Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser for sexual misconduct has identified herself and is speaking publicly about her traumatic experience with Kavanaugh for the first time.
According to The Washington Post, Christine Blasey Ford, now a 51-year-old professor at Palo Alto University in California, described an incident between the two in high school, alleging that Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed one summer in the 1980s and forced himself on her.
Ford told the Post that Kavanaugh “groped her over her clothes, grinding his body against hers and clumsily attempting to pull off her one-piece bathing suit and the clothing she wore over it.”
She added that Kavanaugh put his hand over her mouth when she attempted to scream for help.
“I thought he might inadvertently kill me,” Ford said. “He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing.”
Meanwhile, Kavanaugh last week denied the allegations, which were first reported last week.
“I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation,” Kavanaugh said in a statement provided by the White House. “I did not do this back in high school or at any time.”
The White House reportedly provided the same statement to the Post on Sunday.
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, who had previously learned of Ford’s allegations in July but didn’t disclose her knowledge of them publicly, said in a statement on Sunday that she supported Ford’s decision to share her story.
“And now that she has, it is in the hands of the FBI to conduct an investigation,” Feinstein added. “This should happen before the Senate moves forward on this nominee.”
Senate Democrats said last week that they had referred the incident to the FBI, which confirmed that it received the letter detailing Ford’s allegations against Kavanaugh on Wednesday night.
“Upon receipt of the information on the night of September 12, we included it as part of Judge Kavanaugh’s background file, as per the standard process,” an FBI spokesperson said on Thursday.
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