Christine Blasey Ford struggled during her Thursday testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee to remember the details of her actions in the time since she accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault in a July letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein of California.
Rachel Mitchell, the Arizona prosecutor brought in by the Committee to question Ford, asked her about the specifics of her conversations with the Washington Post regarding the allegations. The Post article in which she went public, published September 16, indicates its reporters “reviewed” Ford’s therapist’s notes detailing the conversation they had in 2013 about the alleged assault.
The notes have come under scrutiny as they reportedly reflect that Ford described being attacked by four men, a detail Ford claims was mistakenly recorded by her therapist despite her having said she was attacked by two men. Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley requested that the notes be entered into the record as evidence but Ford’s attorneys declined to provide them.
While questioning Ford, Mitchell established that she did not remember whether the Post reporters actually reviewed the notes or if they simply were given a description of their contents.
“Did you show a full or partial set of those marriage-therapy records to the Washington Post?” Mitchell asked.
“I don’t remember. I remember summarizing for [the Post‘s reporter] what they said so I’m not quite sure whether I gave her the record,” Ford answered, before clarifying that she did not name Kavanaugh during the therapy session in question.
In addition to her confusion about her handling of the therapy notes, Ford was unable to relay who paid for a former FBI agent to administer a polygraph test she passed in August and who recommended that specific agent. The results of the test, released this week, indicate she was asked just two questions about her written statement describing the allegation.
Ford, however, claimed the agent asked for “her whole life story,” adding that she attended her grandmother’s funeral earlier on the day she took the polygraph.
Ford’s attorneys subsequently conceded that they paid for the polygraph. Asked if she expected to reimburse the cost of the polygraph, Ford said said she didn’t know.