Accuser’s story of attack roils plan for Kavanaugh vote

NBC News has reached out to Kavanaugh and the White House for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.

Now Ford has told The Washington Post she had chose to waive her anonymity because she felt her “civic responsibility” was “outweighing my anguish and terror about retaliation” after the basic outlines of the story emerged in media last week.

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”.

Senator Feinstein said she notified federal investigators about the letter, and the FBI confirmed it has included the information in the letter in Mr Kavanaugh’s background file, which all senators can read.

Kavanaugh denied the allegation “categorically and unequivocally” on Friday. On July 30, the letter – including Ford’s request to keep the matter confidential – was reportedly sent from Eshoo’s office to Feinstein.

From the moment Anthony Kennedy retired, Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination appeared to be a foregone conclusion.

It’s also a significant challenge for Republicans who are struggling to win suburban women’s votes in the November 6 election that will decide control of the US House and Senate. The latest twist in the nomination process, however, likely freezes any Democratic support for Kavanaugh absent a reopening of the hearing.

No one was told of the incident until 2012, when Ford and her husband went to couples therapy.

Ford said that Kavanaugh forced himself on her by pinning her to a bed in the early 1980s, when the two were attending nearby high schools in Maryland.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate Minority leader, also released a statement regarding Ford’s accusations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh, saying the vote to confirm Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, which is a lifetime appointment, should be delayed. Ford also said the attack caused her lasting psychological trauma. Hasn’t she already said all she thinks she needs to say?

Ford said she was able to escape Kavanaugh and his friend, whom she identified as Mark Judge. Her Holton-Arms friends mostly hung out with boys from the Landon School, she said, but for a period of several months socialized regularly with students from Georgetown Prep.

Ford told the Post that though some details are now hazy, she believes her encounter with Kavanaugh took place in 1982, when Ford was 15 and Kavanaugh was 17.

Now, with the allegations having reached national prominence and reporters visiting her at home, Ford has made a decision to publicly identify herself. She recalled both her own and Justice Antonin Scalia’s “truly bipartisan” hearings.

Ford hired Debra Katz, an attorney known for her past work on sexual harassment cases, to represent her.

Ford told the Post the other person watched while this transpired. Those individuals did not respond to messages on Sunday morning.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley should treat this character assassination with the contempt it deserves and hold the committee vote this week, as planned.

As terrible as the allegation about Kavanaugh is (and one is justified in questioning its veracity under the circumstances), the use of an anonymous document to undermine him is dreadful.

Ford is a registered Democrat with a record of contributing to Democratic politicians. Clinton eventually settled the lawsuit with Jones for $850,000.

“No way, not even a hint of it”, an unnamed Whose House lawyer told Politico, discussing the possibility that Trump would withdraw Kavanaugh’s nomination.