Christine Blasey Ford, the California professor who has accused the supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers, will tell the US Senate judiciary committee on Thursday that she will “never forget” what happened to her at a Maryland house party nearly 36 years ago.
Kavanaugh’s nomination to the supreme court hangs in the balance. He and Ford will deliver diametrically opposing accounts at the extraordinary hearing, as fresh accusations of sexual misconduct and contradictory charges swirl around a circus-like confirmation process that has been described as “surreal” and “political as hell”.
“I don’t have all the answers, and I don’t remember as much as I would like to,” Ford will tell the panel, according to prepared remarks released on Wednesday. “But the details about that night that bring me here today are ones I will never forget.”
In her testimony, Ford calls Kavanaugh “the boy who sexually assaulted me”, ruling out any suggestion that she may be confusing him with another person.
But late Wednesday night, the Senate Judiciary committee released a timeline of all staff activity in response to the allegations against Kavanaugh. The summary disclosed that staff have interviewed two different men who each told investigators “he, not Judge Kavanaugh, had the encounter with Dr Ford in the summer of 1982 that is the basis of her allegation”. The committee did not identify the men.
In her testimony, Ford describes the night of the assault, stating: “I believed he was going to rape me.” She also explains the winding path that began with a letter to her congresswoman and an anonymous tip to the Washington Post and resulted in her stepping forward publicly and agreeing to testify on Capitol Hill.
“I am here today not because I want to be. I am terrified,” she will say. “I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school.”
For more read the full of article at The Guardian