Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is accused of sexually assaulting a woman when they were in high school. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO kavanaugh confirmation Senate panel plans hearing for Kavanaugh's accuser to testify The Supreme Court nominee would also return to speak.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will have a chance to hear in public from the woman accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault and the Supreme Court nominee himself, a Republican member of the panel said on Monday.

The hearing has been scheduled for Monday, Sept. 24. Both Kavanaugh’s camp and that of Christine Blasey Ford, who came forward Sunday with the allegation, have been contacted about the planned public hearing, a source close to the confirmation said.


“As I said earlier, anyone who comes forward as Dr. Ford has done deserves to be heard. My staff has reached out to Dr. Ford to hear her account, and they held a follow-up call with Judge Kavanaugh this afternoon. To provide ample transparency, we will hold a public hearing Monday to give these recent allegations a full airing,” Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said.

Democrats on the Judiciary panel “were not informed about a hearing” in advance of the GOP decision, an aide said.

Republicans moved ahead after a frenetic day that began with Ford’s lawyer saying that the California-based professor would be willing to testify about her alleged high school-era sexual assault by Kavanaugh — an accusation that has added fresh turmoil to his already tumultuous confirmation fight.

A growing number of Republicans said after Ford stepped into the public eye that GOP leaders’ plans to confirm Kavanaugh by the end of the month may need to be altered in order to hear her out. By midday Monday, six Republican senators had said the Judiciary Committee needs to weigh Ford’s account, a large enough group to raise serious doubts about whether the nomination will proceed.

But Kavanaugh himself has only doubled down on a strenuous denial of Ford’s allegation. The federal appellate judge told Sen. Orrin Hatch in a Monday phone call that he did not attend the party more than three decades ago at which Ford says the assault occurred, the Utah Republican said.

“I believe him. He’s a person of immense integrity,” Hatch told reporters, declining to address how Kavanaugh could speak definitively about not attending a decades-old event that Ford has discussed only in broad terms.

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Hatch suggested that Ford may have been “mixed up” in her memory of the night in question.

President Donald Trump — rather than criticizing Ford, as he has blasted the #MeToo movement — told reporters Monday that “if it takes a little delay, it’ll take a little delay” to vet the allegation.

“We want to go through a full process … and hear everybody out,” Trump told reporters, adding that he had not spoken to Kavanaugh about the matter.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) aligned with Kavanaugh’s denials, lamenting in a floor speech that Ford’s allegation had emerged “at the last minute and in an irregular manner” as he gave Grassley a vote of confidence in conducting interviews of both the judge and the professor.

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) pushed back on the GOP for being unwilling so far to delay its timetable for confirming Kavanaugh in order to vet Ford’s story. “Republicans and their staff cannot impartially investigate these allegations,” Schumer said on the floor.

Debra Katz, Ford’s attorney, indicated openness to “a fair proceeding” in a Monday interview with “CBS This Morning.”

“My client will do whatever is necessary to make sure that the Senate Judiciary Committee has the full story and the full set of allegations to allow them to make a fully informed decision,” Katz said. “She’s willing to do what she needs to do.”

Ford, a research psychologist and professor in Northern California, shared details of Kavanaugh’s alleged assault in a Washington Post interview published Sunday. Ford dated the assault to 1982, when she was 15 and Kavanaugh was 17, and told the Post that it “derailed me substantially for four or five years.”

Kavanaugh on Monday vehemently denied the accusation and said he is willing to speak to the committee.

“This is a completely false allegation. I have never done anything like what the accuser describes — to her or to anyone,” he said in a statement. “Because this never happened, I had no idea who was making this accusation until she identified herself yesterday.”

The White House on Monday reiterated its support for Kavanaugh, reasserting his Friday statement that he “categorically and unequivocally” denies the allegation.

“Judge Kavanaugh looks forward to a hearing where he can clear his name of this false allegation,” White House spokesman Raj Shah said in a statement. “He stands ready to testify tomorrow if the Senate is ready to hear him.”

Allies of Kavanaugh are pressing forward. The Judicial Crisis Network plans to run $1.5 million in ads to push Kavanaugh across the finish line in a campaign featuring a longtime friend of the judge’s, according to a person familiar with the effort.

If Kavanaugh’s accuser accepts a formal invitation to testify in a public forum it would carry significant political risk for all sides, summoning echoes of Anita Hill’s explosive 1991 testimony alleging sexual harassment by now-Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Such a hearing also could be difficult to follow through on without definitively derailing the GOP’s plans to push Kavanaugh to a final vote later this month.

Kavanaugh remains short of the votes to be confirmed in the 51-seat GOP majority. And moderate Democrats, none of whom said they will support Kavanaugh thus far, are balking at moving too quickly. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) said the allegations need to be “thoroughly investigated” by the Judiciary Committee, adding that both Ford and Kavanaugh have separately agreed to testify.

“It takes courage for any woman to speak up about sexual assault, and we need to respect Prof. Ford by listening to her and hearing her story,” Heitkamp said in a statement that she tweeted.

Katz, during the CBS interview, said she has heard that Republicans “intend to play hardball” if Ford testifies.

“This is not an exercise that is designed to get at the truth,” she said. “This is an exercise that’s designed to terrify somebody that’s already been traumatized.”

Democrats have spent weeks trying to slow down Kavanaugh’s confirmation by pushing for additional documents from the 53-year-old appeals court judge’s tenure in the administration of former President George W. Bush. Republicans have sought to portray Democratic calls for delay following the assault allegation as politically motivated, questioning why Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) did not act earlier on a letter she received from Ford in July, but Feinstein has pushed back by noting that Ford herself had insisted on confidentiality before stepping forward on Sunday.

“The Judiciary Committee should treat this with the seriousness it deserves,” said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, a Republican member of the committee.

James Arkin and Hugh T. Ferguson contributed to this report.

