Over the last few weeks, the nation has been divided down the middle by the controversy revolving around Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the sexual assault allegations against him by four women, the first and foremost of which placed by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. The entire nation had their eyes on Kavanaugh and Ford as they testified Sept. 27, but how did we get to that point?
The story begins when President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to fill the empty Supreme Court of the United States seat. This position is important because it lasts for life. If approved by the Senate, Kavanaugh could sit on the court for more than 40 years. Kavanaugh is a famous Washington federal appeals court judge, having served as an aide to George W. Bush and also worked on the Bill Clinton Impeachment Investigation. This impeachment expertise is thought to be why Trump is appointing him to the Supreme Court, hoping that if an impeachment case were to reach the court, Kavanaugh would side with the president. Kavanaugh would have to be approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and then be confirmed by the entire Senate. For most of the summer, Kavanaugh’s appointment was thought to be a sure thing with a Republican majority in Congress.
However, that all changed Sept. 12 when The Intercept reported that Dianne Feinstein had a secret document about Kavanaugh; on the 14th, Feinstein released this letter to federal investigators and the FBI entered the letter into Kavanaugh’s background file. With it being entered, all senators could see it. Once this came, news began to leak that the letter was about an alleged high school sexual assault by an anonymous source. This anonymous source says that at a house party in 1982, Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge held her down and groped her. The source says that there are therapist reports to corroborate her story and report. Once this source found out about the Supreme Court nomination, she could no longer sit still and decided to mail her senator, Dianne Feinstein.
After this came to light, Republican Senator and Senate Judiciary Committee leader Chuck Grassley published a letter signed by 65 women citing that none of them ever knew Kavanaugh to be harmful toward women in high school. Also saying, “for the entire time we have known Brett Kavanaugh, he has behaved honorably and treated women with respect.” However, critics have also asked how a letter signed by 65 people was able to be rounded up overnight, citing that Kavanaugh was possibly waiting for these accusations to come out.
Then, on Sept. 16 the accuser came forward. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford is a Clinical Psychology Professor at Palo Alto University in California. Citing that if her story is going to be told, then she’s going to tell it, and so she came into the spotlight. Ford says that she did not tell anyone about the alleged assault until 2012, when in couples’ therapy with her husband she said to her therapist that she was sexually assaulted in the 80s. She also came forward with these notes that confirmed she talked about it in 2012. They also confirmed that she had been treated for the lasting effects of teenage sexual trauma. Ford finished her letter to The Washington Post with “It is upsetting to discuss sexual assault and its repercussions, yet I felt guilty and compelled as a citizen about the idea of not saying anything.”
Dr. Ford remained calm and collected during all of her statements and questioning. In her own words, she was terrified but it is easy to see that she was brave and bold. @dvasurvivorhk
With this, many senators and politicians had responses, such as Republican Senate Judiciary Committee member Jeff Flake saying “Ford must be heard before the vote on the 20th.” Republicans only hold an 11-10 majority on the committee, and with this, many conservative pundits were worried Flake would flip the vote. Senator Susan Collins also tweeted, “Professor Ford and Judge Kavanaugh should both testify under oath before the Judiciary Committee.” The president also had a response, with his counselor Kellyanne Conway saying, “This woman should not be insulted or ignored,” and Trump himself said, “If it takes a little delay, it takes a little delay.” Ford’s lawyer also came forward citing that she has taken a polygraph, or lie detector test, and it corroborates her story.
On Sept. 18, the vote scheduled for the 20th was officially delayed, and both parties had been invited to testify on the 24th. Another letter of support signed by more than 200 women for Ford was also published saying, “Ford’s accusation is all too consistent with stories we hear and lived while attending Holton.” However, Ford says that she would rather wait for an FBI investigation before she testified in front of anyone.
On Sept. 20, Ford’s lawyer announced that she and her family have been receiving death threats and have been forced out of their home. However, if the Senate Judiciary Committee can agree to terms that are fair and ensure her safety, she will testify. However, the date of the 24th is impossible for Ford to make and is arbitrary but she will be able to testify later that week. With this, journalist Philip Defranco said very succinctly, “There needs to be an investigation into these claims, given what kind of claims they are. Without a legal authority diving in, what we are left with is a he-said-she-said. Not having the FBI look into it just adds to this circus of an event.”
