The Washington Post is reporting that Christine Blasey Ford, a 51-year-old research psychologist from California, is accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault when they were both teenagers. Until now, Ford’s story had only existed in the realm of hearsay, with her identity unknown, since she had shared the accusation only in a letter (and on the condition of confidentiality) with two lawmakers, congresswoman Anna G. Eshoo and Senator Dianne Feinstein.
While reports of the contents of the letter she wrote to Feinstein have been circulating over the last few days, the new report is the first detailed and credible account of Ford’s story. Ford has previously shared her story with her husband in 2002, when they first married, and again with him and a couples therapist in 2012.
According to The Washington Post:
Speaking publicly for the first time, Ford said that one summer in the early 1980s, Kavanaugh and a friend — both “stumbling drunk,” Ford alleges — corralled her into a bedroom during a gathering of teenagers at a house in Montgomery County.
While his friend watched, she said, Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed on her back and 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. When she tried to scream, she said, he put his hand over her mouth.
Kavanaugh’s drunken friend named in the story is the writer Mark Judge. Both Judge and Kavanaugh have denied the allegation.
Adding to the credibility of the story is the existence of therapist notes from 2012 which has her telling the same story (without naming Kavanaugh) and the fact that Ford, according to The Washington Post, “took a polygraph test administered by a former FBI agent in early August.” She passed the test.
A key part of the story involves teenage drinking. Judge is the author of a memoir that talks about his teen-age alcoholism, which included blackout drinking.
Ford has been reluctant to come forward because she felt it would wreak havoc on her life. “Why suffer through the annihilation if it’s not going to matter?” she asked.