Grassley Grants Extension on Kavanaugh Testimony

Senate Judiciary Committee chair's tweet on accuser Christine Ford: 'I want to hear her'
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 22, 2018 5:30 AM CDT
Grassley Grants Extension on Kavanaugh Testimony
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, walks through a tunnel toward the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday.   (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

A high-stakes standoff between Republicans and the woman accusing Brett Kavanaugh of a three-decade-old sexual attack stretched into the weekend after the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman said his panel would vote Monday on Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination without a deal on her conditions for testifying. Nearly two hours after a deadline set by Chairman Chuck Grassley expired Friday night, the Iowa Republican tweeted he'd "just granted another extension" for Christine Blasey Ford to agree to terms for telling his panel and a captivated nation about her allegations, the AP reports. He provided no details, and participants from both sides didn't immediately return messages requesting clarification. "She shld decide so we can move on I want to hear her. I hope u understand," he wrote just before midnight in comments to Kavanaugh. "Come to us or we to u," he tweeted to Ford.

Earlier, Grassley had rejected proposals by Ford's attorneys that only senators interrogate Ford and that she appear after Kavanaugh should she appear. Ford lawyer Debra Katz requested another day to decide and said Grassley's deadline's "sole purpose is to bully Dr. Ford and deprive her of the ability to make a considered decision that has life-altering implications for her and her family." The late-night brinkmanship between Grassley and Ford left in question whether she would appear before the GOP-run committee and describe her allegation to millions of voters. Now a 51-year-old California psychology professor, Ford says an inebriated Kavanaugh pinned her on a bed, muffled her cries, and tried removing her clothes when both were teenagers in the 1980s. Kavanaugh, a District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals judge, has repeatedly denied the accusation. More on the situation here. (More Brett Kavanaugh stories.)

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