Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley late Friday night granted another extension to Christine Blasey Ford to decide on whether she will testify to the committee.

The new deadline was unclear, but Ford had requested that a 10 p.m. ET Friday deadline be extended until Saturday.

Ford has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, citing an incident that she said occurred decades ago, when both were in high school.

Grassley issued his latest extension decision in a tweet addressed to Kavanaugh, adding that he hopes the judge can “understand” his reasoning behind the delay.

Just before midnight ET, Grassley tweeted: “Judge Kavanaugh I just granted another extension to Dr Ford to decide if she wants to proceed w the statement she made last week to testify to the senate She shld decide so we can move on I want to hear her. I hope u understand. It’s not my normal approach to b indecisive.”

Grassley later added: “With all the extensions we give Dr Ford to decide if she still wants to testify to the Senate I feel like I’m playing 2nd trombone in the judiciary orchestra and Schumer is the conductor.”

The Friday 10 p.m. ET deadline was itself an extension of a previous Friday morning deadline before Grassley issued the latest postponement.



Democratic senators and Ford’s attorneys earlier Friday had responded negatively to Republicans’ deadlines and requests for a decision, asking for an extra day.

Grassley initially invited Ford to testify Monday and gave Ford until 10 a.m. Friday to respond. That deadline passed Friday without a deal after Ford’s attorneys made clear this week Ford didn’t want to testify Monday but suggested she would do so on another day.

Fox News' Matt Richardson contributed to this report.