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Rachel Mitchell Has Been Chosen By Republicans To Question Kavanaugh And Christine Blasey Ford


Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who has accused him of an incident of sexual assault in 1982, are scheduled to testify Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

At the hearing, they’ll both face Rachel Mitchell, an Arizona prosecutor with decades of experience, chosen by Republican lawmakers to assist with the fielding of questions.

The committee’s chair Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) announced the decision to hire Mitchell in a statement on Tuesday, saying that he was committed to “providing a forum to both Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh on Thursday that is safe, comfortable and dignified.”

“The majority members have followed the bipartisan recommendation to hire as staff counsel for the committee an experienced career sex-crimes prosecutor to question the witnesses at Thursday’s hearing. The goal is to de-politicize the process and get to the truth, instead of grandstanding and giving senators an opportunity to launch their presidential campaigns,” he continued in the statement. “I’m very appreciative that Rachel Mitchell has stepped forward to serve in this important and serious role. Ms. Mitchell has been recognized in the legal community for her experience and objectivity.”

Here’s what we know so far about Mitchell:

  • Mitchell is a registered Republican who has served as a prosecutor since 1993. To make the committee hearing, she took a leave from her positions as Deputy County Attorney in the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office in Phoenix and the Division Chief of the Special Victims Division, which investigates sex-crimes and family-violence.

  • She has overseen a number of high-profile cases, including one in which former Catholic priest Paul LeBrun was accused of molesting young boys in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was found guilty.

  • The New York Times reports that Mitchell has been an advocate of “strengthening sex assault laws in the state and has pushed for changes in the courtroom to comfort victims testifying in abuse cases.” She also spent a number of years supervising attorneys who handled sexual assault, child molestation and prostitution, and computer crimes against children, according to Fox.

But the decision to have Mitchell question Ford and Kavanaugh doesn’t sit well with Democrats, who have pushed back against the decision to have a prosecutor do the cross-examination, arguing that Ford—who claims Kavanaugh held her down and tried to take off her clothes when they were both in high school—is not on trial.

Senator Kamala Harris, one of the members of the committee, tweeted on Tuesday, “Dr. Blasey Ford isn’t on trial. This hearing is to determine whether Kavanaugh is qualified to sit on the Supreme Court. By hiring a private attorney to cross-examine Dr. Blasey Ford, Republicans are trying to intimidate her and avoid being held accountable by voters.”

Ford’s lawyer Michael Bromwich also weighed in by sending a note to Grassley, in which he expressed concern over Mitchell.

“This is not a criminal trial for which the involvement of an experienced sex-crimes prosecutor would be appropriate,” he wrote. “Neither Dr. Blasey Ford nor Judge Kavanaugh is on trial. The goal should be to develop the relevant facts, not try a case.”

Grassley said in his statement that he “promised Dr. Ford that I would do everything in my power to avoid a repeat of the ‘circus’ atmosphere in the hearing room that we saw the week of September 4.” Many have pointed out that Mitchell may be a better option to question Ford than one of the 11 male Republican members on the majority side of the committee.

Kavanaugh, who has denied the allegations, has now been accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women. It is not clear how the new claims will factor into Thursday’s hearing.

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Christine Blasey Ford's Testimony Is a Detailed Account of Brett Kavanaugh's Alleged Assault


Christine Blasey Ford, a professor, mother, and former childhood acquaintance of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, will testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. There, she will recount her side of the story for Senators, and the world at large, sharing in great detail the night she says Kavanaugh assaulted her.

Ford’s prepared opening remarks were released Wednesday, in which she shared just how deeply the alleged event from 1982 affected the rest of her life.

“I am here today not because I want to be. I am terrified. I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school,” Ford wrote. She explained how she and Kavanaugh attended nearby schools—hers an all-girls academy and his an all-boys. Their social circles intersected. As she recounted, they weren’t quite friends but knew of one another well enough. But, in the summer of 1982 their worlds would collide, and for Ford, Kavanaugh would from then on become an ever-present figure in her memory.

