Senate hearings on sexual harassment by Cavanaugh: what the parties said

The candidate to the country's Supreme Court, nominated by US President Donald Trapp, Brett Cavanaugh, was accused by three women of sexual harassment and rape.

Screenshot from video

In connection with the charges in the Senate 27 of September, hearings were held, at which the senators got acquainted with the testimony of the alleged victim, Dr. Christine Blesi Ford, and Kavano himself, writes "BBC».

The essence of the charges

A letter in which the woman spoke about the attempted rape by Brett Cavanaugh more than 30 years ago came to Democratic senators in the summer when Donald Trump put forward a conservative judge on the post of member of the US Supreme Court. However, her name was kept secret. In mid-September, the woman decided to speak publicly and reveal her name.

Ford said that at the beginning of 80's, Cavanaugh and his friend, both "drunk as a lord", shoved her into a room during one of the parties where high school students gathered. According to her, Cavanaugh threw her on the bed and tried to pull off her clothes while his friend was watching. When she tried to scream, the young man covered her mouth with her hand.

Later, another prosecutor joined Kristin Blezi Ford - former student of Kavano, Deborah Ramirez. She told how at one of the student parties while studying at Yale University, Cavano, drunkenly, showed her his sexual organ to her.

On September 26, a third woman accused Judge Kavanaugh of sexual assault, according to an allegation released by her lawyer, Michael Avenatti. The lawyer tweeted a statement from Washington's Julia Swetnick, who said she met Kavanaugh and his high school friend Mark Judge in the early 80s and went to the same parties with them. Swetnick wrote that she saw Brett Kavanaugh “drink heavily at these parties and behave in an abusive and physically aggressive manner towards the girls, including pressing the girls against him without their consent, rubbing against them and making attempts to remove or move items of their clothing to expose their private parts.”

Other suspects

September 27 reported that two men confessed to members of the Senate Judicial Committee that they had attacked Christine Blesi Ford during a party in the year 1982, and not Cavanaugh. The committee members confirmed that the two men actually confessed to the crime, and came at different times. On Monday, September 24, the Republicans asked questions to a person who was confident that he was in contact with Ford. “Contact” means rape of a girl at a house party in a house in Maryland. In the interview that followed, the man spoke in detail about the crime. The committee did not release any other information about men, or why they both decided to make statements with a difference of two days.

Cavano himself denies the charges. Argument in favor of his innocence, he called the fact that he was a virgin in high school and many years later, because he attended a Catholic school for boys.

Meanwhile, Christine Blesi Ford passed a lie detector test. showing that she is telling the truth. However, in her testimony a lot of white spots - she did not remember the exact date of the attempted rape, she did not tell her even her friends and mother, and people who, she said, were also at the party, deny that they were present.

Indications of the alleged victim

Senator Dianne Feinstein, deputy chairman of the US Senate Law Committee, who initially sent a letter accusing Kavano of sexual abuse in July, invited actress Alice Milano to the hearing. The star of the series “Charmed” watched Judge Clarence Thomas’s trial in 1991, and asked if she thought something was different this time, answered positively. "I think yes. We live in a different time. ” After that, the actress said she contacted Ford and invited her to a cup of coffee.

On September 27, for the first time, committee members had the opportunity to listen to the testimony of Dr. Ford under oath - if the truthfulness of her words was not proved, the woman would be awaited by the tribunal for perjury.

After the introductory words of the senators to the podium came out Ford.

A woman talked about what happened on a summer evening during a small party in Georgetown, Maryland.

According to her, eIt was then 18 years old, and she did not tell her parents what had happened, because she was ashamed to admit that she was with the boys and drank beer. Only a few of her friends knew about it. In 2012, Ford visited a psychotherapist at the insistence of her husband, since that story had a serious impact on her.

She admitted that the memories of rape caused her to panic attack, so she tried not to talk about it.

“I went upstairs to use the restroom, but I was roughly pushed from behind and dragged into the bedroom,” said Christine Blesi Ford. - In the room music was playing loudly, Brett and Mark took turns making it louder. I was pushed onto the bed, and Brett sat down on top of me. He began to touch my body with his hands and cuddle up to me. I screamed in the hope that someone would hear me, but the music was loud and he was heavy. Brett squeezed me and tried to undress, which was not easy, because he was very drunk, and under my clothes was a solid swimsuit. I screamed, at this moment he put his hand over my mouth. It was hard for me to breathe, and I was very afraid that he might inadvertently kill me. ”

The woman remembered that she had tried to meet her eyes with Mark Judge several times in the hope that he would help her. But he did not.

