The sex crimes prosecutor who questioned a California women accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault is explaining why she would not bring criminal charges against the Supreme Court nominee.
Rachel Mitchell writes in a memo sent to Senate Republicans that she does not believe a “reasonable prosecutor would bring this case based on the evidence before the Committee.”
There may be new evidence in the coming days as the FBI is currently investigating the accusations of sexual assault against Kavanaugh.
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Mitchell is a Phoenix-based sex crimes prosecutor Republicans hired to question Christine Blasey Ford about her claims against Kavanaugh during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week.
The hearing — which featured testimony from Ford and Kavanaugh — was not a criminal proceeding, but part of the confirmation process for Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh has denied the allegations.
During her opening statement, Ford detailed a gathering where she was forced into a bedroom when Ford and Kavanaugh were teenagers.
“I was pushed onto the bed and Brett got on top of me,” she said. “He began running his hands over my body and grinding his hips into me.”
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Mitchell pressed Ford on details of the event, including the timeline of the day of the assault.
She also pressed Ford on the events leading up to the hearing, including who knew about the allegations and when they knew.
Ford remained firm and unruffled through hours of testimony.
Mitchell argues that there are inconsistencies in Ford’s narrative and says no one has corroborated her account.
Ford said another boy, Mark Judge, was in the room with Kavanaugh when she was attacked; Judge has said he doesn’t remember the incident.
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“In the legal context, here is my bottom line: A ‘he said, she said’ case is incredibly difficult to prove. But this case is even weaker than that,” Mitchell wrote in the memo, CNN reported. “Dr. Ford identified other witnesses to the event, and those witnesses either refuted her allegations or failed to corroborate them.”
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“For the reasons discussed below, I do not think that a reasonable prosecutor would bring this case based on the evidence before the Committee. Nor do I believe that this evidence is sufficient to satisfy the preponderance-of-the-evidence standard.”
After the hearing, the White House ordered an FBI investigation into the allegations, at the request of Republican senators.
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