Brett Kavanaugh’s friend Mark Judge declines to testify about alleged sexual assault

Democrats on the committee say Grassley is rushing the confirmation process and are calling on the FBI to reopen Kavanaugh’s background investigation, which would include questioning Kavanaugh, Ford, and Judge on the incident.

A hearing would represent a potential make-or-break moment for the conservative federal appeals court judge’s confirmation chances for the lifetime post on the top US court, as Trump pursues his goal of moving the federal judiciary to the right.

On Monday, Republicans abruptly agreed to hold a public hearing on Ford’s accusation under pressure from senators demanding that the nominee and his accuser give public, sworn testimony before any vote. Grassley said on radio’s “Hugh Hewitt Show”.

Democrats say they want the FBI to investigate Ford’s claims. “She should be heard”.

“She’s certainly implying that it’s attempted rape”, Severino replied. “She’s surely prepared. She hired a lawyer, I understand, back in August”.

Republicans had also displayed no willingness to delay a Judiciary panel vote that Grassley had planned for this Thursday to advance the nomination.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said Tuesday his staff has reached out to Christine Blasey Ford by email “three or four times” to map out plans for a public hearing next Monday without receiving a response.

Indeed, the mounting right-wing fury at Ford is so great that at least one completely different professor who shares her name was targeted online after GOP trolls mistakenly went after her. The president said he was “totally supporting” Kavanaugh and rejected calls for the FBI to investigate the accusation. Ford, whose identity was unknown until Sunday, had sent a letter to Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein in July. “But I’m not going to look at one thing in this guy’s life”, Graham said of next Monday’s hearing. Democrats will use Monday’s hearing as a political spectacle to coax Mr. Kavanaugh into looking defensive or angry, and to portray Republicans as anti-women.

There has been no suggestion that Kavanaugh may have committed a federal crime, so the FBI would not conduct a criminal investigation. “The FBI is not doing any further investigation”.

Judge and Kavanaugh both attended Georgetown Preparatory School, a private all-boys Catholic school in North Bethesda, Maryland. As one of California’s best-known politicians and one with deep pockets, Feinstein has kept de Leon’s challenge at bay even as he’s sought to paint her as too deferential to President Donald Trump. Republicans hope to have Kavanaugh confirmed by October 1, the start of the next Supreme Court term.

“With years of hindsight, mounds of evidence of the prevalence and harm that sexual violence causes individuals and our institutions, as well as a Senate with more women than ever, “not getting it” isn’t an option for our elected representatives”, Hill wrote.

Democrats complained that there was not a thorough FBI investigation of the allegations that took place, and no witnesses other than Hill and Thomas who were called. “In particular, he has always treated women with decency and respect”.

Hill endured a brutal assault on her personal reputation in hearings and in conservative media and the all-male Republicans on the committee ultimately backed Thomas. That bill’s sponsor, Republican Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, took to Twitter to criticize de Leon, and women who led the Capitol’s #MeToo movement chimed in.

She said she expected the men on the committee, who are the majority of the 21 members, to do the same.

While Majority Leader McConnell asks the right questions – in which he sort of, kind of, indirectly impugns Feinstein’s motives – the door has been pushed open, to now drag the confirmation process deeper into the mud and murky waters of character assassination some believed had been buried a quarter century ago with the Clarence Thomas confirmation.