In response to a second accuser coming forward, as reported in The New Yorker, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee requested that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) delay Thursday’s hearing with Judge Brett Kavanaugh and his accuser Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.
Grassley said no.
His letter to Feinstein reads in part:
I am not going to silence Dr. Ford after I promised and assured her that I would provide
her a safe, comfortable, and dignified opportunity to testify.
Both Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh have, over the last week, requested the opportunity to testify to Congress regarding Dr. Ford’s allegations. After protracted negotiations with Dr. Ford’s attorneys, during which we postponed the hearing we had originally scheduled, Dr. Ford’s attorneys agreed to a hearing this Thursday. There is no reason to delay the hearing any further.
Besides being unfair to Dr. Ford, whose attorneys asked for a public hearing one week ago, delaying the hearing further would be unfair to Judge Kavanaugh and his family. He has asked the Committee repeatedly for the chance to testify as soon as possible. He has categorically denied the allegations that have been made public. He did this in a transcribed interview with several Senate investigators, under penalty of up to five years’ imprisonment for lying. We can no longer stand in the way of him presenting his testimony before the Committee.
Read his whole response below:
