Kavanaugh accuser forced out of her home over threats, lawyers say

The woman who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault has been forced out of her home due to death threats, her lawyers said Tuesday.

Christine Blasey Ford’s lawyers told Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) in a letter that the Palo Alto University professor has been effectively forced into hiding after recieving violent messages targeting her and her family.

“In the 36 hours since her name became public, Dr. Ford has received a stunning amount of support from her community and from fellow citizens across our country. At the same time, however, her worst fears have materialized,” her lawyers wrote in the letter.

{mosads}”She has been the target of vicious harassment and even death threats. As a result of these kind of threats, her family was forced to relocate out of their home. Her email has been hacked, and she has been impersonated online,” the letter continued.

Ford’s lawyers said in the letter that she would not testify during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing set for Monday until the FBI investigates her allegations of sexual assault against Kavanaugh.

Republicans have been pushing for Ford to appear for the hearing next week to review her newly disclosed allegations against the Supreme Court nominee. Kavanaugh has said he is willing to testify at the hearing. 

“While Dr. Ford’s life was being turned upside down, you and your staff scheduled a public hearing for her to testify at the same table as Judge Kavanaugh in front of two dozen U.S. Senators on national television to relive this traumatic and harrowing incident,” Ford’s lawyers told Grassley.

“The hearing was scheduled for six short days from today and would include interrogation by Senators who appear to have made up their minds that she is ‘mistaken’ and ‘mixed up,'” they added, writing that “no sexual assault survivor should be subjected to such an ordeal.”

Garrett Ventry, a communications adviser to Grassley, pushed back on the lawyers’ assertion that Grassley scheduled the hearing expecting Ford to testify “at the same table” as Kavanaugh, calling it false.

To be clear: this is absolutely false. https://t.co/s3kEBCauce

— Garrett Ventry (@GarrettVentry) September 19, 2018

Kavanaugh, who was nominated to the Supreme Court in July to succeed Justice Anthony Kennedy, has denied Ford’s allegations after she came forward in a Washington Post story on Sunday.

Ford claims that Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed and tried to remove her clothes during a party in the early 1980s, when both were in high school.

She has also said that one of Kavanaugh’s classmates, Mark Judge, was in the room and jumped on the pair, sending them all tumbling. 

Judge on Tuesday through a lawyer said he did not remember the incident and he refused to testify before the Judiciary Committee.

The White House and President Trump have defended Kavanaugh amid the political firestorm since the allegations emerged.

“I feel so badly for him that he is going through this, to be honest with you,” Trump said Tuesday. “This is not a man who deserves this.”