Ford negotiates over Senate showdown

Woman’s lawyers say she will testify before panel but not at Kavanaugh hearing scheduled for Monday

Christine Blasey Ford, the woman whose accusation of sexual assault 36 years ago threatens to derail President Donald Trump’s conservative Supreme Court nominee, is now willing to testify in a showdown at the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Ford’s lawyers told the committee she refuses to appear at a hearing scheduled for Monday, where the accused nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, wants to give his side of the story.

The woman’s attorneys called the date set by Republicans “arbitrary,” according to multiple US news reports.

However, they said that she is open to negotiating a new date — under strict conditions, given the increasingly nasty atmosphere around the case.

Death threats

“As you are aware, she has been receiving death threats, which have been reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and she and her family have been forced out of their home,” Ford’s lawyers said in a letter, Washington Post and The New York Times reported.

“She wishes to testify, provided that we can agree on terms that are fair and which ensure her safety.”

That question of fairness is at the heart of a bitterly partisan debate over how to deal with the allegation that Kavanaugh drunkenly assaulted Ford at a party when he was 17, she was 15, and they were attending private schools outside Washington, DC.

Kavanaugh denies knowledge of any such assault and no further direct witnesses have come forward.

Ford’s lawyers repeated their call for the matter to be dealt with in a rigorous investigation, not what Democrats describe as a rushed hearing in the Republican-dominated Senate aimed at confirming Kavanaugh as quickly as possible.

“Her strong preference continues to be for the Senate Judiciary Committee to allow for a full investigation before her testimony,” the letter said.

The lawyers and numerous Democrats have repeatedly called for the FBI to open a probe.

However, Trump has rejected ordering FBI involvement.

Ford’s lawyers said in a letter