Kavanaugh ready to face accusations
US SUPREME COURT NOMINEE’S ALLEGED ABUSE VICTIM WILLING TO TESTIFY
His alleged abuse victim, a California professor, is also willing to testify to Congress |
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh said a woman’s allegation that he sexually assaulted her while both were in high school is “completely false” and that he is willing to talk to the Senate Judiciary Committee in any forum to “defend my integrity”.
“This is a completely false allegation. I have never done anything like what the accuser describes — to her or to anyone,” Kavanaugh said in a statement issued yesterday by the White House. “Because this never happened, I had no idea who was making this accusation until she identified herself yesterday.”
The woman who made the accusation, Christine Blasey Ford, also said she is willing to testify to Congress after prospects for a swift confirmation were put in doubt amid calls from key GOP senators for an investigation.
“She’s willing to do whatever it takes to get her story forth,” her attorney, Debra Katz, told NBC’s Today Show. Katz told CNN in a separate interview that Ford hasn’t been contacted yet by the committee.
White House support
The White House reiterated its support for Kavanaugh, with spokeswoman Kerri Kupec saying in an email that it stands by the nominee’s denial.
GOP senators Bob Corker and Jeff Flake joined Democrats late on Sunday in seeking to delay a crucial committee vote set for Thursday so that lawmakers can further examine the allegations after the Washington Post published a detailed account from the accuser. Days earlier Kavanaugh had seemed on track for quick approval.
The Post identified Ford, a 51-year-old research psychologist and professor at Palo Alto University in California, as the woman whose accusation surfaced last week and raised the first serious doubts about Kavanaugh’s confirmation. The newspaper quoted Ford’s detailed description of the incident, and said it also viewed notes from a 2013 therapy session in which she had called it a “rape attempt”.
President Donald Trump won’t withdraw the nomination and the administration is gearing up for a counteroffensive, a White House official said. The Trump team plans to try to discredit the charges for surfacing late in the confirmation process and to question the credibility of the accuser because she didn’t tell anybody about the incident at the time, the official said.
The official said the White House wants to avoid a public hearing on the allegations — a risky drama that could build sympathy for the accuser — but is willing to accept a confidential inquiry.
White House adviser Kellyanne Conway told reporters that the accuser’s allegations should be heard by the Senate.