There was then a flurry of updates and last-minute accusations by more parties. Deborah Ramirez came forward saying that she was inebriated at a college house party and when on the floor drunk, Brett Kavanaugh shoved his genitals in her face in front of everyone and said to “kiss it.” She pushed him away and left and gave a list of witnesses.
Then, a third accuser came forward named Julie Swetnick. Swetnick’s attorney, Michael Avenetti, published an affidavit reporting her story. In this affidavit, she detailed that she was friends with Judge and Kavanaugh in the 80s when they attended these house parties. She saw them repeatedly being aggressive and not taking no for an answer from women. She also came forward with terrifying accounts that they would spike the drinks at these parties with drugs and grain alcohol, and then target the women that became inebriated. She also gave an account of women being corralled into bedrooms and gang-raped by boys, with lines of boys waiting outside for their “turn.” She said that she was the victim of one of these rapes as well, with her being unable to fight off her attackers, who included Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh.
However, Julie Swetnick’s story has been attacked by her ex-boyfriend. He came forward with evidence of a restraining order against her when she threatened to kill his family after a breakup. Using this, Richard Vinneccy said that Swetnick is crazy and was “exaggerating everything.”
Then, the fourth and perhaps most mysterious of the allegations came forth anonymously. A parent cited that their daughter in the 90s witnessed Kavanaugh “aggressively and sexually” pin a woman to the wall. This woman and the accuser’s daughter both wished to be anonymous.
With this, the story came to a climax on the 27th when both parties testified in front of the SJC. Ford testified first and gave her terrifying account. Starting with, “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.” Ford then named four men who would have known of her assault: Brett Kavanaugh, Mark Judge and two men whose names she could not recall.
Ford then gave the actual account of what happened on that night. “Brett and Mark came into the bedroom and locked the door behind them. There was music playing in the bedroom. It was turned up louder by either Brett or Mark once we were in the room. I was pushed onto the bed, and Brett got on top of me. He began running his hands over my body and grinding into me. I yelled, hoping that someone downstairs might hear me, and I tried to get away from him, but his weight was heavy.”
“Brett groped me and tried to take off my clothes. He had a hard time, because he was very inebriated, and because I was wearing a one-piece bathing suit underneath my clothing. 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 yelling. This is 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,” said Ford.
When asked why she never reported it she said, “For a very long time, I was too afraid and ashamed to tell anyone these details. I did not want to tell my parents that I, at age 15, was in a house without any parents present, drinking beer with boys. I convinced myself that because Brett did not rape me, I should just move on and just pretend that it didn’t happen.”
When asked what she remembered the most about the attack by a senator, she said, “Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter, the laugh, the uproarious laughter between the two and they’re having fun at my expense.”
Next, Brett Kavanaugh testified with a fiery passion with lots of yelling and proclaiming. His opening statement was 45 minutes as opposed to Ford’s 17-minute address. In his opening statement, he hit on placing the blame on anyone but himself or Dr. Ford. Kavanaugh blames the left-wing democratic party, the media, the Clintons and even the Senate Judiciary Committee. He raises that this is a conspiracy theory that these allegations against him are a coordinated attack by the Democrats but that despite this he will not withdraw his nomination. For example, he said, “You’ve given it your all. No one can question your effort, but your coordinated and well-funded effort to destroy my good name and to destroy my family will not drive me out. The vile threats of violence against my family will not drive me out.”
Kavanaugh also used his notes and High School calendars to try to clear his name, “But I did have the summer of 1982 documented pretty well. The event described by Dr. Ford, presumably happened on a weekend because I believed everyone worked and had jobs in the summers. And in any event, a drunken early evening event of the kind she describes presumably happened on a weekend.
If it was a weekend, my calendars show that I was out of town almost every weekend [the]night before football training camp started in late August. The only weekend night that I was in D.C. was Friday, June 4, when I was with my dad at a pro golf tournament and had my high school achievement test at 8:30 the next morning.”
Following his opening statements, Kavanaugh fielded questions from senators. For example, Senator Durbin asked if Kavanaugh would be prepared for an FBI investigation to which he said, “They don’t reach conclusions. You reach the conclusions, Senator.”
Senator Kamala Harris also asked about a polygraph test to which Kavanaugh answered, “No, the — I’ll do whatever the committee wants. Of course, those are not admissible in federal court, but I’ll do whatever the committee wants, they’re not admissible in federal court because they’re not reliable.”
