Kavanaugh Accuser Decides About Testifying

Christine Blasey Ford will testify, but wants to negotiate details
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 22, 2018 2:30 PM CDT
Kavanaugh Accuser: I'll Talk
In this Sept. 6, 2018 photo, Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh waits to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee for the third day of his confirmation hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of a decades-old sexual assault has accepted a Senate committee's request to tell her side next week but Christine Blasey Ford wants to resume negotiations over the exact terms of her appearance, her lawyers said Saturday, the AP reports. It was not immediately clear whether the Republican-run Senate Judiciary Committee would agree to more talks with Ford's team. Also unclear was when she might come to Capitol Hill and whether she was offering to speak in a public session or a private one. The committee wanted her to appear Wednesday, but she prefers her earlier request for Thursday, according to a person familiar with the negotiations who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Her lawyers' letter to the committee's GOP majority was released just at the 2:30pm deadline set by the chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley, to respond to the panel's latest offer. Grassley, R-Iowa, had set a possible Monday vote to decide whether to recommend Kavanaugh's nomination to the full Senate. A senior official at the White House said the letter amounted to "an ask to continue 'negotiations' without committing to anything. It's a clever way to push off the vote Monday without committing to appear Wednesday." The lawyers wrote that many aspects of Grassley's latest offer were "fundamentally inconsistent" with the committee's promise of a "fair, impartial investigation." They said they remained disappointed by the "bullying" that "tainted the process." Yet they remained "hopeful that we can reach agreement on details."
(More Brett Kavanaugh stories.)

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