Brett Kavanaugh is willing to answer questions on allegations, has hired an attorney
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Ariane de Vogue and Eli Watkins, CNN
(CNN) — Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh said Monday that he would be willing to speak with lawmakers to refute an allegation of physical and sexual assault by a woman who has come forward publicly with the accusation.
“This is a completely false allegation,” Kavanaugh said in a statement. “I have never done anything like what the accuser describes — to her or to anyone. Because this never happened, I had no idea who was making this accusation until she identified herself yesterday. I am willing to talk to the Senate Judiciary Committee in any way the committee deems appropriate to refute this false allegation, from 36 years ago, and defend my integrity.”
Kavanaugh was seen Monday morning arriving at the White House.
While some Republican senators, such as Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham and Arizona’s Jeff Flake, are concerned with process, one source said that doesn’t necessarily mean a long delay — and the concern is that a long delay is what Democrats are pushing for.
One supporter of Kavanaugh pushed back on some reporting that the White House or Republicans would deploy any aggressive attack, calling it “infuriating.”
According to multiple sources, Kavanaugh has hired Beth Wilkinson, of the law firm Wilkinson Walsh and Eskovitz, to be his attorney. Wilkinson has not returned calls from CNN seeking comment.
California professor Christine Blasey Ford went public with her allegation in an article published by The Washington Post on Sunday. In the article, she alleged that at a party during their high school years, Kavanaugh pushed her into a bedroom along with his friend Mark Judge, attempted to remove her clothes and put his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream.
Judge denied the allegation in an interview with The Weekly Standard on Friday.
While she initially sought to keep her allegation confidential, Ford said she opted to go public once the allegation emerged in the public eye and reporters began pursuing her. Her attorney Debra Katz told CNN on Monday morning that Ford would be willing to testify before Congress and stood by her story in the face of expected push-back.
Ford’s decision to go public prompted some key senators to voice support for a delay in Kavanaugh’s nomination process, which was scheduled to be voted on in the Senate Judiciary Committee this week.
On Sunday evening, a pair of outgoing Republican senators said outright that the Senate Judiciary Committee should not vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination until they talk to his accuser.
“I’ve made it clear that I’m not comfortable moving ahead with the vote on Thursday if we have not heard her side of the story or explored this further,” Flake, a member of the committee, told the Post.