Prosecutor to question judge, accuser
Third woman alleges sexual misconduct by Trump nominee for Supreme Court
PHOENIX — A sex-crimes prosecutor tapped by Senate Republicans to question Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh about allegations of sexual assault could have a tough time in such a contentious political environment, Arizona attorneys who know her said Wednesday.
But her boss says Rachel Mitchell is a hard-hitting attorney who is used to handling highprofile cases and is one of the few prosecutors in the country with a deep understanding of working with sexual abuse victims.
Mitchell, a Republican, was expected to question Kavanaugh and the first woman to accuse him of sexual misconduct at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday.
Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation that Kavanaugh drunkenly assaulted her when they were teenagers has raised a political storm in the #MeToo era and the GOP’s all-male presence on the panel made some want a woman to question Ford.
Mitchell is chief of the Special Victims Division in the Maricopa County attorney’s office in Phoenix. She supervises attorneys who handle cases involving child molestation, sexual assault and computer crimes against children in Arizona’s most populous county.
“She is about evidence-based approaches and isn’t an activist on one side or the other,” said Matt Long, a private Phoenix attorney who once worked for Mitchell and now handles sex abuse cases. “She is rare: a career prosecutor who is bound to issues rather than politics.”
But, he added: “There is nothing in this process to make me comfortable that this process is about fairness, truth and evidence.”
Arizona defence attorney David Michael Cantor said the choice of a longtime sex-crimes prosecutor to question Kavanaugh and his accuser was “ironic.”
“If she gives him a pass, if she doesn’t dig down and get the guy to squirm, it could hurt her reputation,” said Cantor, who runs the Phoenix law firm DM Cantor. “But if she grills both of them equally, she’ll be a superstar.”
Mitchell has not responded to requests for comment sent through the county attorney’s office.
Since Ford came forward, allegations from two other women have emerged, but Republicans have not announced any plans to focus to today’s session on those claims.
Kavanaugh heatedly denied them all, while Democrats complained about a rush to approval and President Donald Trump said the accusations added up to no more than “a con job.”
Trump praised Kavanaugh anew at a news conference Wednesday, but in answer to a question he said he could consider changing his mind on the nomination if testimony by Blasey Ford is totally convincing. He said of the allegations by her and others, “If I thought he was guilty of something like this … yeah, sure.”
As with the allegations by two previous accusers, the latest incidents are alleged to have occurred decades ago.
In a sworn declaration, Julie Swetnick of Washington, D.C., said she witnessed Kavanaugh “consistently engage in excessive drinking and inappropriate contact of a sexual nature with women in the early 1980s.”
Her attorney, Michael Avenatti, provided the declaration to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Republican leaders indicated they were still determined to have the committee vote on recommending Kavanaugh on Friday — after the hearing today at which both Kavanaugh and Ford, are to testify.
A roll call presumably would follow next week by the full Senate, where Republicans hold a scant 51-49 majority.
Timing is critical. Kavanaugh would be likely to cement a conservative tilt to the Supreme Court for years to come, but that could be thrown into doubt if he cannot be confirmed before November elections that might swing Senate control to the Democrats.
Republicans, therefore, are anxious to get to the climactic vote, while Democrats insist there should be a time-out to investigate the women’s allegations.
There are scattered hints of Republican hesitancy.
Kavanaugh supporter Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, was asked as he left a closed-door luncheon attended by VicePresident Mike Pence whether party senators remained united behind Kavanaugh. His answer: Republicans are impressed by the judge and don’t know the accusers and “I think that goes to his advantage.”
Susan Collins of Maine, a pivotal moderate who’s not announced her position, said she was taking Swetnick’s claims seriously.
Kavanaugh, the 53-year-old appeals court judge, released a statement denying the Swetnick accusations.
“This is ridiculous and from the Twilight Zone. I don’t know who this is and this never happened,” he said.
Judiciary chairman Chuck Grassley, a Republican, tweeted that about 20 committee investigators are “tracking down all allegations/leads & talking to all witnesses & gathering all evidence.”
The committee also released a two-page prepared statement from Kavanaugh for Thursday’s hearing in which he “categorically and unequivocally” denied Ford’s allegation. She has said he forced her into a room at a high school party, held her on a bed and tried removing her clothes as he muffled her mouth with his hands. Ford says she eventually escaped.
Kavanaugh’s written testimony for the committee went a bit further than the description of his youthful behaviour he gave in a Fox News Channel interview Monday, when he said “people” may have drunk too much at high school parties.
“I drank beer with my friends, usually on weekends. Sometimes I had too many. In retrospect, I said and did things in high school that make me cringe now,” Kavanaugh said.
He also provided the committee with detailed calendar pages listing in green-and-white squares the activities that filled his summer of 1982 when he was 17 years old — exams, movies, sports and plenty of parties.
That’s the year when Ford says she believes the assault occurred.
The May through August pages mention several parties at various houses and also a beach week, highlighted in all caps, the week after Kavanaugh’s exams.
Nothing on the calendar appears to mention Ford, who has said she was a “friendly acquaintance” of Kavanaugh’s at the time.