy, a member of the Judiciary panel from Louisiana. “We’re ready to hear anything she has to say. I am, anyway, and I think most of us are.”
GOP Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee — among a handful of Republicans who insisted on hearing from Ms. Ford before voting — said it would be a “shame” if Ms. Ford didn’t show up to testify. But he suggested Republicans will not bend from their offer of a hearing Monday.
“That would be quite something if she decided she did not want to testify,” Mr. Corker said. “I’d assume the committee would then move on as they should.”
One witness the Democrats want to hear from is Judge Kavanaugh’s high school friend Mark Judge, who Ms. Ford said was in the room when she was assaulted. Judge Kavanaugh has denied Ms. Ford’s allegation, and Mr. Judge says he doesn’t remember any such thing. “More to the point, I never saw Brett act in the manner Dr. Ford describes,” Mr. Judge said in a letter to the panel.
The risks of a public hearing starring the allmale lineup of Republicans on the committee could be high. Republicans said late Tuesday they were considering hiring outside attorneys, presumably including women, to question the witnesses. But that may be moot if Ms. Ford declines to appear.
Judge Kavanaugh, 53, was at the White House on Tuesday for a second straight day but again did not meet with Mr. Trump. The president said he was “totally supporting” Judge Kavanaugh and felt “terribly” for him and his family.
“I feel so badly for him that he’s going through this, to be honest with you, I feel so badly for him,” said Mr. Trump, who has himself faced numerous accusations of sexual harassment that he’s denied. “This is not a man that deserves this.”
Ms. Ford went public with her story Sunday, telling The Washington Post that Judge Kavanaugh had forced himself on her in a bedroom at a party when he was 17 and she was 15, attempting to remove her clothes and clapping his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream. She says she escaped when Mr. Judge jumped on the bed.
Ms. Ford is now a psychology professor at California’s Palo Alto University. Judge Kavanaugh is currently a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, widely viewed as the nation’s second-mostpowerful court. His mother, Martha, is a Maryland state judge who was involved in a foreclosure case brought against Ms. Ford’s parents.