Brett Kavanaugh sexual misconduct accuser 'willing to testify before congress', says her lawyer

The woman who has accused Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee of sexual misconduct is prepared to testify in public before before the senate, her lawyer has said.

Appearing on CBS, Debra Katz, a lawyer for Christine Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University in California, was asked if her client would be willing to provide testimony in public before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the body that has been hearing testimony from nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

“She is willing to do whatever is necessary,” to ensure the committee has the full story, said Ms Katz. “She’s willing to do what she needs to do, she’s willing to hopefully tell her story in a manner that is a fair proceeding.”

She added: “Unfortunately what we’re already hearing this morning is that the Republicans intend to play hard ball, they intend to grill her.”

Mr Kavanaugh, whose nomination is on Thursday due to be voted on by the committee and passed to the full senate for confirmation, has denied the allegations levelled at him. Last week, when the allegations were first made but before his accuser identified herself, Mr Kavanaugh issued a statement denying the claims: “I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. I did not do this back in high school or at any time.”

While the White House has yet to formally comment on the matter, it has been responding to media requests by forwarding them Mr Kavanugh’s statement, an indication that for now Mr Trump is standing by his nominee. A number of senators, including several on the committee dealing with the matter, and several Republicans not on the committee, have called for the confirmation hearing to be halted until the matter is thoroughly investigated.

The allegations against Mr Kavanaugh first emerged late last week, when Democrats in the Sense revealed they had referred a complaint involving Mr ​Kavanaugh, to the FBI for investigation. The complaint came from a woman who accused Mr Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct when they were both in high school, more than thirty years ago.

The woman, whose identify at that a point had not been made public, had contacted the Democrats in the summer before the confirmation process for the US Appeals Court judge had begun. In a letter to her local congresswoman, Anna Eshoo, she wrote that she had been a victim of sexual misconduct by Mr Kavanaugh in the 1980s, when he was student at Georgetown Preparatory School, in Bethesda, Maryland, and she was attending a nearby high school.

In the letter, the woman claimed that at a party, Mr Kavanaugh and a friend, who she said had both been heavily drinking, held her down on a bed and tried to force himself on her. She also claimed the young men had turned up music to drown out any noise.

“Brett Kavanaugh physically and sexually assaulted me during high school in the early 1980’s. He conducted these acts with the assistance of [REDACTED].

Both were one to two years older than me and students at a local private school,” she wrote.

“Kavanaugh was on top of me while laughing with [REDACTED], who periodically jumped onto Kavanaugh. They both laughed as Kavanaugh tried to disrobe me in their highly inebriated state. With Kavanaugh’s hand over my mouth I feared he may inadvertently kill me. From across the room a very drunken REDACTED said mixed words to Kavanaugh ranging from “go for it” to “stop”.”

She added: “I have received medical treatment regarding the assault. On July 6 I notified my local government representative to ask them how to proceed with sharing this information. It is upsetting to discuss sexual assault and its repercussions, yet I felt guilty and compelled as a citizen about the idea of not saying anything.”

Over the weekend, the woman who levelled the accusations at Mr Kavanaugh and whose letter was passed to Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democratic member of the committee, identified herself in an interview with the Washington Post.

Ms Ford told the newspaper she had not spoken in detail of the alleged incident until 2012, when she was in couples therapy with her husband. The therapist’s notes, portions of which were provided by Ms Ford and reviewed by the Post, did not mention Mr Kavanaugh by name but said she reported she was attacked by students “from an elitist boys’ school” who went on to become “highly respected and high-ranking members of society in Washington”.

Her husband, Russell Ford, said that in the 2012 sessions, she had talking about being trapped in a room with two drunken boys, one of whom pinned her to a bed, molested her and prevented her from screaming. He said he recalled that his wife used Mr Kavanaugh’s last name and voiced concern that the judge might one day be nominated to the Supreme Court.

(Getty)

The newspaper said Ms Ford had contacted it through a tip-line some moths ago, but had not wanted to be identified. She took a polygraph test administered by a former FBI agent in early August, it said.

She engaged Mr Katz, a Washington lawyer known for her work on sexual harassment cases, who advised her to undergo the polygraph test, which she did last month. It said she was telling the truth.

As the accusations gathered steam Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, a Republican released a letter from 65 women who said they knew Mr Kavanaugh when he attended high school in North Bethesda.

“Through the more than 35 years we have known him, Brett has stood out for his friendship, character, and integrity,” the women wrote. “In particular, he has always treated women with decency and respect. That was true when he was in high school, and it has remained true to this day.”

Like those women, the second young man said to have been present, also denied that Ms Ford’s accusations are true. “It’s just absolutely nuts. I never saw Brett act that way,” he said.

It was amid this denials, the Post said, that Ms Ford decided to identify herself as the person who said she was assaulted.

“These are all the ills that I was trying to avoid,” she said. “Now I feel like my civic responsibility is outweighing my anguish and terror about retaliation.”

Long-term watchers of the Supreme Court say the claims by Ms Ford, echo the allegations of sexual harassment that were made at then nominee Clarence Thomas, by Anita Hill, who worked under Mr Thomas the United States Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Ms Hill was called to give televised testimony before the committee, told senators: “He spoke about acts that he had seen in pornographic films involving such matters as women having sex with animals and films showing group sex or rape scenes...On several occasions, Thomas told me graphically of his own sexual prowess.”

Mr Thomas, who had been nominated by George HW Bush, was eventually confirmed by the full senate in aa narrow vote – 52 to 48. He remains a justice on the court and would be a colleague of Mr Kavanaugh if he is confirmed.