Opening testimony of Christine Blasey Ford

Christine Blasey Ford, the California professor who accused Supreme Court candidate Brett M. Kavanaugh of sexual assault at a party while both were in high school, will testify Thursday at a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Ford will have to answer questions from Democrats committee and a Republican attorney before millions of TV and online viewers across the country, 11 days after presenting his allegation in the Washington Post. Kavanaugh denied the accusations.

Below you will find his introductory remarks, which we annotate. To view annotations, click the highlighted yellow text. here is Speech by Brett Kavanaugh.

President Grassley, titular member Feinstein, committee members. I call Christine Blasey Ford. I am a professor of psychology at Palo Alto University and research psychologist at Stanford University School of Medicine.

I did my university education at the University of North Carolina and I graduated in experimental psychology in 1988. I obtained a master's degree in clinical psychology in 1991 at the University of North Carolina. Pepperdine University. In 1996, I received a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Southern California. I obtained a Master's degree in Epidemiology from the Faculty of Medicine at Stanford University in 2009.

I have been married to Russell Ford since 2002 and we have two children.

I am here today not because I want to be. I am terrified. I am here because I believe that my civic duty is to tell you what happened while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school. I've described the events publicly before. I summarized them in my letter to current member Feinstein, and again in my letter to President Grassley. I understand and appreciate the importance you have given me directly about what has happened to me and the impact it has had on my life and my family.

I grew up in the suburbs of Washington, DC I attended the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Maryland, from 1980 to 1984. Holton-Arms is a girls' school that opened its doors in 1901. During my stay at school, the girls at Holton-Arms frequently met boys from all the schools in the area, including the Landon School, Georgetown Prep, Gonzaga High 2, and country clubs. in other places where children and their families socialized. That's how I met Brett Kavanaugh, the boy who sexually assaulted me.

In my first and second year of school, when I was 14 and 15 years old, my group of friends met Brett and his friends for a short time. I was friendly with a Brett classmate for a short time during my first year and it was through this that I attended a number of parties at which Brett also attended. We did not know each other well, but I knew him and he knew me. In the summer of 1982, like most summers, I spent almost every day at the Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Maryland, swimming and diving.

One evening this summer, after a day of swimming at the club, I attended a small meeting in a house in the Chevy Chase / Bethesda area. I remember four boys: Brett Kavanaugh, Mark Judge, P. J. Smyth and another boy whose name I do not remember. I remember my friend Leland Ingham. I do not remember all the details of how this meeting went, but like a lot of summer this summer, it was almost certainly a highlight. I would really like to be able to provide detailed answers to all the questions that have been asked and will be asked about how I arrived at the party, where it took place, and so on. I do not have all the answers and I do not remember as much as I would like. But the details of this night that bring me here today are the ones I will never forget. They have been etched in my memory and have haunted me episodically in adulthood.

When I arrived at the small gathering, people were drinking beer in a small living room on the first floor of the house. I had a beer that night. Brett and Mark were visibly drunk. Early in the evening, I climbed a narrow staircase leading from the living room to the second floor to use the bathroom. When I got to the top of the stairs, I was pushed from behind into a room. I could not see who was pushing me. Brett and Mark entered the room and locked the door behind them. There was already music in the room. Brett or Mark were stronger in the room. I was pushed on the bed and Brett approached me. He started putting his hands on my body and biting his hips inside me. I shouted, hoping that someone downstairs could hear me and tried to move me away from him, but his weight was heavy. Brett mumbled and tried to undress me. He was having trouble because he was drunk and I was wearing a one-piece swimsuit under my clothes. I thought he was going to rape me. I tried to scream for help. When I did, Brett put his hand on my mouth to stop me from screaming. That's what made me the most terrified and had the most lasting impact on my life. It was hard for me to breathe and I thought Brett would accidentally kill me. Brett and Mark both laughed during the attack. They both seemed to have a good time. Mark exhorted Brett, though he sometimes asked Brett to stop. A few times I made eye contact with Mark and thought that he could try to help me but he did not do it.

During this aggression, Mark came and jumped on the bed twice while Brett was on me. The last time he did that, we rocked over and Brett was no longer on me. I was able to get up and out of the room. Right in front of the room was a small bathroom. I ran inside the bathroom and locked the door. I heard Brett and Mark come out of the room laughing and abruptly descend the narrow stairs, slamming the walls downstairs. I waited and when I did not hear them go up the stairs, I left the bathroom, I went down the stairs, crossed the living room and left the house. I remember being in the street and feeling a huge relief from being out of the house and that Brett and Mark were not coming after me.

Brett's attack on me has radically changed my life. For a very long time, I was too scared and I was ashamed to tell the details to anyone. I did not want to tell my parents that at age 15, I was in a house without the presence of parents, drinking beer with boys. I've tried to convince myself that because Brett 4 did not rape me, I should be able to move on and pretend that it never happened. Over the years, I told very few friends that I had experienced this traumatic experience. I told my husband before our wedding that I had been a victim of sexual assault. I had never told the details to anyone before May 2012, during a counseling session for couples. The reason is that my husband and I have done a vast remodeling of our house and I have insisted on having a second door entry, an idea with which, with others, it is n & # 39; 39, was not in agreement. In explaining why I wanted to have a second door in, I described the aggression in detail. I remember saying that the boy who assaulted me might someday be in the US Supreme Court and talk a bit about his background. My husband remembers that I named my abuser Brett Kavanaugh.

