Attempted Rapist to be appointed to Supreme Court?

The Independent wrote:Brett Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford 'receiving vicious harassment and death threats'

Emily Shugerman
The Independent•September 19, 2018

The California psychology professor who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault is reportedly receiving death threats, as Donald Trump says he will make a decision on his nominee based on her testimony.

The professor, 51-year-old Christine Blasey Ford, has accused Mr Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a party when they were both in high school. Mr Kavanugh has categorically denied the allegations.

In the days since Ms Blasey Ford’s name was made public, her attorneys said, her “worst fears have materialised”.

“She has been the target of vicious harassment and even death threats,” attorneys Debra Katz and Lisa Banks wrote in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee chair Chuck Grassley.

“As a result of these kind of threats, her family was forced to relocate out of their home,” they added. “Her email has been hacked and she has been impersonated online.”

The attorneys asked for an FBI investigation of Ms Blasey Ford’s allegations before she was called to testify publicly in front of the Senate committee. Mr Grassley had previously scheduled a televised hearing on the allegations for Monday.

Cheeto-Faced Ferret-Wearing Shit Gibbon said on Wednesday that it would be “wonderful” if the professor appeared in front of the committee.

“Look, if she shows up and makes a credible showing, that will be very interesting and we’ll have to make a decision,” he told reporters outside the White House.

But Ms Blasey Ford’s attorneys pushed back on the Monday deadline, saying the accuser’s life was “being turned upside down”, and chiding Mr Grassley for suggesting she relive a “traumatic and harrowing incident” at the same table as Mr Kavanaugh.

Democrats quickly spoke out in support of the professor’s wishes, saying the hearing should be delayed until a full investigation could be completed.

“That this brave woman is receiving death threats and has been forced to flee with her family is appalling and heartbreaking,” Senator Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the judiciary committee, said in a statement. “This abuse must stop. We’re better than this.”

But Republicans were reluctant to delay the hearing, which could push a vote on Mr Kavanaugh’s confirmation until after the contentious midterm elections. Some pointed to a statement from the Justice Department that noted Ms Blasey Ford’s allegation does not concern a federal crime, and that the FBI “does not make any judgement about the credibility or significance of any allegation”.

Mr Grassley said on Tuesday that the hearing should proceed, regardless of whether or not Ms Blasey Ford decided to testify.

“The invitation for Monday still stands. Dr Ford’s testimony would reflect her personal knowledge and memory of events,” the chairman said. “Nothing the FBI or any other investigator does would have any bearing on what Dr Ford tells the committee, so there is no reason for any further delay.”

Meanwhile, in Ms Blasey Ford’s hometown of Palo Alto, a group of local mothers had gathered together to support their friend. Kirsten Leimroth, whose daughters are part of the same junior lifeguard programme as Ms Blasey Ford’s two sons, said it was “preposterous” to think the professor had invented the allegations for political reasons.

“There’s absolutely no way it’s made up. She can’t even go home,” Ms Leimroth told the Mercury News. “She had to have her kids stay somewhere else. She had to shut down all social media. Why would she do that?”

• Julie Swetnick, 55, is the third woman to come forward to accuse Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault
  
  
• She allegedly failed to pay over $100,000 in taxes and fees in Maryland and to the Internal Revenue Service since 2015
  
  
•  Swetnick also allegedly owed $40,303 to the IRS stemming from unpaid 2014 taxes, resulting in a federal tax lien on her home
  
  
• Her attorney Michael Avenatti told DailyMail.com she had paid all of them in full and the debts 'are irrelevant to her claims' 
  
  
• Her father, 95, said he has had virtually no contact with her for the last decade but was shocked by the allegations she has leveled
  
  

Didge wrote:Her father, 95, said he has had virtually no contact with her for the last decade but was shocked by the allegations she has leveled

Original Quill wrote:I saw that this morning.  They walked for the same reason I turned off coverage.  We know the finale.

I'm impressed by Kamala Harris.  She was excellent in yesterday's hearing.

Didge wrote:Who cares, you and countless other Americans are playing the worst identity politics tribal game going and in the end its all going to blow up in your faces.

Lurker wrote:"Democrats throw their dummies out"???

That's the shit you got from this? Didge you are a moron.

Didge wrote:You have no idea each of you how to work together with people

Original Quill wrote:

Didge wrote:You have no idea each of you how to work together with people

Neither do Republicans.  And, once one side doesn't work cooperatively, the other side has no choice.  Unity breaks down.

That's the game.

