Christine Ford, the professor who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of attempting to rape her in 1982, is willing to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, her lawyer told NBC News.
Ford went public to confirm the allegations in her confidential letter to a committee Democrat in an interview with The Washington Post.
“I thought he might inadvertently kill me,” said Ford, a research psychologist in California. “He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing.”
Via The Washington Post:
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.
While his friend watched, she said, Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed on her back and groped her over her clothes, grinding his body against hers and clumsily attempting to pull off her one-piece bathing suit and the clothing she wore over it. When she tried to scream, she said, he put his hand over her mouth…
Ford said she was able to escape when Kavanaugh’s friend and classmate at Georgetown Preparatory School, Mark Judge, jumped on top of them, sending all three tumbling. She said she ran from the room, briefly locked herself in a bathroom and then fled the house.
Ford said that she first said anything about the incident in 2012, in a couples therapy session with her husband. The therapist’s notes were reviewed by the Post.
According to the report, the notes “do not mention Kavanaugh’s name but say she reported that 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.” The notes say four boys were involved, a discrepancy Ford says was an error on the therapist’s part. Ford said there were four boys at the party but only two in the room.”
Ford’s attorney, Debra Katz, said on The Today Show that her client believes the incident was an attempted rape.
“She does. She clearly considers this an attempted rape,” Katz said. “She believes that if it were not for the severe intoxication of Brett Kavanaugh, she would’ve been raped.”
Asked if she is willing to testify before the committee, Katz said, “She is. She’s willing to do whatever it takes to get her story forth.”
“She was quite reluctant to come forward, and she was in fact outed after she had made the decision not to come forward,” Katz added.
“Does she consider this an attempted rape?” –@savannahguthrie
“She does. She clearly considers this an attempted rape. She believes that if it were not for the severe intoxication of Brett Kavanaugh, she would’ve been raped.” -Debra Katz, attorney for Kavanaugh accuser
— TODAY (@TODAYshow)