“One evening that summer, after a day of swimming at the club, I attended a small gathering at a house in the Chevy Chase/Bethesda area. There were four boys I remember being there: Brett Kavanaugh, Mark Judge, P.J. Smyth, and one other boy whose name I cannot recall,” she wrote. When Blasey Ford walked in, Kavanaugh and Judge were already visibly drunk. She had only one beer throughout the night.

When she made her way up the stairs to the second floor of the house to use the bathroom, that’s when Blasey Ford said the attack began.

“I was pushed from behind into a bedroom. I couldn’t see who pushed me. Brett and Mark came into the bedroom and locked the door behind them. There was music already playing in the bedroom. It was turned up louder by either Brettor Mark once we were in the room,” she wrote. “I was pushed onto the bed and Brett got on top of me. He began running his hands over my body and grinding his hips into me. I yelled, hoping someone downstairs might hear me, and tried to get away from him, but his weight was heavy. “

From there, she alleges that Kavanaugh attempted to take off her clothes, but had trouble due to his intoxication and the fact that she was wearing a one-piece bathing suit.

“I believed he was going to rape me. I tried to yell for help. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from screaming. This was what terrified me the most, and has had the most lasting impact on my life. It was hardfor me to breathe, and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me,” she said.

During the assault, she writes, Judge jumped on the bed, which made all three of them tumble over. That, Ford wrote, was the moment she escaped. From there, she ran into the bathroom and locked the door until the boys left. She then ran down the stairs and out the door. As she explained, she has thought of that event frequently as it was “seared into my memory and have haunted me episodically as an adult.”

In the remarks, Ford explained how she tried every avenue available to her to warn the committee about Kavanaugh and her allegations against him. She first called and met with Congresswoman Anna Eshoo and her staff, and finally sent a letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein. Feinstein promised to keep the letter confidential, but it soon leaked, prompting Ford to tell her story herself, which she did to the Washington Post earlier this month.

Her testimony, along with the answers to questioning will be heard in full on Thursday. They will also be heard alongside Kavanaugh’s own testimony. The conservative judge released his prepared remarks, which read in part, “There has been a frenzy to come up with something — anything, no matter how far-fetched or odious — that will block a vote on my nomination,” adding he unequivocally denies the claims brought by Ford.

However, she won’t be the last woman he has to answer for. Since Ford came forward, two more women have joined in with their own accusations against him. On Wednesday, Julie Swetnick, a woman who also knew Kavanaugh in high school, alleged that Kavanaugh and Judge were both present at a party where she was drugged and “gang raped.” A third accuser, Deborah Ramirez, is a former Yale University classmate of Kavanaugh’s. As she explained to The New Yorker, Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party in college and “thrust his penis in her face,” causing her to “touch it without her consent as she pushed him away.”

Still, none of these accusations against Kavanaugh will stop him from pursuing the highest court in the land. As he will tell the committee tomorrow, “The efforts to destroy my good name will not drive me out.”

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1,600 Men Show Their Support for Christine Blasey Ford in Full-Page 'New York Times' Ad


On Thursday Christine Blasey Ford will testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about the allegations that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in 1982. Women around the country have taken to social media over the past week to voice their support of Ford, even staging the National #BelieveSurvivors Walkout on Monday.

Now it’s time for the men to step up.

Today’s New York Times features a full-page ad with the headline, “We believe Anita Hill. We also believe Christine Blasey Ford,” plastered along the top. The ad echoes one placed in the paper back in 1991 when 1,600 African American women in support of Anita Hill—the law professor who testified during the Clarence Thomas nomination hearings—banded together to buy the ad, “African American Women in Defense of Ourselves.”

The ad was crowdfunded in an initiative started last Friday by Meena Harris, founder of the Phenomenal Women Action Campaign, and Alicia Garza, cofounder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network. Their goal was to raise $100,000. Currently, their fund-raising page notes that over $134,000 has been donated. (The page notes that excess funds will go to Futures Without Violence, a group dedicated to ending violence against women, children, and families around the world.)

