Thoroughly investigate charge against Kavanaugh
We’ve learned many lessons from the #MeToo movement and the incidents that spawned it. Key among them is that alleged victims should be heard. But that means a credible, fair hearing.
This applies in the case of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Kavanaugh now stands so accused and both the accuser and accused have been asked to appear at a hearing Monday. Kavanaugh has agreed. The accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, has said that appearing is premature without an investigation beforehand.
She’s right. Otherwise, it’s just he said, she said. The Senate Judiciary Committee should not hold a hearing if only Kavanaugh appears and it should hold off on the confirmation process until an investigation is complete. And the committee should be open to hearing other witnesses, including the Kavanaugh classmate who Ford says was in the room when the alleged assault took place.
Ford, a California psychology researcher, alleges that a drunken 17-year-old Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, groped her over her clothes and attempted to forcibly disrobe her at a high school party in the early 1980s in suburban Maryland. She was 15. Kavanaugh flatly denies the allegation. A hearing — if it occurs — carries echoes of another confirmation hearing. In 1991, Anita Hill alleged sexual misconduct by now-Justice Clarence Thomas. It is a different time and place today. But, if true, this amounts to, not sexual harassment as in Thomas’ case, but attempted rape, which her attorney says might have been successful had the teenage boy not been so drunk.
If it happened, should a 53-year-old man be accountable for what he did at 17? That question will surely be debated, but, again, this is a charge of attempted rape. And there is another wrinkle: If Ford’s account is true, Kavanaugh is lying — with doubts about his truthfulness on other matters already raised by Democrats.
There was resistance to a hearing at all initially. It went something like this: This 11th hour charge reeks of political opportunism. The charge is some 35 years old, and Ford was silent about it for much of that period. But Ford disclosed the attack to a therapist in 2012, whose notes have been provided, though Kavanaugh was not explicitly named. Moreover, what we know about sexual assaults is that victims often remain silent for long periods, if they come forward at all. This occurs for a variety of reasons, including the ordeal victims undergo after the assault.
The No. 2 Senate Republican, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, notes that there are gaps in Ford’s story. But we also know that gaps in memory occur because of the trauma suffered and particularly after long periods of time.
The factors that have to be weighed are whether the allegation can be proven true or false and — because this isn’t being conducted in a court of law — who is more believable. But this will require an investigation, which can also help with those gaps Cornyn laments. Democrats are pushing for the FBI to investigate as part of a reopened Kavanaugh background check. That’s the more reasonable course — before a hearing — to determine if corroboration is possible.
Ford wrote an anonymous letter months ago, which was forwarded to California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking minority party member on the Judiciary Committee. A reluctant Ford said she came forward because she believed she was about to be outed and over concerns over how her allegation was being represented.
Yes, all this might mean Kavanaugh is not sworn in before Oct. 1, when the high court is scheduled to begin its new term. And a delay, if it occurs, comes amid GOP fears that, if it’s too long, the Democrats might capture the Senate in the midterm elections and thwart Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
But this must not be rushed. Better that the evidence be considered and the accused and accuser be heard than take the chance that germane material about the nominee’s fitness, including his truthfulness, not be fully vetted.
In any case, Republican senators have little high ground to stand on in objecting to delay. Republican senators were perfectly OK refusing to even consider President Barack Obama’s nominee to the court after Justice Antonin Scalia died — though the president had some 10 months left in his term. And bear in mind that while that nomination languished, Republicans were also OK with an eight-member — 4-4 — court.
But this charge against Kavanaugh transcends politics. Investigate the charge and then hear out the accuser and the accused. Letters may also be mailed to Letters, Express-News, P.O. Box 2171, San Antonio, TX 78297. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Length? The shorter the better – long enough to make your point. All letters are subject to editing for length and clarity.