Christine Blasey Ford wanted to speak to senators themselves in a closed-door session in California, not to Judiciary Committee investigators, her lawyers said Friday, pushing back on GOP claims that Brett Kavanaugh’s chief accuser had been led astray.
Ms. Blasey Ford during last week’s testimony seemed surprised to learn that she had the option of speaking with the committee at her home in California. But her lawyers say there was a miscommunication.
She thought senators were saying they — and particularly Chairman Chuck Grassley — were willing to fly out to talk to her, the lawyers said. But what Mr. Grassley was referring to was an interview with committee investigative staff — the same kind of interview Judge Kavanaugh did several times.
Whether Ms. Blasey Ford was given full information about all of her options is one of a number of controversies surrounding the woman, with Republicans suggesting she was ill-served by her lawyers throughout the process.
The lawyers vehemently denied that.
“Dr. Ford was timely provided with all communications from the majority’s staff and chose from the multiple options she was given by them. At the hearing, Dr. Ford understood Senator Grassley’s comment to be that he personally would have flown to California to speak with her. She would have welcomed Senator Grassley and other committee members to California but that was not one of the options offered by committee staff,” the lawyers said.
The lawyers also said they didn’t try to dictate Ms. Blasey Ford’s schedule, and her refusal to testify when the committee had first suggested was because she was using that time to take security precautions for her family.
The lawyers also released a statement by a friend of Ms. Blasey Ford who says he believes her account of having been sexually assaulted by Judge Kavanaugh at a high school party in 1982.
He says he has a letter from Ms. Blasey Ford written in June of this year where “she made it clear that Brett Kavanaugh was the judge who had assaulted her as a teenager.” That letter was sent well before Judge Kavanaugh had been nominated, the friend, Keith Koegler, says in a letter to senators.
Mr. Koegler, though, acknowledges he was not an eyewitness to the assault itself.
Judge Kavanaugh has vehemently denied being at the party Ms. Blasey Ford says was the location of her assault, and denies ever having assaulted anyone.
The FBI conducted a brief background investigation and, according to senators who reviewed the material, did not find any contemporaneous evidence or witnesses who could corroborate Ms. Blasey Ford’s allegation.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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