Menu

Topics

Connect

Comments

Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.

Here’s what to expect from Thursday’s Kavanaugh, Ford testimonies

WATCH: 'I'm not going anywhere': Brett Kavanaugh responds to sexual assault allegations – Sep 24, 2018

On Thursday, both Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh will testify on Ford’s allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school.

Story continues below advertisement

The hearing is a monumental moment in the confirmation process of Kavanaugh, and could make or break his nomination, depending on what Ford says and how it is received.

Ford alleges that Kavanaugh pinned her down at a party and covered her mouth while trying to remove her clothes.

Here’s what to expect from the hearing.

The process

Ford will testify at 10 a.m., ET before Kavanaugh’s hearing. Global will live stream the event.

WATCH: Republican senator says third accusation of alleged sex assault by Brett Kavanaugh under investigation

The testimony will happen in a much smaller room than Kavanaugh’s previous hearings and will have a limited number of cameras, as requested by Ford.

Story continues below advertisement

Republicans have hired Rachel Mitchell, a career prosecutor with decades of experience prosecuting sex crimes, to ask questions to both Ford and Kavanaugh.

The daily email you need for 's top news stories.

Mitchell was hired to avoid the optics of an all-male team of Republicans grilling Ford, a lesson learned from the 1991 Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas. Thomas was accused of sexual harassment by Anita Hill, and has a lot of similarities to Kavanaugh`s hearings.

There will be one round of questions in which each of the 11 Republican senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee will have five minutes to ask Ford questions and can choose to have Mitchell ask the questions for them.

Ford will then leave the committee hearing room, and Kavanaugh will enter once Ford has left. Ford requested in negotiations to not face Kavanaugh in person.

Story continues below advertisement

Kavanaugh will then be questioned by the 11 Democrat Senators on the committee in the same format as Ford. There will be one round of questions in which senators will each have five minutes, and they may choose to ask the questions themselves or through Mitchell.

WATCH: Democratic senator questions Republicans’ decision to use prosecutor for Kavanaugh hearing

Supreme Court nomination

Judiciary Committee chair Chuck Grassley has already scheduled for Friday a committee vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination, in which the panel will vote whether to nominate Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court. Then the vote will go to the entire U.S. Senate, with that expected to happen next Monday or Tuesday.

Story continues below advertisement

Republican leaders are pushing for the nomination to be confirmed as close as possible to the start of the Supreme Court term on Monday, Oct. 1.

More accusers

Since Ford’s allegations, four other women have come forward with their own accusations of sexual and physical assault against Kavanaugh.

Deborah Ramirez told the New Yorker that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a dorm party when both of them were in college, and Julie Swetnick alleges that she was a victim of a “gang” rape in 1982, in which Kavanaugh was present.

Kavanaugh was also under investigation by the Senate over a fourth allegation this week, this one of physical assault, NBC News reported on Wednesday

Story continues below advertisement

The incident, which allegedly took place at a bar in the Washington, D.C. area in 1998, claims that Kavanaugh physically assaulted a woman in the presence of friends and her daughter.

Senate transcripts also reveal that a fifth person, a man from Rhode Island, said a close acquaintance “was sexually assaulted by two heavily inebriated men she referred to at the time as Brett and Mark” in August 1985.

Kavanaugh has denied all allegations.

Advertisement

You are viewing an Accelerated Mobile Webpage.

View Original Article