Washington, Sep 27 (EFE).- Christine Blasey Ford told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday that she is certain US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was the person who attempted to rape her in 1982.
The self-proclaimed victim of sexual assault by the now-judge described the incident that occurred more than 30 years ago and, although she admitted that she did not remember everything that she would like about it, she said that – as a result of it – she had suffered from “panic attacks and anxiety.”
When asked about what was her strongest memory of the incident, Ford responded: “Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter. The uproarious laughter between the two. And their having fun at my expense,” adding, “They were laughing with each other,” referring to Kavanaugh and his high school friend Mark Judge, who Ford says was in the room when the attack took place.
When asked about the possibility that she might have confused the identity of the attacker, Ford categorically denied that she could be making a mistake and said she was “100 percent” certain that it had been Kavanaugh.
Ford emphasized that she had tried to report the incident to authorities before Kavanaugh was officially nominated for the Supreme Court by President Donald Trump on July 9, since she had noted that he was already on a list of possible nominees, but she added that she did not know how to do that and had to get the advice of friends on how to proceed.
“I was panicking because I knew the timeline was short on the decision” on whether Trump would choose Kavanaugh as his Supreme Court nominee, so she contacted the Washington Post on July 6, although she said she wanted to preserve her anonymity.
She also telephoned the office of her congressional representative, Rep. Anna Eshoo, and said that she had hoped to be able to proceed along “the civic route” with her claim but added that neither the daily nor Eshoo’s office got back to her before Kavanaugh was selected.
Ford also described taking a polygraph test regarding her accusation, saying that it had caused her a lot of stress and took longer than she had anticipated.
“I believed he was going to rape me. I tried to yell for help. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from screaming. This was what terrified me the most, and has had the most lasting impact on my life. It was hard for me to breathe, and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me,” Ford said in her opening statement at the hearing on her accusation.
“I am here today not because I want to be. I am terrified. I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school,” she told lawmakers.
Ford said that she had “agonized” for months since she learned about Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, but ultimately she said “I thought it was my civic duty to relay the information I had about Mr. Kavanaugh’s conduct so that those considering his potential nomination would know about the assault.”
One of three women who have publicly accused the judge of sexual misconduct, Ford insisted that she is a “fiercely independent” person and nobody’s “pawn,” and asserted that she felt it was incumbent upon her to tell her story about what occurred at the house party in the summer of 1982, when both she and Kavanaugh were teenagers.
The hearing scheduled for Thursday by the Republicans – who are in the majority on the Senate Judiciary Committee – will include testimony from both Ford and Kavanaugh on her allegation, but the GOP members have not moved to allow calling more witnesses who might be able to corroborate or refute either of their stories, including Mark Judge.