“I had been very inspired by the story of the 1,600 black women who came together in 1991 to take out a full-page ad in The New York Times,” Harris (who also happens to be the niece of California Senator Kamala Harris) told Mic.

“We’ve asked men to step up [and sign], so it’s not only the burden of women to do this,” she continued.

The full text of the ad references its inspiration, as well:

Twenty-seven years ago, on November 17, 1991, 1,600 black women joined together and placed a full-page ad in The New York Times to support Professor Anita Hill when she faced backlash for accusing Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. They called it, ‘African American Women in Defense of Ourselves.’ Today we follow in the footsteps of those courageous women.

We are 1,600 men who now stand behind both Professor Anita Hill, as well as Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, because we believe them. As men who are allies in the fight to end violence and harassment against women and girls, we write to express our strong support of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford for her willingness to speak out publicly and testify before the Senate about the sexual assault that she says was perpetrated against her by Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh.

We believe survivors, and we call on all men of good will to stand with us to ensure that Dr. Blasey Ford’s story is carefully and fully examined without bias or prejudice. It is imperative that the politics of this moment not discolor the facts. Justice demands that both Dr. Blasey Ford and her story be treated fairly, impartially, and with respect.

Too frequently, survivors of sexual assault are forced to suffer in silence. Those that choose to speak out often face backlash, skepticism, and ridicule. As we’ve seen once again the last few weeks, that kind of virulent backlash is most acutely on display whenever those accused of misdeeds are powerful men. If appointed to the Supreme Court, few men would be more powerful than Judge Kavanaugh.

We are a group of men with varying political and legal views. But we each believe women should no longer have to carry these burdens alone.

For decades, a culture of misogyny has allowed men to act with impunity and without consequence. We demand an end to that culture, and we pledge to do our part in dismantling it. That’s why we are speaking out today in favor of a just process, and for the rights of women like Dr. Blasey Ford to be heard fully, fairly, and with respect.

In the words of Anita Hill, ‘There is no way to redo 1991, but there are ways to do better.'”

Male allies are also sharing the ad and its message across their social media platforms.

Ford and Kavanaugh are both slated to testify on Thursday. For the latest on the Kavanaugh nomination, click here.

MORE: A Third Woman Comes Forward with Allegations About Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh





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Cecile Richards: Words of Advice to Christine Blasey Ford, Ahead of Her Testimony


*In 2015, Cecile Richards, then the president of Planned Parenthood, appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform committee and testified for close to five hours. (The showdown came after an anti-choice group recorded abortion providers in secret as the professionals discussed the sale of fetal tissue. Republicans used the videos to defend their wish to strip Planned Parenthood of the close to $450 million it receives in federal funds, none of which is used to paid for abortion services.)

In front of the congressmen, Richards explained how Planned Parenthood puts federal dollars to work, defended the organization’s research practices, and endured the endless GOP-led offensive with her usual grace and patience.*

This week, as Dr. Christine Blasey Ford prepares to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to level her accusations of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Richards draws on her experience on the Hill to assure Dr. Blasey Ford of at least this one truth: You are not alone.

Dear Dr. Blasey Ford,

I can’t imagine what you’ve been through over the past two weeks. The behavior of some United States Senators who sit on the judiciary committee has underscored how brave survivors must be to weather the hostility and public shaming they too often face. Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) has likened your decision to come forward to a drive-by shooting and 84-year-old Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has said you must be “mixed up.”

Nevertheless, it seems, you persist. I hope you have also felt the flood of sympathy and solidarity from women and men across the country—including many of us for whom your experiences sound all too familiar. If and when you walk into that Senate hearing, you will not be alone; we’ll be with you.

In anticipation of your possible testimony, I have been reliving my own five hours before a hostile Republican-led committee that wanted to end access to Planned Parenthood.

It probably won’t surprise you to hear that the name of the game that day wasn’t fact-finding. There was no search for the truth. Instead, it was an opportunity for hostile men in Congress to grill me on everything from my salary to my competency to my memory—and overall, to humiliate and shame me. And all of this on national television.

But as unpleasant as those hours were, I had on my side two things the hostile congressmen did not.

