PROTESTERS OPPOSE SUPREME COURT NOMINEE
Protesters opposed to President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, demonstrate Thursday in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill. Story on
WASHINGTON — Christine Blasey Ford may testify against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh after all, her attorney said Thursday, breathing new life into the prospect of a dramatic Senate showdown next week over Ms. Ford’s accusation that he assaulted her when both were in high school.
The preference would be for Ms. Ford to testify next Thursday, and she doesn’t want Judge Kavanaugh in the same room, her attorney told Judiciary Committee staff in a 30-minute call that also touched on security concerns and other issues, according to a Senate aide who wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Ms. Ford is willing to tell her story to the Judiciary Committee, whose senators will vote on Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation — but only if agreement can be reached on “terms that are fair and which ensure her safety,” the attorney said in an email earlier Thursday. In the call, she said Ms. Ford needs time to secure her family, prepare her testimony and travel to Washington. No decisions were reached, the aide said.
The discussion revived the possibility that the panel would hold an electrifying campaign-season hearing at which Ms. Ford and President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee could give their versions of what did or didn’t happen at a party in the 1980s. Judge Kavanaugh, now a judge on the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, has repeatedly denied her allegation.
The accusation has jarred the 53-year-old conservative jurist’s prospects for winning confirmation, which until Ms. Ford’s emergence last week had seemed all but certain. It has also bloomed into a broader clash over whether women alleging abuse are taken seriously by men and how both political parties address such claims with the advent of the #MeToo movement — a theme that could echo in this November’s elections for control of Congress.
Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has scheduled a hearing for Monday morning, and he and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have indicated it would be Ms. Ford’s only chance to make her case. Republicans are eager to move ahead to a vote by the committee, where they hold an 11-10 majority, and then by the full Senate, which they control, 51-49.
Taylor Foy, spokesman for Republicans on the panel, said after the call that Mr. Grassley “will consult with his colleagues on the committee. He remains committed to providing a fair forum for both Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh.”
Attorney Debra Katz said anew that Ms. Ford, 51, a psychology professor in California, has received death threats and has relocated her family.
“She wishes to testify, provided that we can agree on terms that are fair and which ensure her safety,” Ms. Katz wrote in the email, which was obtained by The Associated Press after first being reported by The New York Times.
In the call later Thursday, Ms. Katz asked the committee to subpoena Mark Judge, whom Ms. Ford has named as the other teen in the room at the time. Mr. Judge has told the committee he does not recall the incident and does not want to speak publicly.
Should Ms. Ford testify, especially in public, it would pit the words of two distinguished professionals against each other as television close-ups capture every emotion. Assessing them would be not just the committee’s 21 senators — only four of whom are women, all Democrats — but also millions of viewing voters.
Underscoring the sensitivity of all-male GOP senators grilling a woman who has alleged abuse, Republicans are considering reaching out to female attorneys who might question Ms. Ford, according to a person familiar with the situation but who wasn’t authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
If Ms. Ford opts not to participate, Republicans could well dispense with the hearing to avoid giving Democrats a forum for peppering Judge Kavanaugh with embarrassing questions. They would argue that they’d offered Ms. Ford several options for describing her accusation, but that she’d snubbed them.
Judge Kavanaugh, who has been eager to testify, said he was ready to appear Monday.
“I will be there,” he wrote Mr. Grassley in a letter. “I continue to want a hearing as soon as possible, so that I can clear my name.”
Ms. Ford has contended that at a house party in Washington’s Maryland suburbs, a drunken Judge Kavanaugh tried undressing her and stifling her cries on a bed before she fled.
Mr. Grassley has said that in the interest of making Ms. Ford comfortable, he’d be willing to let Ms. Ford testify in public or private. He even offered to send committee aides to her California home to take testimony.
As the week has proceeded, Republicans have seemed to regain momentum toward approving Judge Kavanaugh though his prospects have remained uncertain.
Even moderate Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said it would be “unfair” to Judge Kavanaugh if Ms. Ford decides to not appear, and others were urging leaders to proceed quickly to a vote. Still, the bare 51-49 Republican majority means they can lose just one vote and still approve him if all Democrats vote no. Vice President Mike Pence would break a tie.
Democrats have tried using the issue to demonstrate that Republicans treat women unfairly, their eyes on upcoming elections in which suburban, antiTrump female voters could be pivotal in many races. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, DN.Y., a possible 2020 presidential candidate, said Republicans were “bullying” Ms. Ford by giving her a Monday deadline to testify.