Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in high school, has told the Senate Judiciary Committee through her lawyers that she “would be prepared to testify next week,” under “terms that are fair and which ensure her safety,” the New York Times reported, citing an email it had obtained.
NEW: Text of e-mail from Christine Blasey Ford's lawyer to Senate Judiciary Committee. pic.twitter.com/UlRZVEUhxm
— Sheryl Gay Stolberg (@SherylNYT) September 20, 2018
“As you are aware, she has been receiving death threats, which have been reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and she and her family have been forced out of their home,” Debra Katz, a lawyer for Blasey Ford, wrote in the email to committee staffers obtained by the Times. “She wishes to testify, provided that we can agree on terms that are fair and which ensure her safety.”
Katz told committee Republicans, per the Times, that the Monday hearing date they’ve demanded “is not possible and the Committee’s insistence that it occur then is arbitrary in any event.”
And Blasey Ford still has a “strong preference,” her lawyer wrote, for a “full investigation” into her allegation against Kavanaugh.
Committee Republicans have held firm in recent days that Blasey Ford must testify on Monday, either in public or in private before the committee or committee staffers. Democrats have called for the White House to ask the FBI to reopen its background investigation into Kavanaugh, which President Donald Trump has so far refused to do.
Blasey Ford’s lawyer wrote in the email that she’d like to call committee staffers later Thursday to “discuss the conditions” of her potential testimony.
