The woman who has accused Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault made her allegations on the record for the first time in an interview with the Washington Post published on Sunday.
The allegations against Kavanaugh first emerged in a confidential letter. On Friday, the contents of the letter, which was meant to be anonymous, were released by the New Yorker. On Sunday, Christine Blasey Ford, a 51-year-old research psychologist, came forward as the author. Kavanaugh has repeatedly denied the allegations.
Ford detailed her allegations, which center around an incident in the 1980s when Ford and Kavanaugh were both in high school. She said that Kavanaugh and a friend, who were drunk at the time, cornered her in a bedroom. She alleged Kavanaugh pinned her down and tried to strip her clothing and one-piece bathing suit off while holding his hand over her mouth to stop her screams. She said the friend watched as Kavanaugh groped her.
"I thought he might inadvertently kill me," said Ford. "He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing." Ford said that she was able to escape the assault when a friend tackled Kavanaugh.
The Washington Post verified the account with notes from Ford's past therapy sessions, which note a "rape attempt" and a party incident with unnamed boys who are now prominent names in Washington.
The story also names the boy who helped free Ford as writer Mark Judge. Judge had already denied the incident in a conversation with the New York Times before Ford's name had been released.
Ford said she did not tell anyone of the incident at the time because she was afraid of what her parents would say if they found out she was at a party where people were drinking.
"My biggest fear was, do I look like someone just attacked me?" she said. "I'm not ever telling anyone this. This is nothing, it didn't happen, and he didn't rape me," she said of her thoughts that night.
The White House provided the Post with a statement repeating Kavanaugh's denial. "I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation," he said. "I did not do this back in high school or at any time."
Ford told the Post she knew she would be attacked publicly if she came forward as she is doing. So she recruited a lawyer friend who advised herdto take a polygraph test. She did, administered by a former FBI agent, and was found truthful, according to the Washington Post.