First, the one in five women in America who have been to Planned Parenthood, who depend upon the organization for life-saving health care, gave me courage that day. I knew they were standing with me, just as millions of women and men across the country are standing with you—including the many women in America who have themselves been sexually assaulted. When you speak, you speak for all of us.

Second, and most importantly, what you have on your side is the same thing I was armed with: the truth. No amount of bullying and finger-pointing can take that away. Even if the Republican leadership in the U.S. Senate doesn’t want to hear that truth, you will tell it, and the American people will be listening and cheering you on.

And know this: After my hearing, not only did I feel better for speaking our truth to power—I couldn’t walk down the street without someone stopping me and thanking me. The same will be true for you. And though your detractors may be loud, in the end, their anger will be overwhelmed by the love and support from women everywhere.

We believe you. We are with you.

In Solidarity,

Cecile Richards

Author and former president, Planned Parenthood Federation of America





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Dear Ivanka: Female Celebrities Are Calling On the First Daughter to Support Christine Blasey Ford


Word out of Washington, D.C. on Saturday, according to the New York Times, is that the Senate Judiciary Committee and lawyers representing Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who is accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault during a party while they were in high school have reached a tentative agreement for her to testify publicly on Thursday.

In the coming days, we are sure to see both sides attempt to galvanize support on social media and beyond. Actress Alyssa Milano spoke to Glamour about her efforts to raise money for Ford. “I hope she feels the love and support and the heartache that women feel in standing in solidarity with her,” Milano said. “I want her to know that if she needs anything at all, that I’m here and I want to thank her for her bravery in doing the right thing for the country, even though it’s the harder thing for her personally.”

In yet another #DearIvanka campaign, other celebrities—like Busy Philipps, Amy Schumer, and Sophia Bush—are using their large social media platforms to call on First Daughter and White House senior advisor Ivanka Trump to get the administration to conduct an FBI investigation into the charges.

Philipps writes, “Dear @IvankaTrump, you don’t follow me on social media. But as a public servant, you work for me. You’ve proclaimed yourself a feminist and a champion of women’s rights. Right now, you have an opportunity to fight for women and survivors. Use your access to demand that Professor Ford’s request for a full, fair, trauma-informed investigation by the FBI be held. Use your access to make sure another abuser is not seated on the Supreme Court. #DearIvanka”

Schumer, in typical fashion, didn’t mince words. “Hey @ivankatrump Were you so excited to wear that pill box hat this week? #fun You will be remembered like Eva Braun unless you do something,” she wrote. “It’s not too late.”

Bush, who says Trump does indeed follow her on Instagram, took a different approach in her post. “I figured after the last one of these calls for you to take action, you’d unfollow me. But you’re still following me!! So, let me use this opportunity to call you in,” she said in a caption. “Rather than feeling called out, try to see this as an invitation to merge your words and your actions. Girl. You can do it.

Milano, “Law & Order: SVU” star Mariska Hargitay, Wild author Cheryl Strayed, celebrity stylist Karla Welch and more are also flooding Trump’s feed.

While her father has doubled down on his support of Kavanaugh and called into question why Blasey Ford didn’t report the incident when it happened over 30 years ago, Ivanka Trump has yet to make a public statement on the matter.



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MeToo Advocate Alyssa Milano: Christine Blasey Ford Has 'Zero Reason to Lie' About Brett Kavanaugh


On the surface, they might seem to have little in common. One is an actress and activist who’s been in the public eye since she was eight. The other, a professor and research scientist who has spent most of her life out of the limelight.

But Alyssa Milano and Christine Blasey Ford share a bond: Both stand with the ranks of women who identify as sexual assault survivors.

Ford’s decision to come forward with claims that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh attacked her at a high school party in the 1980’s has thrown America—and her own life—into an uproar. As a result of her reluctant choice to voice the allegations, which Kavanaugh categorically and emphatically denies, she’s been besieged by doubters and death threats.

