Kavanaugh accuser agrees to testify
Some details remain in negotiations with panel
WASHINGTON – Christine Blasey Ford agreed Saturday to testify before Congress this week about her allegations that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers.
“Dr. Ford accepts the committee’s request to provide her first-hand knowledge of Brett Kavanaugh’s sexual misconduct ...,” Ford’s attorney, Debra Katz, wrote to the committee leadership staff Saturday just before a 2:30 p.m. deadline.
The letter did not spell out precisely when or under what conditions Ford would testify. And it suggested that key sticking points remained unresolved.
“We are hopeful that we can reach agreement on details,” Katz wrote. “Can we set up a time for later this afternoon to continue our negotiations?”
Aides to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, did not respond to a request for comment.
But Ford’s decision to appear before the committee sets up a high-stakes hearing this week that will give Kavanaugh’s accuser a chance to tell her story publicly for the first time – allegations that have cast doubt over Kavanaugh’s once-assured confirmation and created intense political pressure on Senate Republicans in the #MeToo era.
Ford alleges that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a house party in the 1980s, when they were both teenagers at Washington-area private schools.
Ford said an inebriated Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, groped her, put his hand over her mouth to stifle her screams and tried to remove her clothes.