Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have chosen Arizona prosector Rachel Mitchell, who has a background in handling sexual assault cases, to handle the questioning of Brett Kavanaugh and the woman who’s accused him of assault during the hearing on Thursday.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) announced the decision in a statement on Tuesday evening. Mitchell, a registered Republican, is the head of the special victims unit of the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office in Arizona, the Washington Post reported. She handles cases that deal with sex offenses, domestic and family violence, as well as the abuse of children and sexual assault cases. Mitchell reportedly has a history of investigating sexual crimes that occurred years before and even worked on unresolved sex cases that were scantly investigated by former Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Republicans opted to bring in a female lawyer to handle the questioning of Christine Blasey Ford, as well as Kavanaugh, in order to avoid what could appear as an insensitive line of questioning of a female accuser from a group of all white men.
