The university professor who accused Brett Kavanaugh, U.S. President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, of sexual assault will testify before a Senate panel on Thursday about her allegation, her lawyers and the committee said on Sunday.
The agreement for Christine Blasey Ford to testify came just hours before the New Yorker magazine published an article in which a second woman, identified as Deborah Ramirez, described another instance of alleged sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh, also in the 1980s, when both attended Yale University.
Ford’s agreement to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee came a week after she went public in an interview in the Washington Post with her allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in 1982 when both were high school students in Maryland.
Her allegation against the conservative federal appeals court judge has endangered his confirmation by the Republican-led Senate to a lifetime job on the top U.S. court.
Kavanaugh has also agreed to testify at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing planned for 10 a.m. on Thursday.
The potentially explosive hearing, set against a backdrop of the #MeToo movement fighting sexual harassment and assault, comes just weeks before Nov. 6 congressional elections in which Democrats are trying to take control of Congress from Trump’s fellow Republicans.
The New Yorker magazine reported that Senate Democrats are investigating the new allegation against Kavanaugh that dates to the 1983-84 academic year, when Kavanaugh was a Yale freshman. Ramirez is cited by the New Yorker as saying Kavanaugh exposed himself to her during a drunken dormitory party.
Kavanaugh has called Ford’s allegation “completely false” and said in a statement provided by the White House on Sunday night the incident described by Ramirez “did not happen.”
“This is a smear, plain and simple,” Kavanaugh said.
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