After this therapy session in May 2012, I did my best to remove the memories of the aggression because telling the details made me relive the experience and brought about panic attacks and anxiety. On occasion, I was discussing the aggression in individual therapy, but talking about it brought back to life the trauma, so I tried not to think about it or discuss it. But over the years, I've gone through times when I thought about Brett's attack. I confided to close friends that I had experienced a sexual assault. On occasion, I stated that my abuser was a prominent lawyer or judge, but I did not use his name. I do not remember all the people I've talked to about Brett's assault, and some friends have reminded me of those conversations since the publication of the Washington Post's history. September 16, 2018. But until July 2018, I had never named Mr. Kavanaugh aggressor outside the therapy.

Everything changed in early July 2018. I saw press reports that Brett Kavanaugh was on the "short list" of potential candidates for the Supreme Court. I thought it was my civic duty to relay the information I had about Mr. Kavanaugh's conduct so that those considering his potential candidacy would be aware of the aggression.

On July 6, 2018, I had the urgent feeling of passing on information to the Senate and the President as soon as possible before the selection of a candidate. I called my congressional representative and let him know that someone from the President's shortlist had attacked me. I also sent a message to the confidential phone line of the Washington Post. I did not use my name, but I did provide the names of Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge. I stated that Mr. Kavanaugh had assaulted me in the 1980s in Maryland. It was an extremely difficult thing to do for me, but I felt that I could NOT do it. Over the next two days, I told two close friends on California Beach that Mr. Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted me. I was in conflict over the opportunity to talk.

On July 9, 2018, I received a call from the office of MP Anna Eshoo after Mr. Kavanaugh became a candidate. I met her staff on July 11 and with her on July 13, describing the aggression and discussing my fear of introducing myself. Later, we discussed the possibility of sending a letter to Feinstein, one of the senators in my state, describing what had happened. I understand that Eshoo's representative's office provided a copy of my letter to Senator Feinstein's office on July 30, 2018. The letter included my name, but requested that the letter be kept confidential.

I hoped that providing information confidentially would be sufficient to allow the Senate to consider Mr. Kavanaugh's grave misconduct without my family or anyone's family being vulnerable to personal attacks and privacy breaches. which we have been facing since my name became public. In a letter dated August 31, 2018, Senator Feinstein wrote that she would not share the letter without my consent. I greatly appreciated this commitment. All victims of sexual assault should be able to decide for themselves whether their private experience is made public.

As the date of the hearing neared, I had a terrible choice: do I share the facts with the Senate and that my family and I are in the spotlight? ? Or do I preserve our privacy and allow the Senate to make its decision on Mr. Kavanaugh's appointment without knowing the full truth about his past behavior?

I took this decision daily in August and early September 2018. The sense of duty that led me to communicate confidentially with the Washington Post, Eshoo Representative's office, and Senator Feinstein's office. was always present, but my fears about the consequences began to increase.

In August 2018, the press reported that Mr. Kavanaugh's confirmation was almost certain. Her allies see her as an advocate for women's rights and empowerment. I thought that if I introduced myself, my voice would be drowned by a chorus of powerful supporters. At the time of the confirmation hearings, I was resigned to staying quiet and letting the Committee and the Senate make their decision without knowing what Mr. Kavanaugh had done.

Once the press began to report the existence of the letter I sent to Senator Feinstein, I faced increasing pressure. Journalists came to my home and work to ask for information about this letter, including in the presence of my graduate students. They called my boss and my colleagues and left many messages, clearly indicating that my name would inevitably be returned to the media. I decided to speak publicly to a reporter who had responded to the advice I had sent to the Washington Post and who had won my trust. It was important for me to describe the details of the aggression with my own words.

Since September 16, the Washington Post's history, I have seen many people across the country show their support. Thousands of people whose sex lives have been dramatically changed by sexual violence have been striving to share their own experiences with me and thanked me for coming. We have received tremendous support from our friends and our community.

At the same time, my biggest fears were realized – and the reality was much worse than I expected. My family and I have been the target of constant harassment and death threats. I have been called the meanest and most heinous names imaginable. These messages, although far less numerous than the expressions of support, have been terrifying to receive and have deeply touched me. People have posted my personal information on the internet. This resulted in emails, calls, and additional threats. My family and I were forced to leave our house. Since September 16, my family and I live in various safe places with guards. Last Tuesday night, my professional email account was hacked and messages were sent, supposed to give up my description of the sexual assault.

Besides the assault, the past two weeks have been the most difficult of my life. I had to relive my trauma in front of the whole world and saw my life distinguished by people on television, in the media and in this organ that never met me or talked with me. . I have been accused of acting for partisan political reasons. Those who say that do not know me. I am a fiercely independent person and I am not a pawn. My next motivation was to provide facts about how Mr. Kavanaugh's actions damaged my life, so you can take it seriously when you make your decision on how to proceed. It is not for me to determine whether Mr. Kavanaugh deserves to sit on the Supreme Court. My responsibility is to tell the truth.

I understand that the majority has hired a professional attorney to ask questions and I am committed to doing my best to answer them. At the same time, as the members of the committee will judge my credibility, I hope to have a direct dialogue with each of you.

At this point, I will do my best to answer your questions.