Is allegation against Kavanaugh missing key details?
Penny Young Nance, president and CEO of Concerned Women for America, says the timing of Dr. Ford's allegation is suspicious.
Christine Blasey Ford’s attorneys have sent documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee with declarations from four people who they say corroborate her story of sexual assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
The declarations, as first obtained by USA Today, are from Ford’s husband Russell Ford and three friends who stand behind the accuser’s allegation against Kavanaugh while both were high school students in 1982.
The statements will be used by Ford’s legal team during the much-anticipated committee hearing Thursday that will examine both the credibility of Ford’s allegations and Kavanaugh’s denials.
In a declaration by Adela Gildo-Mazzon, who has known Ford for over 10 years and considers her a “good friend,” she claims Ford told her about the incident involving Kavanaugh back in June 2013. She contacted the attorneys for Ford on Sept. 16 to inform that she was told about the story.
“During our meal, Christine was visibly upset, so I asked her what was going on,” Gildo-Mazzon says in her declaration. “Christine told me she had been having a hard day because she was thinking about an assault she experienced when she was much younger. She said she had been almost raped by someone who was now a federal judge. She told me she had been trapped in a room with two drunken guys, and that she had escaped, ran away and hid.”
"Christine told me she had been having a hard day because she was thinking about an assault she experienced when she was much younger. She said she had been almost raped by someone who was now a federal judge."
Keith Koegler, another person who claims to corroborate Ford’s allegations, says he talked about the alleged assault with her in 2016 in the midst of the sentencing of Stanford University student Brock Turner.
“Christine expressed anger at Mr. Turner’s lenient sentence, stating that she was particularly bothered by it because she was assaulted in high school by a man who was now a federal judge in Washington, D.C.,” Koegler said.
"Christine expressed anger at Mr. Turner’s lenient sentence, stating that she was particularly bothered by it because she was assaulted in high school by a man who was now a federal judge in Washington, D.C."
“Christine did not mention the assault to me again until June 29, 2018, two days after Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his resignation from the Supreme Court of the United States,” he continued.
He says that Ford told him in an email that the person who had assaulted her in high school was President Trump’s favorite for the nomination of the Supreme Court. After asking to reveal his name, Ford then named Kavanaugh in the email.
Another declaration is from Rebecca White, who has known Ford for more than six years. She says Ford told her about the allegations against her sometime in 2017.
“I was walking my dog and Christine was outside of her house,” she said. “I stopped to speak with her, and she told me she had read a recent social media post I had written about my own experience with sexual assault.
“She then told me that when she was a young teen, she had been sexually assaulted by an older teen,” White added. “I remember her saying that her assailant was now a federal judge.”
"She then told me that when she was a young teen, she had been sexually assaulted by an older teen. I remember her saying that her assailant was now a federal judge."
The last declaration is from Ford’s husband who reportedly learned about the allegations when they got married, though she shared the details only in 2012 when they were having a couple’s therapy session.
“I remember her saying that her attacker’s name was Brett Kavanaugh, that he was a successful lawyer who had grown up in Christine’s hometown, and that he was well-known in the Washington D.C. community,” Russell Ford said.
He said his wife was “afraid” Kavanaugh will become the nominee for the Supreme Court and wasn’t sure if she should come forward with her allegations.
“However, in the end she believed her civic duty required her to speak out,” he added. “In our 16 years of marriage I have always known Christine to be truthful person of great integrity. I am proud of her for her bravery and courage.”
The declarations of four individuals are sure to strengthen Ford’s case when she appears before the Senate committee. In recent days, her story took a hit after initially telling the Washington Post last week that here were a total of “four boys at the party” where the alleged episode occurred and that two – Kavanaugh and friend Mark Judge -- were in the room during her attack.
She claims her therapist made an error when he noted in his notes that she said all four boys were involved in the alleged incident.
Those boys purportedly included Kavanaugh, Judge and another classmate, Patrick Smyth -- all of whom have since denied to the Senate Judiciary Committee, under penalty of felony, any knowledge of the particular party in question or any misconduct by Kavanaugh.
However, a woman, Leland Ingham Keyser, a former classmate of Ford's at the Holton-Arms all-girls school in Maryland, has since been identified by Ford as the fourth witness at the party. In a dramatic twist, Keyser, who has never been described as a “boy,” emerged Saturday night to say she doesn’t know Kavanaugh or remember being at the party with him.
Fox News’ Gregg Re contributed to this report.
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