Editor’s note: This story updates Monday’s report on calls for a delay in Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing.
[S]enate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has announced that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the woman who accused him of sexual assault would both appear at a public hearing next Monday.
The decision to schedule the session came after 24 hours of bipartisan pressure on Grassley to investigate the charges made in a letter by Christine Blasey Ford. The hearing is set to begin at 10 a.m.
Monday evening’s development now pushes the date for the committee vote to confirm Kavanaugh, which had been scheduled for Thursday, into the unknown along with any certainty he would be confirmed.
Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy and the other nine Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee had called for a delay Monday in its consideration of the nomination until the FBI can look into sexual assault allegations against him.
In a letter to Grassley, the Democrats urged the Iowa Republican to postpone the committee vote.
Leahy said in a statement that the “integrity of our nation’s highest court is on the line” and “we cannot brush aside these extraordinarily serious allegations in an unseemly rush to confirm Judge Kavanaugh to a lifetime seat.”
Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court appeared all but assured last week, even as rumors swirled around the Capitol about the existence of an anonymous letter that described sexual assault allegations against the nominee. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who had received a copy of the letter detailing the alleged incident, said late last week she had turned it over to the FBI.
On Sunday the woman, 51-year-old Christine Blasey Ford, went public in an interview with the Washington Post with details about what she said was an incident involving Kavanaugh during their high school years.
Ford, a research psychologist at Palo Alto University in California, said in the interview that during a party in the early 1980s, a drunken Kavanaugh locked her in a bedroom and forced her onto a bed. As another male student looked on, Kavanaugh then groped her over her clothes and covered her mouth when she tried to scream, she said.
After Kavanaugh’s friend jumped on top of both of them, Ford managed to break away and get out of the room, eventually running away from the house, according to the Post report.
Kavanaugh has denied the allegations, saying in a statement on Monday to the New York Times that he had “never done anything like what the accuser describes — to her or to anyone.”
After the allegations were published, Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., issued a statement commending Ford for her “courage in coming forward” and said it was imperative for the Senate to take the charges seriously.
“These allegations are credible and deeply troubling,” Welch said. “The Senate should immediately pause the confirmation process and insist upon a thorough investigation by the FBI.”
The other member of Vermont’s congressional delegation, independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, took to Twitter to say the allegations deserve a “full investigation” and the Senate should not vote on “Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court until that takes place.”
The allegation from Professor Christine Blasey Ford is a serious one that deserves a full investigation. Neither the Judiciary Committee nor the full Senate should vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court until that takes place. https://t.co/OWVZtKiuzO
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) September 16, 2018
Some Republican senators joined Democrats in wanting to look further into Ford’s allegations. Sens. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, both members of the Judiciary Committee, said they wanted to hear what Ford has to say before making a decision on confirming Kavanaugh.
My statement on Judge Kavanaugh. pic.twitter.com/QGz3uUyzC9
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) September 16, 2018
Flake told Politico he was “not comfortable voting yes” on the nomination until he learned more about Ford’s allegations.
In Leahy’s statement, the senior senator from Vermont stressed that a proper investigation into these allegations was in the best interest of all the involved parties.
“I join my fellow Democratic senators on the Judiciary Committee to demand that any votes on this nomination be delayed until a nonpartisan evaluation is complete. We need to do right by Dr. Ford, Judge Kavanaugh, and the American people. We need to delay the vote,” Leahy said.
Lawsuit over Archives, CIA records
Also Monday afternoon, Leahy announced that he and five other Democratic committee members had filed a lawsuit to compel the National Archives and the CIA to release all records involving Kavanaugh during his time working in the White House.
The announcement comes four days after Republican members, in a committee business meeting, blocked four attempts by Democrats to subpoena the White House for the Kavanaugh documents.
The lawsuit asks the court to order both agencies to comply with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests submitted by senators in early August.
Democrats said that more than a month later, neither agency had provided the requested records within what the lawmakers said was the required 20-day limit for a response. The senators are represented by American Oversight, a nonpartisan ethics and accountability watchdog group.
In a statement, Leahy said Republicans have left the Democrats with “no choice but to seek redress in a court of law – and to obtain documents that already should have been provided to the Senate.”
“In light of recent allegations, it is more important than ever for the Senate to have a full picture of Judge Kavanaugh’s views, credibility, and character,” Leahy said.
