Ford Says She Never Named Kavanaugh as Her Attacker Outside of Therapy Until Supreme Court Nomination

Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulted her in high school, said she did not name him outside of therapy as the one who attacked her until he was on President Trump’s short list of candidates for the court.

“Until July 2018, I had never named Mr. Kavanaugh as my attacker outside of therapy,” Ford will tell the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, according to written testimony.

“This all changed in early July 2018. I saw press reports stating that Brett Kavanaugh was on the ‘short list’ of potential Supreme Court nominees,” she continued in her statement. “I thought it was my civic duty to relay the information I had about Mr. Kavanaugh’s conduct so that those considering his potential nomination would know about the assault.”

The California psychology professor sent a letter to the ranking Democrat on the committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein, on July 30, describing the assault, which “drastically altered” her life. Her statement to Congress at Thursday’s hearing will add more details.

She alleges that she attended a “spur of the moment gathering” with Kavanaugh and a classmate, Mark Judge, who were “visibly drunk.”

“I knew him and he knew me,” she said of Kavanaugh.

She was “pushed from behind” and the two locked her in a room and turned up music. Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed and tried  to removed her clothing, she said, covering her mouth with his hand. Ford “made eye contact” with Judge a few times, hoping he might help her, but he did not.

She was able to escape but believes she would have been raped otherwise.

“I am here today not because I want to be. I am terrified. I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school,” her statement reads.

Ford said she does not remember all of the details surrounding the circumstances of the party.

“Apart from the assault itself, these last couple of weeks have been the hardest of my life,” she said.

She also pushed back on critics accusing her of a political motivation.

“I am a fiercely independent person and I am no one’s pawn,” she stated.

Kavanaugh has been accused of sexual misconduct by two other women. Deborah Ramirez said the nominee exposed himself to her at a party during their freshman year at Yale University. Julie Swetnick leveled more serious charges that Kavanaugh that he and other boys drugged and gang raped girls in at high school parties.