Agrees to testify

Kavanaugh accuser agrees to testify before Senate panel

Another allegation of sexual assault by the judge emerged Sunday evening.

By NOLAN D. MCCASKILL and ELANA SCHOR

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Sunday officially scheduled a Thursday-morning hearing for Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh to publicly testify about Ford’s sexual assault allegation against the Supreme Court nominee.

Hours later, on Sunday evening, another woman leveled a separate sexual assault allegation against the federal judge.

Deborah Ramirez, who is 53, told Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer of The New Yorker that when Kavanaugh was a freshman at Yale in the 1983-84 academic school year, she remembers that he “exposed himself at a drunken dormitory party, thrust his penis in her face, and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away.”

In a statement Kavanaugh made to The New Yorker and released by the White House, he called the allegation a “smear” that “did not happen.”

Several central elements of the Thursday hearing remain unresolved after talks with the committee, according to Ford’s attorneys.

Ford’s lawyers and the bipartisan staff on the judiciary panel held a second call in two days on Sunday as they continued to hash out details of the hearing, which promises to have seismic consequences for Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, as well as the turbulent electoral landscape weeks away from the November midterms.

The call lasted about an hour, according to a source familiar with the conversation, and resulted in a confirmed scheduling for 10 a.m. Thursday. The committee officially notified senators on Sunday afternoon that the hearing would take place at that time.

But no firm decision has been reached on whether Republicans would use staff attorneys to question Ford about her claim that Kavanaugh tried to force himself on her more than 30 years ago — an approach the GOP is considering in order to avoid the perilous prospect of Ford getting grilled by its all-male Judiciary Committee membership, some of whom are publicly skeptical of her account.

“We were told no decision has been made on this important issue, even though various senators have been dismissive of her account and should have to shoulder their responsibility to ask her questions,” Ford’s attorneys, Debra Katz, Lisa Banks and Michael Bromwich, said in a statement on Sunday. “Nor were we told when we would have that answer or answers to the other unresolved issues.”

The committee’s Republican staff told Ford’s lawyers on Sunday that the committee would decide which witnesses appear, who questions them and in what order. The GOP told Ford’s team that those terms were “non-negotiable,” according to an email released by the committee.

“The chairman asked me to relay again that he will do everything in his power to provide a safe, comfortable, and dignified forum for Dr. Ford to testify,” the committee’s Republican counsel told Ford’s lawyers. “But again, as with any witness who comes before the Senate, the Senate Judiciary Committee cannot hand over its constitutional duties to attorneys for outside witnesses.”

Three witnesses who Ford has recounted were there — Leland Keyser, Mark Judge and Patrick J. Smyth — have all told the committee they have no information on the party where the alleged assault occurred.

The panel has sought to accommodate another request from Ford’s legal team by giving her dedicated security for the hearing, which would include breaks at 45-minute intervals, according to the source familiar with Sunday morning’s conversation. The source also said Ford’s legal team indicated willingness to give ground on another item the committee had insisted on, slating Ford to testify first even though she had asked that Kavanaugh go first.

Ford’s lawyers continue to call for subpoenaed testimony from Mark Judge, the third individual she has said was in the room during the alleged assault, and have also requested testimony from the examiner who administered a polygraph test to her as well as trauma experts, according to the source. Republicans have not budged from their plans for the hearing to include just two witnesses, however — Kavanaugh and Ford — which leaves Democrats to consider ways to amplify the perspective of other witnesses outside the formal hearing process.

The progress toward a Kavanaugh-Ford hearing came as Senate Republicans signaled earlier on Sunday that while they were willing to accommodate her, it would take a lot more than an uncorroborated, 36-year-old allegation to sink Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court bid.

“She will be treated respectfully, but she will be challenged, just like Judge Kavanaugh,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who sits on the Judiciary Committee. However, he added, “Unless there’s something more, no, I’m not gonna ruin Judge Kavanaugh’s life over this.”

In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Graham told host Chris Wallace that the committee’s chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), had “bent over backwards” to set up a hearing with Kavanaugh and Ford, who has accused the high court nominee of sexually assaulting her at a party when the two were in high school.