Didge wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

Neither do Republicans.  And, once one side doesn't work cooperatively, the other side has no choice.  Unity breaks down.

That's the game.

See, yet again more identity tribal politics

And also more bullshit

Your whole philosophy, is us and them, evil and good and you assign evil to Republicans

When and there is good and bad on both sides

That is what you always fail to grasp

Throughout you constantly lied in this thread and prove to the lenghs people will go to spout hate and disunity

Laters

nicko wrote:Kavanaugh just found not guilty !

Didge wrote:

WhoseYourWolfie wrote:

Watching that clown Kavanaugh testifying a couple of days ago...

Citing his 9 year old daughter "saying their prayers" with his wife a couple of nights earlier, claiming she says they should pray for his accuser, bringing "God" into his defence..

That kind of pathetic weasel-mouthed crap shows the real 'measure of the man'.

Horrible little low-life political apparatchik, he be..

*  avoid certain topics out of fear of angering your partner?
*  feel that you can’t do anything right for your partner?
*  believe that you deserve to be hurt or mistreated?
*  wonder if you’re the one who is crazy?
*  feel emotionally numb or helpless?
https://helpguide.org/articles/abuse/domestic-violence-and-abuse.htm

Didge wrote:Wow, yet another smear from Wolf, who cannot counter anything but mudsling and falsely accuse people

Maybe if you watched them, you might unbrainwash that identity politics crap that you blindly follow like a sheep. 

One thing, the video was so right about you

nicko wrote:You know Wolfie,  when I read your posts you are mostly ranting and raving about some posters or some other reports on here.  You are always spitting out your bile against someone or something.  I think you should go for anger management classes !

Didge wrote:

Jules wrote:

Didge wrote:

The so called body language expert sounds utterly unconvincing and biased as F. She is spouting pure horseshit. Where do they get these phoney psychologists from? Money for old rope.

Jules wrote:I think the accuser Dr Ford is quite credible. But she should have spoken up sooner. I don't think she will get anywhere.


Time to let it go, I'd say! 
Not capitulation, just common sense.

("Let it go but keep your powder dry''     as my beloved old grand dad would say!!!)

Didge wrote:

Jules wrote:
The so called body language expert sounds utterly unconvincing and biased as F. She is spouting pure horseshit. Where do they get these phoney psychologists from? Money for old rope.

Based on what knowledge of body language and psychology that you have?

Jules wrote:

Didge wrote:


Based on what knowledge of body language and psychology that you have?

Absolutely none.    I don't claim to have any, and I'm not the one making claims.

Didge wrote:

Jules wrote:
The so called body language expert sounds utterly unconvincing and biased as F. She is spouting pure horseshit. Where do they get these phoney psychologists from? Money for old rope.

Based on what knowledge of body language and psychology that you have?

In fact what she stated was very much spot on

Her statement produced not a single tear and she appeared teary and then had a remarkable change, to being all smilling.

That was very telling to say the least

Do not forget she is trained this Dr Ford in psychology and yet claimed not to know much about the methods to regain memory from such events. Or how she could not be specific about the details of the room

So your view of the expert, as untrained as it is, basically is pointless

Unless you want to actual tackle the points raised in the video, you are simple being in disagreement

How about challenging the views on body language and answer why she went from upset to cheerful in a blink of an eye.

