Anita Hill weighs in on Kavanaugh allegation

Anita Hill says the government should find a “fair and neutral way” to investigate an allegation of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Hill, who accused then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of workplace harassment, said she knows “firsthand what happens such as process is weaponized against an accuser, and no one should have to endure that again.”

In 1991, Hill became famous – and vilified by some – when she testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee and said Thomas had harassed her when they both worked at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Thomas denied the allegation and decried committee’s proceedings as a “high-tech lynching.” He was confirmed to the court.

Kavanaugh on Friday forcefully denied an anonymous allegation that he tried to force himself on a woman decades ago when they were 17-year-old high school students.

“I did not do this back in high school or at any time,” Kavanaugh said in a statement issued by the White House.

In her statement, Hill said the “reluctance of someone to come forward demonstrates that even in the #MeToo era, it remains incredibly difficult to report harassment, abuse or assault by people in power.”

Hill, now a professor at Brandeis University, called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to “put in place a process that enables anyone with a complaint of this nature to be heard.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote next week on Kavanaugh’s nomination. He’s President Donald Trump’s second court pick.

Anita Hill