|
Supreme
Court
nominee
Brett
Kavanaugh
during
his
Senate
Judiciary
Committee
confirmation
hearing
in
Washington
on Sept.
6, 2018.
(Photo:
Andrew
Harrer,
Bloomberg) |
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Accuser’s
story of
attack
roils
plan for
Kavanaugh
vote
By
DARLENE
SUPERVILLE
and
LISA
MASCARO
APNews.com
WASHINGTON
- Judge
Brett
Kavanaugh’s
confirmation
for the
Supreme
Court is
taking
an
uncertain
turn as
Republican
senators
express
concern
over a
woman’s
private-turned-public
allegation
that a
drunken
Kavanaugh
groped
her and
tried to
take off
her
clothes
at a
party
when
they
were
teenagers.
The
White
House
and
other
Kavanaugh
supporters
had
dismissed
the
allegation
of
sexual
misconduct
when it
was
initially
conveyed
in a
private
letter.
With a
name and
disturbing
details,
the
accusation
raised
the
prospect
of
congressional
Republicans
defending
President
Donald
Trump’s
nominee
ahead of
midterm
elections
featuring
an
unprecedented
number
of
female
candidates
and
informed
in part
by the
#MeToo
movement.
The
GOP-controlled
Senate
Judiciary
Committee
appeared
nonetheless
committed
to a
vote
later
this
week
despite
Christine
Blasey
Ford’s
account
in The
Washington
Post.
Kavanaugh,
she
said,
pinned
her to a
bed at a
Maryland
party in
the
early
1980s,
clumsily
tried to
remove
her
clothing
and put
his hand
over her
mouth
when she
tried to
scream.
Kavanaugh
repeated
his
previous
denial
that
such an
incident
ever
took
place.
A
split
seemed
to be
emerging
among
the GOP.
As
Democrats,
led by
Minority
Leader
Chuck
Schumer
of New
York,
called
for a
delay in
the
vote,
two
committee
Republicans
— all 11
on the
GOP side
are men
— Sens.
Jeff
Flake of
Arizona
and
Lindsey
Graham
of South
Carolina,
said
they
wanted
to hear
more
from
Ford.
Flake
went as
far as
to say
he was
“not
comfortable”
voting
for
Kavanaugh
for the
time
being. A
potential
“no”
vote
from
Flake
would
complicate
the
judge’s
prospects.
A
Republican
not on
the
committee,
Sen. Bob
Corker
of
Tennessee,
said the
vote
should
be
postponed
until
the
committee
heard
from
Ford.
Contacted
Sunday
by CNN,
Sen.
Susan
Collins,
R-Maine,
wouldn’t
say if
the vote
should
be
postponed.
Some
Senate
Republicans,
along
with the
White
House,
see no
need to
postpone
voting
over
what
they
consider
uncorroborated
and
unverifiable
accusations,
according
to a
person
familiar
with the
situation
but not
authorized
to speak
publicly.
A
committee
spokesman
said
late
Sunday
that its
chairman,
Sen.
Chuck
Grassley
of Iowa,
was
trying
to
arrange
separate,
follow-up
calls
with
Kavanaugh
and
Ford,
but just
for
aides to
Grassley
and Sen.
Dianne
Feinstein,
D-Calif.,
before
Thursday’s
scheduled
vote.
Critics
have
already
accused
the GOP
of
fast-tracking
the
process
to get
Kavanaugh
on the
court by
Oct. 1,
the
first
day of
the fall
term.
The
allegation
against
Kavanaugh
first
came to
light
late
last
week in
the form
of a
letter
that had
been for
some
time in
the
possession
of
Feinstein,
the top
Democrat
on the
Judiciary
Committee
and one
of its
four
female
members.
On
Sunday,
The
Washington
Post
published
an
interview
with
Ford,
who
after
months
of
soul-searching
decided
to go
public.
“I
thought
he might
inadvertently
kill
me,”
said
Ford,
51, a
clinical
psychology
professor
at Palo
Alto
University
in
California.
“He was
trying
to
attack
me and
remove
my
clothing.”
