Kavanaugh Accuser Comes Forward, Saying He Pinned Her on Bed and Groped Her

• By Sheryl Gay Stolberg, www.nytimes.com
• View Original
• September 16th, 2018

WASHINGTON — The woman who has accused Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her more than 30 years ago has come forward, saying that during a high school party a drunken Mr. Kavanaugh pinned her on a bed, groped her and covered her mouth to keep her from screaming.

“I thought he might inadvertently kill me,” the woman, Christine Blasey Ford, a 51-year-old research psychologist at Palo Alto University in Northern California, said in an interview with The Washington Post. “He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing.”

Judge Kavanaugh, President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, has flatly denied the accusations in statements issued through the White House. On Friday, as word of the accusations began to circulate but his accuser’s identity was not publicly known, the White House released a letter from 65 women who said they knew Judge Kavanaugh in high school and could attest to his character.

But now Ms. Ford’s decision to put her name behind the accusations — made after weeks of reluctance — will almost certainly intensify the push by Democrats to delay Judge Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation vote. The Post’s article included an interview with Ms. Ford’s husband and her lawyer, Debra Katz, and described a therapist’s notes from 2012 in which Ms. Ford told of the attack.

Ms. Ford’s account has also been detailed in a confidential letter that Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, has shared with the F.B.I.

Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill were blindsided by The Post’s report, having believed that the woman would probably remain fnonymous. Most lawmakers have yet to read the letter Ms. Feinstein sent to the F.B.I., and Senate aides and lawmakers were privately weighing the implications of Ms. Ford’s interview.