Ford Confided In Many Friends About Her Fear Of Fallout From Airing Accusation

WASHINGTON, DC - Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on Thursday September 6, 2018. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
WASHINGTON, DC - Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on Thursday September 6, 2018. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
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Professor Christine Blasey Ford has long worried about the personal cost that would accompany her honesty if she voiced her sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, according to a Monday Mercury News report.

“I’ve been trying to forget this all my life, and now I’m supposed to remember every little detail,” Jim Gensheimer, Ford’s friend in whom she confided this summer, recalled her saying. “They’re going to be all over me.”

Another friend, Rebecca White, said that Ford told her about the alleged assault in 2017 when White tweeted her own “#MeToo” story about being raped as a teenager.

“She reached out to me afterward, supporting me and my story and that she had something happen to her when she was really young and that the guy was a federal judge,” White told the Mercury News. “She said she had been assaulted. She said hers had been violent as well, physically scary, fighting for her life.” She added that it was difficult for Ford to reconcile the idea that her attacker was a “super powerful guy” who could be a “Supreme Court contender one day.”

One friend, Kirsten Leimroth, told the Mercury News that Ford had told her that she’d been “almost raped by a high school acquaintance” long ago, calling the suggestion that Ford was lying “preposterous” and noting that Ford has had to temporarily relocate her family and shut down all of her social media accounts.  

Leimroth added that Ford vacillated on coming forward for a long time, worrying that since the alleged attack was not “actual rape it’s not going to do any good. He’s going to go through,” Leimroth recalled Ford saying about Kavanaugh’s confirmation. “Do I want to put myself through this?”

Leimroth also pushed back against the notion that Ford had confused the identity of her attacker, saying that they ran in the same circles and had met before.

A group of 15 women from Ford’s town have reportedly formed a group text to show her support.

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