Grassley extends deadline, but Kavanaugh accuser’s testimony still a question

As senators march closer to a scheduled vote Monday on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Ford and her attorneys are still negotiating whether she will appear before the panel to testify about the alleged sexual assault by Kavanaugh.

Late Friday, committee Chairman Chuck Grassley made another exception to extend the deadline into Saturday at the request of Ford’s attorney.

The extension was the latest twist in the road to Ford’s possible appearance, which started last week as rumors swirled about a letter about an allegation sent to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. Ford, who did not initially want to come forward, released her name Sunday.

She said she wanted to testify, then said she would only do so after an FBI investigation of the alleged sexual assault Ford says happened more than 30 years ago, while she and Kavanaugh were in high school.

An initial hearing was scheduled for Monday, and both Ford and Kavanaugh had been invited to testify. Ford’s attorneys told the committee a Monday hearing was “not possible” for the California professor.

Instead, the attorneys suggested Ford testify Thursday and proposed several conditions, including that Kavanaugh would testify first and that the panel would subpoena Mark Judge, a former classmate of Kavanaugh’s who Ford says was in the room when the alleged sexual assault occurred.

As negotiations continued, Grassley set a 10 a.m. deadline Friday for Ford to decide whether she would testify. He then moved it back to 5 p.m. and later extended it to 10 p.m.

An attorney for Ford sent an email to Grassley’s staff shortly before the 10 p.m. deadline Friday, chastising the Iowa Republican’s decision to schedule a vote Monday on Kavanuagh’s nomination while the two parties were still negotiating possible testimony by Ford.

In the email, Debra Katz called the deadline, which had been extended twice by Grassley, “arbitrary” and asked for another day for her client to consider the terms for testifying.

“The imposition of aggressive and artificial deadlines regarding the date and conditions of any hearing has created tremendous and unwarranted anxiety and stress on Dr. Ford,” the email said.

Katz said part of the reason she requested an additional day to respond was that Ford had traveled “several hours” to meet with the FBI about death threats she has received since her story became public. Ford and her family were forced out of their home earlier this week and had to arrange for private security to protect them, her lawyers said.

In a late-Friday tweet responding to the email, the Judiciary chairman urged Ford to clarify whether she had changed her mind about testifying.

“I want to hear ur testimony,” he wrote. “Come to us or we to u.”

He wrote to Kavanaugh in a subsequent tweet that he hoped the judge understood his decision to extend the deadline.

“It’s not my normal approach to b indecisive,” the tweet said.

Two female Republican senators have said they’ll wait until after Ford testifies to determine whether to back Kavanaugh’s nomination. Both are seen as key swing votes in whether President Trump’s nominee will be confirmed.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, told CNN she hopes the hearing is able to advance next week but she’s waiting to make a final determination on her vote until Ford testifies.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said at an event at Saint Anselm College that a vote on Kavanaugh should be delayed until Ford shares her story under oath.

Kavanaugh, who has reportedly spent time at the White House in the past few days preparing to testify, wrote in his memo accepting the invitation that he continues to “want a hearing as soon as possible, so that I can clear my name.”