Senate Committee to take testimony on sex assault allegations against Judge Kavanaugh
By
Barry Grey
24 September 2018
Amid saturation media coverage, the Senate Judiciary Committee and lawyers for Christine Blasey Ford agreed Sunday to go forward with an open hearing Thursday on Ford’s allegations that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her 36 years ago, when they were both teenagers in a Maryland suburb of Washington, DC.
The stage is thus set for a day of political theater that will do nothing to establish which of the two is telling the truth. Psychologist and Palo Alto University professor Ford claims that an inebriated 17-year-old Kavanaugh threw her on a bed during a house party when she was 15 and attempted to rape her. Kavanaugh denies that he was even at the party.
Ford’s lawyers and the Republican-controlled committee reportedly agreed to have Ford testify first, followed by Kavanaugh. Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley rejected Ford’s request for other witnesses to be called, including Kavanaugh’s friend Mark Judge, whom, she claims, was present and complicit in the sexual attack, something Judge denies. Grassley also refused to allow her to respond at the hearing to Kavanaugh’s testimony. Earlier, the Republicans rejected demands by Ford and the Democrats for an FBI investigation of her charges prior to a hearing.
In recent days, four people named by Ford as having been present at the house party where she was attacked, including Judge, have said they have no memory of the party or the alleged incident.
It is not clear whether the Republicans on the committee will question Ford directly, as she has requested, or have a committee staff lawyer, presumably a woman, do the questioning.
Only hours after the agreement with Ford was…