Last updated on September 27th, 2018 at 11:49 am
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hear tomorrow from four people who corroborate Dr. Christine Ford’s claims of sexual assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Although the four people will not be allowed to testify in person, the attorneys for Ford announced that they have sworn and signed declarations from all four people.
The documents have been sent to the Judiciary Committee by Ford’s attorneys, according to USA TODAY.
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They include signed and sworn declarations from Ford’s husband and three of Ford’s friends who support the California college professor’s sexual assault accusation against Kavanaugh.
Ford claims that the Supreme Court nominee pinned her to a bed, groped her and attempted to pull off her clothes at a private house party while both were high school students in Maryland in 1982.
The Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday may decide the fate of Kavanaugh’s embattled nomination.
Although Kavanaugh is now facing a second accusation of sexual assault, from Yale University classmate Deborah Ramirez, the hearing tomorrow will not address those claims. Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said that Ramirez will not be allowed to testify during Thursday’s hearing.
According to Ramirez, Kavanaugh exposed himself and pushed his genitals into her face at a drunken party during the 1983-84 academic year at Yale.
Kavanaugh has denied all accusations from Ford and Ramirez. He did a national television interview on Fox News Monday night where he, with his wife sitting alongside him, denied all claims against him and vowed to fight them and continue his attempt to be confirmed to the Supreme Court.
In one declaration, Ford friend Adela Gildo-Mazzon said Ford told her about the Kavanaugh assault during a meal at a restaurant in Mountain View, California in June of 2013.
Gildo-Mazzon contacted Ford’s attorneys on September 16 to tell them Ford had told her about the alleged assault five years ago. Her declaration reads:
“During our meal, Christine was visibly upset, so I asked her what was going on. Christine told me she had been having a hard day because she was thinking about an assault she experienced when she was much younger. She said she had been almost raped by someone who was now a federal judge. She told me she had been trapped in a room with two drunken guys, and that she had escaped, ran away and hid.â€
According to her declaration, Gildo-Mazzon has known Ford for more than 10 years.
In another declaration Ford’s friend Keith Koegler said Ford revealed the alleged assault to him in 2016. He said they were watching their children play in a public place while discussing the light sentence received by Stanford University student Brock Turner who had been convicted of rape.
“Christine expressed anger at Mr. Turner’s lenient sentence, stating that she was particularly bothered by it because she was assaulted in high school by a man who was now a federal judge in Washington, D.C.,†Koegler said.
It is not known how much weight these declarations will carry in a Judiciary Committee hearing, but they will definitely add credibility to Dr. Ford’s expected testimony.
Without hearing from more witnesses, and without an FBI investigation, the full truth will not be heard by the American people. What the Senate Judiciary Committee is doing is a sham and a travesty because they are not seeking the truth and they are not seeking justice. Their only goal is a quick confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, and they will do everything in their power to ram through his nomination to the Supreme Court as quickly as possible.
I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.
