Kavanaugh hearing

Democrats in the dark on eve of historic Kavanaugh hearing

Senate Democrats have had no apparent contact with Christine Blasey Ford — and have no idea how she'll hold up.

By ELANA SCHOR and RACHAEL BADE

Tens of millions of people will be watching Christine Blasey Ford when she appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a potentially history-shaping hearing on Thursday.

Yet Ford has had no apparent contact with the people who could help her most through the ordeal: Senate Democrats.

Though Ford's lawyers have been in touch with aides in both parties, interviews with more than a half-dozen Democratic senators on the Judiciary Committee indicate there's been no coordination with Ford’s camp in the run-up to the hearing.

That lack of communication underscores the political minefield both Democrats and the 51-year-old college professor are crossing ahead of the hearing, with President Donald Trump and the GOP tarring the minority for a “smear campaign” against Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s Supreme Court pick. Ford has a team of well-connected attorneys with Democratic ties to lean on — as well as a veteran Democratic strategist — but Democratic senators acknowledge they’re standing behind her with little certainty about how she’ll fare.

”No matter how long you’ve been in the Senate or in the courtroom, there’s no fully preparing for an event like this,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said in an interview. “This event is momentous, in its public and private aspects — in the emotional demands on her, and the public arena.”

A spokeswoman for Ford’s legal team declined to comment about how she is preparing for the hearing. Ricki Seidman, the longtime Democratic communications adviser whom POLITICO reported is working with her, said that anyone who purports to know how Ford is getting ready is not telling the truth.

Even Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who initially received a confidential letter from Ford in July about her alleged assault by Kavanaugh more than three decades ago, appears in the dark about how steeled Ford will be for the questions she’ll face from Republicans and the still-unidentified female attorney they have hired to question her.

Asked whether she has confidence in Ford’s prep team, Feinstein said that "I have no idea” and insisted that “we’re not getting involved in any of that.”

"I assume her own lawyers are prepping her. We’re not. Let me make that very clear,” the Judiciary panel’s top Democrat said.

Before testifying before the committee about alleged sexual harassment by now-Justice Clarence Thomas, Anita Hill engaged a trio of lawyers to help. In a Tuesday interview, one of those former lawyers said the best way to prepare victims for such testimony is to pose the most incendiary, insulting questions they can think of.

“It’s like any witness preparation times 2,000,” said Emma Coleman Jordan, now a Georgetown Law professor. “You come at them with the worst version you think the antagonists are likely to ask them, and you probe for their emotional stability: Can they take it?”

She added: “This is pressure like you’ve never seen. … That’s why they call it ‘murder boards.’”

The similarities between this week’s Kavanaugh-Ford hearing and 1991’s Thomas-Hill hearing aren’t universal, however. Hill said she was repeatedly sexually harassed as an adult on the job by Thomas, who had been her supervisor. Ford, by contrast, is set to discuss with senators an alleged attack that she says took place when she was 15 and Kavanaugh 17.

“I would imagine her team is preparing her as best as possible,” Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said. “It’s an unusual experience to go through, and someone should be prepared to be as comfortable as possible to tell the story that needs to be told — and tell the truth.”

Les Alderman, a D.C.-based attorney who’s represented numerous sexual assault and harassment victims, predicted that Republicans will ask uncomfortable questions about Ford's sex and drinking habits at that age. They’ll try to gauge how well she knew Kavanaugh so that they can suggest perhaps she’s mixing him up with someone else. They’ll ask her to explain why the people she named as having attended the party could not corroborate her story. And, they’ll ask her whether she’s ever been assaulted before or felt pressured sexually, Alderman predicted.

“The questions are going to be, 'You don’t remember what house it was, do you? You don’t remember where the house was, do you?' And so you can either shrink under that, or you can stand up to it and keep yourself credible and strong-looking,” Alderman said.

Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has agreed to limit the media presence in the hearing room and provide Ford security, per her attorneys’ request. But Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said he’s still concerned about the intensity of “the very demanding, difficult setting.”

“This is not a criminal trial,” Coons said, adding that he hopes “committee members will conduct themselves accordingly.”

Hill went through an FBI investigation into her allegations against Thomas, a step that Republicans have refused to pursue in Ford's case, which they complain came at the 11th hour. Republicans have contacted three individuals Ford identified as present at the high-school party where she said Kavanaugh tried to force himself on her and covered her mouth when she tried to scream. But none corroborated the account.

Republicans have rebuffed Ford's lawyers' request for them to subpoena Mark Judge, the classmate of Kavanaugh's whom Ford said was in the room when the alleged assault occurred. Democrats are frustrated that only two witnesses, Ford and Kavanaugh, will testify.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), one of three current committee members who was present for the 1991 Hill hearing, recalled on Tuesday that he was able to publicly say “I believe Anita Hill” based on both her in-person testimony and the FBI inquiry into her allegations.

Asked what he would tell Ford about how to prepare, Leahy said: “Just tell the truth. And I’m just sorry that the committee is not at least taking a pause to allow an independent investigation to be done.”

Some Republicans have more openly prejudged the outcome of Ford’s testimony than others. The committee scheduled a confirmation vote on Friday, declining to wait to hear from Ford before deciding how to proceed.

“I don’t know what to expect,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said. “I’m just looking forward to hearing from her.”

Hill faced intensely personal questions from senators during her testimony against Thomas, with one asking if she had “a martyr complex” or “a militant attitude,” and another questioning whether she’d write a book about coming forward.

The fact that Senate Democrats have played no role in preparing Ford — who has eschewed TV appearances while Kavanaugh and his wife sat down with Fox News — can only help her, Alderman said.

“There’s no way they want anybody to be able to say: ‘[Sen. Amy] Klobuchar’s staff prepped me for this.' Or, ‘They gave me the questions that were going to ask,'" Alderman said.