Senate Judiciary Committee member Lindsey Graham said that the woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault should give information to the panel as soon as possible.
Christine Blasey Ford, a California professor, made her name public in an interview with the Washington Post on Sunday.
Ford’s decision to go public comes days after Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced she sent the federal authorites information she received about Kavanaugh anonymously in July.
[Kellyanne Conway: Kavanaugh accuser ‘should not be ignored’]
Though Ford said she never intended to go public, the news of the letter being leaked to the media changed her mind.
“[I]f Ms. Ford wishes to provide information to the committee, I would gladly listen to what she has to say and compare that against all other information we have received about Judge Kavanaugh,” said Graham, R-S.C., in a statement.
Graham added: “If the committee is to hear from Ms. Ford it should be done immediately so the process can continue as scheduled.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination Thursday, when he is is expected to be narrowly confirmed.
Republicans pushed back against Ford’s accusations, and have given no indication they will delay the vote — despite Democrat senators’ demands.
“It’s disturbing that these uncorroborated allegations from more than 35 years ago, during high school, would surface on the eve of a committee vote after Democrats sat on them since July,” the office of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a statement.
According to Ford, Kavanaugh forced himself on her during a high school party in the early 1980s when he pinned her down, groped her and put his hand over her mouth when she screamed as he tried to take off her clothes.
Ford told the Post she didn’t tell anyone about the incident in detail until 2012 when she was in couples therapy with her husband.
Kavanaugh has denied the allegations against him “categorically and unequivocally,” saying he “did not do this back in high school or at any time.”
The White House sent the Post a statement Kavanaugh issued last week, when the first details of Ford’s allegations became public: “I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. I did not do this back in high school or at any time.”
