Over the weekend, Washington was rocked by sexual assault accusations that could derail the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
A woman, Christine Blasey Ford, came forward accusing Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her while both were in high school. Democrats have demanded a delay in Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote. Republicans asked Ford to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, expecting her to decline. She has since agreed to the request. (RELATED: Kavanaugh Accuser Christine Ford Agrees to Republican Wishes – Will Testify Before Senate Judiciary Committee.)
Now, many are questioning the timing of these accusations. Ford reportedly made them back in July in a letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein. Feinstein shrewdly waited until it was close to the vote to confirm Kavanaugh before making the accusations public. Now that they’ve been made, reporters are digging into Ford’s backstory. Washington Post reporter Emma Brown documents the case in a recent report.
Here’s how Brown describes Ford’s accusation:
Speaking publicly for the first time, Ford said that one summer in the early 1980s, Kavanaugh and a friend — both “stumbling drunk,” Ford alleges — corralled her into a bedroom during a gathering of teenagers at a house in Montgomery County.
Ford says that Kavanaugh groped her and tried to take off her bathing suit while holding his hand over her mouth. “I thought he might inadvertently kill me. He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing,” she told Brown.
This isn’t the first time Ford has actually made the accusation. She reportedly made it during a therapy session in 2012. But here’s where things get interesting. Ford never named Kavanaugh in the therapist notes she provided to the Post. She only told the therapist, according to the notes, that she was assaulted by students “from an elitist boys’ school.” These attackers went on to become “highly respected and high-ranking members of society in Washington.”
Here comes the discrepancy: According to the therapist’s notes, four boys were involved, not two. Ford’s husband told the Post that she detailed it correctly – that two boys attacked her – but the therapist flubbed.
6-year-old therapist notes provided by Kavanaugh’s accuser suggest she has raised this before he was SCOTUS nomines, but she didn’t name Kavanaugh and there’s also a discrepancy she blames on the therapist. https://t.co/rpY92G61mr pic.twitter.com/nC2fuY6uTZ
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) September 16, 2018
It could very well be the case that the therapist screwed up in documenting Ford’s appearance. But given that therapist notes from years back are the best evidence we have that Ford is telling the truth, it doesn’t help her case that there is a big discrepancy in the details. In fact, her notes may now be irrelevant given the contradicting details they contain.
It looks like this case just got a whole lot messier.
