Christine Blasey Ford spoke to the Washington Post about an alleged incident that took place in the 1980s
The woman who has accused Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, of sexual assault has revealed her identity.
Christine Blasey Ford, 51, a professor at Palo Alto University in California, has revealed herself as the author of the confidential letter which details an encounter with Kavanaugh at a high school party in the 1980s, which resulted in him allegedly sexually assaulting her. The letter was sent to democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein earlier this summer following Kavanaugh’s nomination. It was eventually passed on to the FBI.
The accusations have further complicated what was already a controversial confirmation process. Intense political battle surrounds Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, with senior Democrats furiously pushing to sink it.
Last week, women's rights activists and LGBT+ activists stormed his confirmation hearing. Protestors dressed in costumes from The Handmaid's Tale gathered outside, later releasing the following statement: ‘Brett Kavanaugh is an extremist ideologue who, if confirmed to the Supreme Court, will take away women's basic rights’.
On Sunday, the Washington Post published a story in which Christine Blasey Ford alleges that one summer in Montgomery County, Kavanaugh corralled her into a bedroom and pinned her to a bed on her back.
She alleges that while a friend of Kavanaugh’s looked on, the judge groped her over her clothes, while grinding his body against hers, and attempted to remove her bathing suit and the clothing she was wearing over it. Ford says that when she tried to scream, he put his hand over her mouth. ‘I thought he might inadvertently kill me’, she added.
Ford had initially requested anonymity, but decided to come forward following the media attention surrounding the case, which included an explosive report published by The New Yorker on Friday. Today her attorney said that she is willing to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
As things stand, the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to take a vote on Thursday, which could see Kavanaugh’s nomination pushed through to be voted on in the Senate. Following the allegations, which Kavanaugh has denied, Democrats and at least two Republicans are calling for the process to be delayed. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has said that pushing the vote through would be an ‘insult’ to American women.
Kavanaugh’s confirmation would tip the balance of the Supreme Court to the right. Pro-choice activists are concerned about his stance on abortion rights given that Justice Anthony Kennedy, who Kavanaugh would replace, was a swing vote in favour of abortion.
Kavanaugh, who currently serves as a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, last October dissented from a court’s decision to permit an undocumented immigrant teen's request for an abortion.