Senator Cory Booker also asked Kavanaugh to clarify his statements about the “well-coordinated political hit” he mentioned in his opening statements, but instead of clarifying he instead hit on Dr. Ford, “I’ve — I’ve said my family has no ill will toward Dr. Ford. She wanted confidentiality. Her confidentiality was blown by the actions of this committee. And it’s caused — it’s turned this into a circus.”
Notably, Senator Lindsey Graham made a statement instead of fielding questions that rose a controversy of their own. Addressing the “liberals,” he said, “If you wanted an FBI investigation, you could have come to us. What you want to do is destroy this guy’s life, hold this seat open and hope you win in 2020.”
Next, the Senate Judiciary Committee ended the session and went to vote the next day. Following this, many people pleaded with the Senate to begin an FBI investigation. For example, the American Bar Association published a letter asking for an investigation into Kavanaugh. The Dean of Yale, where Kavanaugh attended and who previously sided with him, also asked for an investigation.
After this, the Senate Judiciary Committee took their vote on Brett Kavanaugh, and he was approved 11-10. However, the SJC also requested the Trump Administration to instruct the FBI to conduct a supplemental investigation into the allegations that can last no more than one week. With this, Senator Jeff Flake, who had the deciding vote said, “The country is being ripped apart here. We have to do our due diligence.”
With this, the FBI began a special investigation into these allegations. However, during their investigation, reports began to come out that the FBI’s investigation is being stifled by the GOP and President Trump and not being allowed to investigate specific parts of the story. For example, Senator Jeff Flake called for a “real investigation” and not just one that “just gives us more cover,” according to CNN.
Also, there is the chance that Kavanaugh committed perjury during his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee. When making a sworn testimony, everything you say must be the truth, or else you will be guilty of perjury. During his testimony, Kavanaugh said “I got into Yale Law School. That’s the number one law school in the country. I had no connections there. I got there by busting my tail in college.” However, this is not entirely true. Kavanaugh’s grandfather also attended Yale, and he was a legacy admission. Some Democratic senators say that this constitutes a lie on Kavanaugh’s part.
Finally, that brings us to the present in the story. There’s so much more than what was covered here, such as Kavanaugh’s college bar fight that leads to one of his friends being arrested or the fact that two different men have come forward and said that it was them that sexually assaulted Ford. But, with all of that, we need to focus on what this all means.
The question everyone asks is, “Why didn’t Ford report this to the police?” To answer that, we look at her statement and how she has been treated. Kavanaugh was a Georgetown Prep student, one of the most powerful schools in the country. Had she reported it, she would have been subjected to a police investigation and all the vitriol she’s experiencing now. would be aimed at a 15-year-old. She, a possible sexual assault survivor, has been receiving death threats because she DARED to stand against a powerful white man in this country. The first assumption many senators made instead of “Is she telling the truth?” is “Wow, she’s an agent of the Clintons to get revenge for the 2016 elections.”
People are standing with Ford, saying they #IBelieveHer, and for a good reason. Even if Ford were to be lying, the pure amount of hatred being aimed at her simply for standing up is astonishing. Senator Graham even said that future Democrat appointees need to watch out for sexual assault allegations against them from the Republicans. That’s right, Graham admitted to considering falsifying rape allegations.
When women come forth in America with their stories, they are instantly met with hatred. Go to Twitter and look at #MeToo posts and look in the replies to these people’s stories. “Why didn’t you tell anyone?,” “What were you wearing?” and “Why were you drinking?” There’s also the problem of Swetnik’s ex-boyfriend bringing up his restraining order against her. Her ex-boyfriend brought up this to try to discredit her, because if she’s crazy then obviously she must be lying.
There’s also the problem that Kavanaugh is so partisan. Judges, especially judges on the highest court in the land, are supposed to be nonpartisan. Despite this, Kavanaugh is on the stand saying that the Democratic party has a targeted and planned attack going against him. What happens if he gets confirmed and he has to hear a case about the Democrats? Will he get his revenge by voting against them despite what the law says?
That brings us to today, where the FBI is finding inconsistencies in his story, and a very real case is being built against him. However, it still goes to see if any of this will matter. There is a very real chance that Senate leader Mitch McConnell rushes the vote through and it passes down the party line alone.
However, it is a certainty that this will be massively important for years to come regardless of what happens. According to the Pew Research Center, Supreme Court Appointments are the No. 1 issue among voters for the midterms. But for now, all that needs to be seen is if any of the testimonies changed anyone’s mind. There are undoubtedly senators whose vote was decided before a word was spoken by Ford, and that needs to change.