But Ford has also generated a groundswell of emotional support, and in this case, of the financial variety as well: “We have to support Dr. Ford in any way we possibly can, and to me, part of that means assisting in her legal bills,” Milano told Glamour by phone Friday, marking the official rollout of a new GoFundMe campaign,“We Believe Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.”

The campaign includes groups like #VoteProChoice—whose founder, Heidi Sieck, was among those recently arrested for protesting Kavanaugh’s Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings. The current GoFundMe goal: To raise $100,000 to underwrite Ford’s “legal and communications strategy.”

Milano is known not only for her acting or anti-poverty missions as a UNICEF ambassador: She has used her celebrity to champion the #MeToo movement and has detailed her own experiences with harassment and misconduct. The activist said she has not yet spoken directly with Ford, who first publicly identified herself as Kavanaugh’s accuser to the Washington Post, but has been in contact with her attorney’s office.

To the professor, whose Senate testimony plans have not yet been set, “I hope she feels the love and support and the heartache that women feel in standing in solidarity with her,” Milano says. “I want her to know that if she needs anything at all, that I’m here and I want to thank her for her bravery in doing the right thing for the country, even though it’s the harder thing for her personally.”

And, she adds, “For every woman that has been triggered by this, you’re not alone. We stand with you. I’m right next to you. I understand. I see you. I hear you. I feel you.”

President Donald Trump’s Friday Twitter weigh-in to defend Kavanaugh and question why Ford hadn’t gone public earlier sat poorly with Milano, who calls herself “appalled” and “angry” with the process and the cultural and political climate that could foster it.

“Does he just have no idea how this works? Or is he trying to fool the American people? The majority of sexual assaults go unreported. That is a fact,” Milano says.

“Her credibility is being questioned. This woman has zero reason to lie,” she says of Ford. “She is not on trial. Christine Blasey Ford is not on trial.”

Milano took some of her outrage to Twitter, using the platform to confront the president directly: “Hey, @realDonaldTrump, Listen the fuck up. I was sexually assaulted twice. Once when I was a teenager. I never filed a police report and it took me 30 years to tell me parents,” she wrote, using the #MeToo hashtag and inviting others to respond.

The coalition Milano is working with to raise money for Ford includes Lady Parts Justice League and Lizz Winstead; SisterSong: National Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective; Trans United Fund; Ultraviolet and Shaunna Thomas; Democrats.com; Humanity for Progress; and others.

Not lost on these activists: The imperfect parallels between Ford’s case and that of Anita Hill, the law professor who was vilified after she accused then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of past sexual harassment amid his 1991 confirmation hearings.

“Black women know all too well the pain and degradation that Dr. Christine Blasey Ford is facing now that she has come forward and that Anita Hill endured nearly 30 years ago,” SisterSong said in a statement provided to Glamour. “We are speaking out with Dr. Ford. We believe her. We support her. We stand with Anita and with every woman and girl of color told to stay silent or bullied into silence by a culture and a system does not value our voices, our bodies, or our lives.”

Karla Gonzales Garcia of the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights, also saluted Ford: “We know all too well the risk she is taking [because] she understands how important it is to halt the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh. The women of this country cannot afford to have another sexual predator on the highest court in the land and the women in our community will not stand by silently and allow this to happen.”

Neither the White House nor Ford’s attorney immediately responded Friday to Glamour requests for comment about the fundraising initiative.

Milano, for her part, is up front about having bone-deep political disagreements with both Trump and Kavanaugh that go way beyond the current turmoil surrounding Ford’s allegations. But no matter what ultimately happens with the SCOTUS confirmation, she says what America is watching play out right now is cause for another grave concern.

“We are certainly not making it easier for young women to come forward and report their sexual assault or abuses. What that prevents is the capacity for healing and growth and change of the systemic social issues that we face within the country,” she says.

“We’re witnessing exactly all of Dr. Ford’s worst fears realized.”

Celeste Katz is senior politics reporter for Glamour. Send news tips, questions, and comments to celeste_katz@condenast.com.

MORE: Death Threats and Discrediting: The Treatment of Christine Blasey Ford Is a Reminder of What’s at Stake for Sexual Assault Survivors





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