David Brock wrote:David Brock on NBC: “I used to know Brett Kavanaugh pretty well. And, when I think of Brett now, in the midst of his hearings for a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, all I can think of is the old "Aesop's Fables" adage: "A man is known by the company he keeps." And that's why I want to tell any senator who cares about our democracy: Vote no. Twenty years ago, when I was a conservative movement stalwart, I got to know Brett Kavanaugh both professionally and personally. Brett actually makes a cameo appearance in my memoir of my time in the GOP, "Blinded By The Right." I describe him at a party full of zealous young conservatives gathered to watch President Bill Clinton's 1998 State of the Union address — just weeks after the story of his affair with a White House intern had broken. When the TV camera panned to Hillary Clinton, I saw Brett — at the time a key lieutenant of Ken Starr, the independent counsel investigating various Clinton scandals — mouth the word "bitch."
But there's a lot more to know about Kavanaugh than just his Pavlovian response to Hillary's image. Brett and I were part of a close circle of cold, cynical and ambitious hard-right operatives being groomed by GOP elders for much bigger roles in politics, government and media. And it’s those controversial associations that should give members of the Senate and the American public serious pause.
Call it Kavanaugh's cabal: There was his colleague on the Starr investigation, Alex Azar, now the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Mark Paoletta is now chief counsel to Vice President Mike Pence; House anti-Clinton gumshoe Barbara Comstock is now a Republican member of Congress. Future Fox News personalities Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson were there with Ann Coulter, now a best-selling author, and internet provocateur Matt Drudge.
At one time or another, each of them partied at my Georgetown townhouse amid much booze and a thick air of cigar smoke. In a rough division of labor, Kavanaugh played the role of lawyer — one of the sharp young minds recruited by the Federalist Society to infiltrate the federal judiciary with true believers. Through that network, Kavanaugh was mentored by D.C. Appeals Court Judge Laurence Silberman, known among his colleagues for planting leaks in the press for partisan advantage.
When, as I came to know, Kavanaugh took on the role of designated leaker to the press of sensitive information from Starr's operation, we all laughed that Larry had taught him well. (Of course, that sort of political opportunism by a prosecutor is at best unethical, if not illegal.)
Another compatriot was George Conway (now Kellyanne's husband), who led a secretive group of right-wing lawyers — we called them "the elves" — who worked behind the scenes directing the litigation team of Paula Jones, who had sued Clinton for sexual harassment. I knew then that information was flowing quietly from the Jones team via Conway to Starr's office — and also that Conway's go-to man was none other than Brett Kavanaugh.
That critical flow of inside information allowed Starr, in effect, to set a perjury trap for Clinton, laying the foundation for a crazed national political crisis and an unjust impeachment over a consensual affair.
But the cabal's godfather was Ted Olson, the then-future solicitor general for George W. Bush and now a sainted figure of the GOP establishment (and of some liberals for his role in legalizing same-sex marriage). Olson had a largely hidden role as a consigliere to the "Arkansas Project" — a multi-million dollar dirt-digging operation on the Clintons, funded by the eccentric right-wing billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife and run through The American Spectator magazine, where I worked at the time.
Both Ted and Brett had what one could only be called an unhealthy obsession with the Clintons — especially Hillary. While Ted was pushing through the Arkansas Project conspiracy theories claiming that Clinton White House lawyer and Hillary friend Vincent Foster was murdered (he committed suicide), Brett was costing taxpayers millions by peddling the same garbage at Starr's office.
A detailed analysis of Kavanaugh's own notes from the Starr Investigation reveals he was cherry-picking random bits of information from the Starr investigation — as well as the multiple previous investigations — attempting vainly to legitimize wild right-wing conspiracies. For years he chased down each one of them without regard to the emotional cost to Foster’s family and friends, or even common decency.
Kavanaugh was not a dispassionate finder of fact but rather an engineer of a political smear campaign. And after decades of that, he expects people to believe he's changed his stripes.
Like millions of Americans this week, I tuned into Kavanaugh's hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee with great interest. In his opening statement and subsequent testimony, Kavanaugh presented himself as a "neutral and impartial arbiter" of the law. Judges, he said, were not players but akin to umpires — objectively calling balls and strikes. Again and again, he stressed his "independence" from partisan political influences.
But I don't need to see any documents to tell you who Kavanaugh is — because I've known him for years. And I'll leave it to all the lawyers to parse Kavanaugh's views on everything from privacy rights to gun rights.
But I can promise you that any pretense of simply being a fair arbiter of the constitutionality of any policy regardless of politics is simply a pretense. He made up his mind nearly a generation ago — and, if he's confirmed, he'll have nearly two generations to impose it upon the rest of us."

Didge wrote:

Jules wrote:

Absolutely none.    I don't claim to have any, and I'm not the one making claims.

So your views to say its rubbish, are rubbish themselves

Thanks

Jules wrote:People have commented on the violent upper limb spasms and twitches that Sarah Huckerby Saunders suffers from whenever she opens her mouth to reply to questions. You can't miss it, frankly, it's too obvious now. Yet she's still in a job.


No one has said "Miss Huckerby,  you're too twitchy & shifty to be believed". 

Didge wrote:

Jules wrote:

Absolutely none.    I don't claim to have any, and I'm not the one making claims.

So your views to say its rubbish, are rubbish themselves

Thanks

Jules wrote:

Didge wrote:


So your views to say its rubbish, are rubbish themselves

Thanks

I said I don't believe her nonsense. I'm entitled to my opinion.
This phoney psychologist is spouting a pile of cack, for a fee (yes, thirty pieces of silver). Shame on her!

