WASHINGTON – Dr. Christine Blasey Ford agreed Saturday to testify before Congress next week about her allegations that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers.
"Dr. Ford accepts the committee's request to provide her first-hand knowledge of Brett Kavanaugh's sexual misconduct next week," Ford's attorney Debra Katz wrote to the committee leadership staff Saturday just before a 2:30 p.m. deadline.
The letter did not spell out precisely when or under what conditions Ford would testify. And it suggested that key sticking points remained unresolved.
"We are hopeful that we can reach agreement on details," Katz wrote. "Can we set up a time for later this afternoon to continue our negotiations?"
Aides to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But other Republicans on the panel immediately blasted Katz's statement as another delaying tactic.
"Worth noting that this is exactly where we were on Monday morning," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah said in a tweet Saturday. Without agreement on a date, time, and terms, we are no closer to hearing from Dr Ford then we were when her lawyers said Dr. Ford was willing to testify during their media tour," Hatch added.
If all the details are worked out, Ford's decision to appear before the committee sets up a high-stakes hearing next week that will give Kavanaugh's accuser a chance to tell her story publicly for the first time – allegations that have cast doubt over Kavanaugh's once-assured confirmation and created intense political pressure on Senate Republicans in the #MeToo era.
Ford alleges that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a house party in the 1980s, when they were both teenagers at Washington-area private schools.
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In an explosive interview in the Washington Post, Ford said an inebriated Kavanaugh tried to pinned her to a bed, groped her, put his hand over her mouth to stifle her screams and tried to remove her clothes.
Kavanaugh has repeatedly and categorically denied the allegations.
Shortly after Ford went public with her story, her lawyers signaled that she would be willing to testify publicly. Kavanaugh said he would also return to the committee to dispute her account.
More: Who is Christine Blasey Ford?
That set off a dizzying week of behind-the-scenes negotiations over the terms of Ford and Kavanaugh's appearances before the Judiciary Committee.
They were wrangling over several contentious details, including whether Ford would testify to the committee before or after Kavanaugh; whether the committee would subpoena a possible witness to the alleged assault, Kavanaugh's boyhood friend Mark Judge; and who would conduct the questioning.
Republicans had floated the idea of having a female committee staffer question Ford, to avoid the optics of the panel's all-male Republican roster interrogating Ford.
Ford's lawyers have accused the GOP majority of setting arbitrary deadlines and bullying her with ultimatums.
"Your cavalier treatment of a sexual assault survivor who has been doing her best to cooperate with the Committee is completely inappropriate," Katz wrote to the committee leadership staff Friday evening.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the judiciary committee, said Saturday afternoon that Ford deserves "respect" as she's been under intense pressure. Feinstein has battled Grassley and Republicans on the committee to slow the process and allow Ford more time.
"Dr. Blasey Ford will testify next week. She has shown tremendous courage in the face of death threats and harassment and deserves respect as final details for the hearing are worked out," Feinstein wrote on Twitter.
But Republicans said they have been patient and "extremely accommodating" to Ford's wishes.
"We want to hear Dr. Ford’s testimony and are prepared to accommodate many of your demands, including further delaying a hearing that is currently scheduled for Monday," the GOP majority said in a statement Friday. "We are unwilling to accommodate your unreasonable demands. Outside counsel may not dictate the terms under which committee business will be conducted.”
Grassley agreed late Friday to extend a deadline for Ford to consider the terms of her testimony before the committee. He gave her until 2:30 on Saturday to decide whether she will testify.
Even as those negotiations unfolded, Senate GOP leaders seemed determined to keep Kavanaugh's nomination on track, even as they say Ford should be heard and her accusations taken into account.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., predicted on Friday that Kavanaugh would be sitting on the Supreme Court "in the very near future."
“We're going to plow right through it and do our job,” McConnell told a group of religious conservatives gathered in Washington at the Value Voters Summit Friday. "In the very near future, Judge Kavanaugh will be on the United States Supreme Court.”
Ford’s supporters said McConnell’s comments Friday morning proved that Republicans were not serious about hearing the California professor’s side of the story and they were just inviting her to testify so as not to appear dismissive of her claims.
Contributing: Eliza Collins and Christal Hayes
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