Blasey Ford Friend ‘Does Not Refute Dr. Ford’s Account’ Of Assault, Lawyer Says

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 27: Dr. Christine Blasey Ford is sworn in by chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, on Capitol Hill September 27, 2018 in Washington, DC. A professor at Palo Alto University and a research psychologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Ford has accused Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her during a party in 1982 when they were high school students in suburban Maryland. (Photo By Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 27: Dr. Christine Blasey Ford is sworn in by chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, on Capitol Hill September 27, 2018 in Washington, DC. A professor at Palo Alto University and a research psycho... WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 27: Dr. Christine Blasey Ford is sworn in by chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, on Capitol Hill September 27, 2018 in Washington, DC. A professor at Palo Alto University and a research psychologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Ford has accused Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her during a party in 1982 when they were high school students in suburban Maryland. (Photo By Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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A high school friend of Christine Blasey Ford’s, whom Blasey Ford remembers as being present at the gathering at which Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh allegedly sexually assaulted her, told the Senate Judiciary Committee through her lawyer Friday that she does not refute Blasey Ford’s memory of that night.

“Ms. Keyser does not refute Dr. Ford’s account, and she has already told the press that she believes Dr. Ford’s account,” Leland Ingham Keyser’s attorney Howard Walsh wrote to the committee overnight Friday, CNN reported Saturday. (The Washington Post reported on Sept. 23: “Keyser said that she did not recall the party, but that she was close friends with Ford and that she believes Ford’s allegation.”)

Walsh continued, per CNN: “However, the simple and unchangeable truth is that she is unable to corroborate it because she has no recollection of the incident in question.”

Keyser, Walsh told the committee, will “cooperate fully” with the FBI’s renewed background check of Kavanaugh.

Previously, Walsh said of his client: “Simply put, Ms. Keyser does not know Mr. Kavanaugh and she has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present, with, or without, Dr. Ford.”

Blasey Ford has maintained that Keyser was unaware of the assault, which is alleged to have occurred in 1982, because she was downstairs at the gathering when it happened upstairs.

At Thursday’s hearing Blasey Ford said Keyser “has significant health challenges, and I’m happy that she’s focusing on herself, and getting the health treatment that she needs.”

“She let me know that she needed her lawyer to take care of this for her, and she texted me right afterward with an apology and good wishes,” Blasey Ford noted.

Kavanaugh, during his time before the committee Thursday, falsely said that Blasey Ford’s allegations had been “refuted by the very people she says were there, including by a long-time friend of hers. Refuted.”

This post has been updated.

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