Grassley: Kavanaugh Accuser ‘Deserves To Be Heard’

UNITED STATES - SEPTEMBER 13: Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, conducts a markup of the Senate Judiciary Committee in Dirksen Building on September 13, 2018, where Republicans voted to move the committee vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to September 20th. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
UNITED STATES - SEPTEMBER 13: Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, conducts a markup of the Senate Judiciary Committee in Dirksen Building on September 13, 2018, where Republicans voted to move the committee vote on Su... UNITED STATES - SEPTEMBER 13: Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, conducts a markup of the Senate Judiciary Committee in Dirksen Building on September 13, 2018, where Republicans voted to move the committee vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to September 20. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call) MORE LESS
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Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said Monday that he was “working diligently to get to the bottom of these claims,” referring to the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh made publicly by Christine Blasey Ford on Sunday.

Grassley said Ford “deserves to be heard,” but grumbled that committee Republicans “have only known this person’s identity from news reports for less than 24 hours and known about her allegations for less than a week.”

And, like he did on Sunday, Grassley called the process by which the allegations became public “deeply disturbing” — but not the allegations themselves.

Grassley also criticized committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who kept the confidential allegations private for weeks, before news reports made their existence known.

Feinstein’s office, Grassley wrote, has “refused” to schedule follow-up calls with the relevant parties, Ford and Kavanaugh.

Feinstein has addressed this refusal, saying senators have still more to learn about Kavanaugh. “Staff-level examination of these allegations should not go forward until the FBI’s career professionals […] have completed their review,” she and other committee Democrats wrote to Grassley Monday.

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