Senate Republicans to propose Wednesday hearing for Kavanaugh, accuser

Trump’s tweet marked a sharp break from the days after the accusation first surfaced, during which he refrained from attacking Christine Blasey Ford, a professor in California, and said she deserved to be heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

She alleged a “stumbling drunk” 17-year-old Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a Maryland house party in 1982 when both were in high school. A person familiar with the call said Ford could testify by next Thursday.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, said at the event: “Someone who is lying does not ask the FBI to investigate their claims”.

What did Dr Ford’s lawyer say?

Grassley has instead scheduled a hearing for next Monday for both Ford and Kavanaugh to testify about the incident. The committee has also invited Kavanaugh to testify on Monday.

She wants the FBI to investigate to establish a baseline of facts about what she and others say before she’ll agree to talk to the Judiciary Committee, especially in a public hearing.

“Why isn’t Judge Kavanaugh asking for an FBI investigation if (he has) nothing to hide?”

Grassley was forced to postpone a planned committee vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination scheduled for September 20 after Democrats and some of his GOP colleagues demanded the committee investigate the allegations.

She also wants the committee to subpoena Mark Judge, who Ford has said was present for the alleged assaulted, the Associated Press reported. The committee also set a Monday hearing that requests Ford and Kavanaugh to testify publicly.

David Ludwig, a lawyer who specializes in defamation, said that Whelan’s tweetstorm “absolutely” met the standard for a libel case involving a private citizen like the former Georgetown Prep student named. ”

The rush to a hearing is unnecessary, and contrary to the Committee discovering the truth.”

And you could say the same thing about what Trump said Wednesday, when he called Kavanaugh an “extraordinary man” with an “unblemished record”.

He added that “if she does not show up it would be unfortunate”. “Fairness and respect dictate that she should have time to deal with this”. Kavanuagh has repeatedly denied the allegations.

“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”. Grassley said he was disturbed to learn of the threats.

President Donald Trump is challenging by name the woman accusing his Supreme Court nominee of sexual assault, saying if the attack she alleges were that “bad” then she would have filed charges. “There would be other women, and an FBI investigation would certainly be able to bear that out”. She asserted that Republicans are rushing to confirm Kavanaugh because the court’s “session is going to start in October and the President wants his guy there to, he hopes, help him evade criminal or civil proceedings”.

Trumps comments follow an unusual period of silence in which even his aides were reportedly shocked at how mild the president’s statements on Ford had been. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee who has played a central role in the Ford developments.

Judge’s lawyer said in a letter to the committee on Tuesday that Judge did not recall the incident and did not wish to testify.