Referring to the push by Ford’s legal team for outside witnesses and no use of Republican staff attorneys to question her, Graham added: “If they continue to contest those two things, there won’t be a hearing.”

Senate Republicans insist they’ve dealt with the sexual assault allegation in a serious, fair manner, delaying a planned committee vote earlier this month as the panel negotiated a hearing shortly after Ford publicly identified herself as the author of a confidential letter sent to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the committee, in July.

But Republicans have rejected Ford’s and Senate Democrats’ calls for an FBI investigation into the allegation, despite the bureau’s 1991 investigation into Anita Hill’s claims of sexual harassment against Clarence Thomas during his Supreme Court confirmation.

Feinstein and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), in a letter on Sunday, urged President Donald Trump to request an FBI investigation, casting it as a necessity to identify and interview witnesses and review evidence to provide information to the Senate.

“It is not the FBI’s job to determine credibility, but it is the FBI’s job to gather facts,” they wrote. “Now that it appears likely that the Judiciary Committee will hold its hearing on Thursday, September 27th, the FBI has almost a full week to do its work. It will not take a ‘tremendous amount of time,’ but it is necessary if you truly want the facts to be known.”

Absent an investigation, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said, Senate Republicans have set up a “he said, she said” hearing.

“What we’re going to have is, do you believe her or do you believe him?” she said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “That is exactly why we have been pressing for an FBI investigation that should only take a few days, so there are other facts out there, that there are other witnesses.”

Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) argued, however, that the FBI has already conducted six investigations into Kavanaugh. “Their role in this case is not to determine who’s telling the truth,” Perdue said of the FBI on “Meet the Press.” “It’s to make sure that the Senate has the information. And right now, the only people that are going to determine who’s telling the truth in this issue are the United States senators.”

Both parties have seized on revelations that none of the four individuals Ford has said were at the party remember being there. Keyser on Saturday denied knowing Kavanaugh or having any recollection of attending a party or gathering where he was present. Smyth said last week that he had “no knowledge” of the party, and Judge has said he has “no memory” of the alleged episode.

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said “it’s no surprise” that people who may have been in the house but weren’t assaulted themselves don’t remember a scene from three dozen years ago. And he acknowledged in an interview with ABC’s “This Week” that there’s “probably not” any way to find out what truly happened. But he cited as evidence of her credibility Ford’s willingness to come forward knowing how it would negatively affect her and her family.

“What in the hell did she have to gain by doing this?” Durbin said. “At this point, she’s faced death threats, her family has been moved out of their home, they’re worried about the safety of their children, they’re concerned about security at the hearing.”

But Graham maintained that the allegation was too old for a criminal trial, too uncertain for a civil lawsuit and too uncorroborated for a warrant.

“Sometimes people are accused of things they didn’t do,” he said. “It is very true that a lot of women get abused and take it to their grave, and every now and then you have a situation where people provide inaccurate information.”

Democrats indicated that they would press Kavanaugh on his teenage drinking habits. “I would be wanting to hear what kind of environment it was in high school,” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Apparently, there was a lot of drinking and partying going on. This is why we need an investigation.”

Durbin echoed that alcohol consumption was “certainly relevant to the whole conversation.” And he is holding out hope that this week’s hearing isn’t just a formality Republicans are going along with before voting “yes” on Kavanaugh.

“Members of the committee on both sides want to be fair — at least I hope they do — want to be fair to both,” Durbin said. “I have Republican senators who have reached out to Democratic senators and assured them that they are looking to this as a kind of a determination as to how their final vote will be cast.”

Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) are the GOP lawmakers to watch. Collins and Murkowski are moderate Republicans who could oppose Kavanaugh over his abortion views and could also be swayed by Ford’s and Kavanaugh’s testimony to vote against him. Flake and Corker, who are retiring, are both critics of President Donald Trump and called on Republicans to delay Kavanaugh’s confirmation to allow Ford to testify.

“Just remember, this Senate Judiciary Committee, the composition is 11 Republicans, 10 Democrats,” Durbin said. “If one Republican senator should decide that Dr. Ford’s allegations, assertions, are true and that they are serious, it could make a big difference in the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh.”