She told
the Post
that she
was able
to
escape
after a
friend
of
Kavanaugh’s
who was
in the
room
jumped
on top
of them
and
everyone
tumbled.
Through
the
White
House,
Kavanaugh,
53, a
federal
appeals
judge in
Washington,
said
Sunday:
“I
categorically
and
unequivocally
deny
this
allegation.
I did
not do
this
back in
high
school
or at
any
time.”
Senate
Republicans,
along
with the
White
House,
see no
need to
postpone
voting
over
what
they
consider
uncorroborated
and
unverifiable
accusations,
according
to a
person
familiar
with the
situation
but not
authorized
to speak
publicly.
In
considering
their
options
Sunday,
Republicans
largely
settled
on the
view
that
Ford’s
story
alone
was not
enough
to delay
Kavanaugh’s
confirmation.
Grassley
could
invite
Ford to
testify,
likely
in
closed
session
before
Thursday.
Kavanaugh
would
also
probably
be asked
to
appear
before
senators.
The
panel
would
also
likely
seek
testimony
from
Mark
Judge,
Kavanaugh’s
friend
and
classmate
who Ford
says
jumped
on top
of her
and
Kavanaugh.
Judge
has
denied
that the
incident
happened.
Republicans
have not
settled
on the
strategy,
the
person
familiar
with the
situation
said,
but were
weighing
options,
including
doing
nothing.
Republicans
say the
allegations
have
already
cast a
shadow
over
Kavanaugh
but that
it does
not
appear
to be
enough
to
change
the
votes in
the
narrowly
divided
51-49
Senate.
Key will
be the
views of
Collins
and Sen.
Lisa
Murkowski
of
Alaska.
The
White
House
has
accused
Feinstein
of
mounting
an “11th
hour
attempt
to delay
his
confirmation.”
The
White
House
has also
sought
to cast
doubt
about
Ford’s
allegation
by
noting
that the
FBI has
repeatedly
investigated
Kavanaugh
since
the
1990s
for
highly
sensitive
positions
he has
held,
including
in the
office
of
independent
counsel
Ken
Starr,
at the
White
House
and his
current
post on
the
federal
appeals
court in
Washington.
Kavanaugh’s
nomination
had
already
sharply
divided
the
Senate
along
party
lines.
But the
allegations
of
sexual
misconduct,
particularly
coming
amid the
#MeToo
movement
against
sexual
harassment,
coupled
with
Ford’s
emergence
could
complicate
matters,
especially
as key
Republican
senators,
including
Collins
and
Murkowski,
are
under
enormous
pressure
from
outside
groups
who want
them to
oppose
Kavanaugh
on
grounds
that as
a
justice
he could
vote to
undercut
the Roe
v. Wade
ruling
legalizing
abortion
in the
U.S.
Ford
told the
Post
that
Kavanaugh
and a
friend —
both
“stumbling
drunk,”
she says
—
corralled
her in a
bedroom
when she
was
around
15 and
Kavanaugh
was
around
17. She
says
Kavanaugh
groped
her over
her
clothes,
grinded
his body
against
hers and
tried to
take off
her
one-piece
swimsuit
and the
outfit
she wore
over it.
Kavanaugh
covered
her
mouth
with his
hand
when she
tried to
scream,
she
says,
and
escaped
when
Judge
jumped
on them.
Kavanaugh
attended
a
private
school
for boys
in
Maryland
while
Ford
attended
a nearby
school.
In
the
interview,
Ford
says she
never
revealed
what had
happened
to her
until
2012,
when she
and her
husband
sought
couples
therapy.
Ford’s
husband,
Russell
Ford,
said he
recalled
his wife
using
Kavanaugh’s
last
name and
expressing
concern
that
Kavanaugh
— then a
federal
judge —
might
someday
be
nominated
to the
Supreme
Court.
Sixty-five
women
who knew
Kavanagh
in high
school
defended
him in a
separate
letter,
circulated
by
Senate
Judiciary
Committee
Republicans,
as
someone
who
“always
treated
women
with
decency
and
respect.”
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