“They seemed to be having a great time,” she said.

Several times Mark, according to her, jumped on the bed. At one of those moments, Cavanaugh, according to Ford, stopped, and she was able to wriggle out, run to the toilet and lock herself up. She waited until Cavano and Judge left, and then left.

Later, Ford told some friends about this episode.

“I don’t remember every person I talked to about this, and some friends reminded me of these conversations after the story was published in the Washington Post on September 16, 2018. But until July 2018, I did not mention Brett Kavanaugh’s name anywhere except in my psychologist’s office. That changed in early July 2018 when I saw that Brett Kavanaugh was on the list of qualified candidates for the Supreme Court. "I thought it was a civic duty to provide information about Mr. Kavanaugh's background so that those considering his nomination are aware of this attack," Ford said.

Anxiety, claustrophobia and post-traumatic syndrome - according to Ford, all this torments her after rape. She also said that she had problems with her studies and it was difficult for her to start relationships with guys.

Ford said that her most vivid memory of the incident was the laughter and joy of the attackers because of her humiliation.

The prosecutor and the senators asked the woman several times if she was sure that she hadn’t confused who attacked her, and she remembered the attacker well, and Ford responded every time that she had no doubts about it and was sure that the rapist Cavano

Cavano speech

While the woman was speaking, Cavano and his wife arrived in the Senate.

Brett Cavanaugh entered the meeting room, after a short introductory speech by the commission chairman, he vowed to tell the truth.

He began his presentation with the testimony of Miss Kaiser, a close friend of Dr. Ford, who stated that she was not familiar with the judge when they were teenagers and after that. Kavano stated that his family and he were subjected to unfair charges - he is credited with what he allegedly did 36 years ago, although, in fact, he did not.

According to him, after he was accused of sexual violence, his good name and trust in his family was destroyed.

“This is a circus,” he said.

Brett Kavano argues that he was never a sexual perpetrator, and one of his closest friends, who became a victim of sexual violence in 90, even turned to him for help. Kavano, as he claims, was the only one to whom she came for advice.

The judge said that during his work in various departments of the FBI, he studied his past as a whole six times, and found nothing that could defame him. He stressed that he was never accused of sexual violence: “No kind. Never".

In 1982, when Ford was raped, Brett Kavano was 17 years old, he went to a Catholic school in Maryland, and at parties around him there was none of the closed school that Kristin Blezi Ford attended. Judge Cavanaugh emphasized that if he attended the party at least once with Dr. Ford, he absolutely did not remember that.

Brett Cavanaugh gave a detailed account of what he was doing that summer, proving that he could not have been at that party. He gave the names of friends, dates, told exactly where he was on this or that weekend.

Kavano calls his bright feature that he had many friends among girls, and he had no romantic relationship with any of them, he still maintains friendship with everyone to this day.

He cites the statements of his girlfriends as proof of his innocence - they all noted his friendliness and respect for women.

These words for some reason cause the judge to tears.

I will say this… if a woman were to yell, interrupt and cry while being questioned, people would call her unhinged or say she had a melt down. pic.twitter.com/qBDuBP0QHt

- Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) September 27, 2018

Brett Cavanaugh also said that the majority of 12 lawyers in his court practice are women all the time, and none of them have ever expressed any claims against Cavanaugh. Only thanks and respect.

Cavano noted that he loves to teach.

“Perhaps I will never be able to teach again thanks to some in this room. I coached two basketball teams of my two daughters, I know perfectly well how basketball achievements affect girls' self-esteem. I like to train most in life, but thanks to some on the democratic side of the hall, maybe I can never again be a teacher. The worst situation in my life was the moment when I had to explain what happened to my daughters, ”the judge said.

"I am innocent," he concluded his speech.

Senator Dianne Feinstein asked Cavanaugh why he did not agree to an investigation by the FBI in this case, because if he is sure of his innocence, then this is the best way to prove it. To this he replied that he had requested a Senate hearing the day after the charges appeared, but instead he waited 10 days. The question of the FBI investigation remains open, but Kavano, he said, is ready to do everything to help the investigation.

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