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  • 2018-09-28 (xsd:date)
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  • Is Another Man Responsible for Christine Blasey Ford’s Assault? (en)
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  • On 16 September 2018, Christine Blasey Ford identified herself publicly as the woman who wrote a confidential letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein alleging that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, in the presence of his classmate Mark Judge, had sexually assaulted her in the 1980s when he was a student at Georgetown Prep, leading to tense negotiations about if and when Ford would testify before the Judiciary Committee. Following Blasey Ford’s disclosure, several attempts were made to insinuate that Blasey Ford had confused Kavanaugh with another man, something she categorically denied as a possibility. The first prominent presentation of this argument was offered in a now-deleted, defamatory, and false Twitter thread from Ed Whelan, the president (currently on leave) of the conservative think tank the Ethics and Public Policy Center. In a series of Tweets, Whelan utilized comments left on Facebook posts, floor plans found on the real estate website Zillow, and yearbook photographs to accuse (by name) another Georgetown Prep classmate of the assault, based primarily on his physical similarities with a young Kavanaugh. Through her lawyers, Blasey Ford dismissed this possibility: Whelan later apologized for the incident and was placed on a leave of absence from the Ethics and Public Policy Center. I made an appalling and inexcusable mistake of judgment in posting the tweet thread in a way that identified Kavanaugh’s Georgetown Prep classmate, Mr. Whelan Tweeted on 21 September 2018. I take full responsibility for that mistake, and I deeply apologize for it. I realize that does not undo the mistake. On 26 September 2018, the night before Blasey Ford was scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, committee chair Chuck Grassley released a report that had the effect of suggesting, for a second time, that Blasey Ford's memories were confused. According to this report, between 24 and 26 September 2018, two separate men reached out to the committee claiming that they were in fact the person who assaulted Blasey Ford. The report, a timeline of investigative actions which Grassley maintained his committee undertook, included three references to these two individuals: The allegations made by these men, though offered in some detail in one case, have not been publicly outlined, and it is not clear if both of these men allege themselves to be the primary assailant, or if one of them alleges to have been the second man in the room at the time of the assault. For obvious reasons, both men cannot be correct if they both assert to be the person allegedly confused for Brett Kavanaugh. On 27 September 2018, during her sworn testimony, Ford was asked several times under oath if she could have confused Kavanaugh for someone else, and each time she emphatically and categorically denied such a possibility, first in an exchange with Senator Feinstein: In an exchange with Senator Patrick Leahy, Ford reiterated this point and provided additional information about the person whom Ed Whelan falsely accused of the assault, indicating she knew this other man well at that time: In response to a question from Senator Dick Durbin about her level of certainty that Kavanaugh was the assailant, Dr. Ford said she was 100% certain: No additional information has yet been made available regarding the claims put forward by the two men interviewed by the Senate Judiciary Committee staff. (en)
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