Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has reportedly hired Washington trial lawyer Beth Wilkinson amid the fallout over a woman alleging he sexually assaulted her while in high school.
The allegation of sexual misconduct emerged late last week, following Kavanaugh’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. His accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, revealed her identity in the Washington Post over the weekend and has agreed to recount her experience in sworn testimony before the Senate panel if called in the coming days.
Kavanaugh has described Ford’s accusation as “categorically false,” saying in a statement Monday he did not know who was making the accusation until she came forward over the weekend and has “never done anything like what the accuser describes – to her or to anyone.”
The growing controversy, which has threatened to delay a committee vote scheduled for Thursday, led
Kavanaugh to retain Wilkinson this week, CNN reported Monday. Wilkinson is a founding partner at Wilkinson, Walsh and Eskovitz, a boutique firm with offices in Washington and Los Angeles. She represented three senior aides to Hillary Clinton during the FBI investigation into the former Secretary of State’s private email server during the 2016 election.
Wilkinson’s office did not return the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
The fate of Kavanaugh’s confirmation remained unknown on Monday as bipartisan senators called for President Trump’s Supreme Court pick to reappear before the Judiciary Committee to testify on the matter, and for Ford to do so as well.
Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a statement Monday that Ford “deserves to be heard” and he is therefore working to set up a time for her to testify “in an appropriate, precedented and respectful manner.”
Meanwhile, Kavanaugh paid a visit to the White House on Monday where he reportedly met with aides to prepare for a possible hearing on the allegation of sexual misconduct.