Ffs everyone has mannerisms. Human beings are not pokerfaced robots. 
So called psychologists pretending that ordinary, normal facial expressions are a big deal, is laughable. 

Jules wrote:I think the accuser Dr Ford is quite credible. But she should have spoken up sooner. I don't think she will get anywhere.

Associated Press wrote:FBI interviews accuser; Yale friend remembers heavy drinker

Associated Press  DARLENE SUPERVILLE and MICHAEL BALSAMO

WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI agents on Sunday interviewed one of the three women who have accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct as Republicans and Democrats quarreled over whether the bureau would have enough time and freedom to conduct a thorough investigation before a high-stakes vote on his nomination to the nation's highest court.

The White House insisted it was not "micromanaging" the new one-week review of Kavanaugh's background but some Democratic lawmakers claimed the White House was keeping investigators from interviewing certain witnesses. Failing Cheeto-Faced Ferret-Wearing Shit Gibbon, for his part, tweeted that no matter how much time and discretion the FBI was given, "it will never be enough" for Democrats trying to keep Kavanaugh off the bench.

And even as the FBI explored the past allegations that have surfaced against Kavanaugh, another Yale classmate came forward to accuse the federal appellate judge of being untruthful in his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee about the extent of his drinking in college.

In speaking to FBI agents, Deborah Ramirez detailed her allegation that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party in the early 1980s when they were students at Yale University, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to publicly discuss details of a confidential investigation.

Kavanaugh has denied Ramirez's allegation.

The person familiar with Ramirez's questioning, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said she also provided investigators with the names of others who she said could corroborate her account.

But Christine Blasey Ford, a California professor who says Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers, has not been contacted by the FBI since Trump on Friday ordered the agency to take another look at the nominee's background, according to a member of Ford's team.

Kavanaugh has denied assaulting Ford.

In a statement released Sunday, a Yale classmate of Kavanaugh's said he is "deeply troubled by what has been a blatant mischaracterization by Brett himself of his drinking at Yale." Charles "Chad" Ludington, who now teaches at North Carolina State University, said he was friend of Kavanaugh's at Yale and that Kavanaugh was "a frequent drinker, and a heavy drinker."

"On many occasions I heard Brett slur his words and saw him staggering from alcohol consumption, not all of which was beer. When Brett got drunk, he was often belligerent and aggressive," Ludington said. While saying that youthful drinking should not condemn a person for life, Ludington said he was concerned about Kavanaugh's statements under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Speaking to the issue of the scope of the FBI's investigation, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said White House counsel Don McGahn, who is managing Kavanaugh's nomination, "has allowed the Senate to dictate what these terms look like, and what the scope of the investigation is."

"The White House isn't intervening. We're not micromanaging this process. It's a Senate process. It has been from the beginning, and we're letting the Senate continue to dictate what the terms look like," Sanders said.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said the investigation will be "limited in scope" and "will not be a fishing expedition. The FBI is not tasked to do that."

Senate Judiciary Committee member Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., requested an investigation last Friday — after he and other Republicans on the panel voted along strict party lines in favor of Kavanaugh's confirmation — as a condition for his own subsequent vote to put Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court.

Another committee member, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Sunday that testimony would be taken from Ramirez and Kavanaugh's high school friend Mark Judge, who has been named by two of three women accusing Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.

"I think that will be the scope of it. And that should be the scope of it," Graham said.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, called on the White House and the FBI to provide the written directive regarding the investigation's scope. In a letter Sunday, she also asked for updates on any expansion of the original directive.

Sen. Susan Collins said Sunday she is confident in the investigation and "that the FBI will follow up on any leads that result from the interviews." The Maine Republican supports the new FBI investigation and is among a few Republican and Democratic senators who have not announced a position on Kavanaugh.

Republicans control 51 seats in the closely divided 100-member Senate and cannot afford to lose more than one vote on confirmation.

Collins and Flake spoke throughout the weekend.

Senate Republicans discussed the contours of the investigation with the White House late Friday, according to a person familiar with the call who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had gathered Judiciary Committee Republicans in his office earlier. At that time, the scope of the investigation was requested by Flake, Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, said McConnell's spokesman Don Stewart.

Murkowski is not on the committee, but also has not announced how she will vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation.

Republicans later called the White House to discuss the scope of the probe, the person said.

McConnell's office declined to elaborate Sunday on which allegations would be investigated, reiterating only that it would focus on "current credible allegations." Stewart said the investigation's scope "was set" by the three GOP senators Friday and "has not changed."

But Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, a Judiciary Committee member, doubted how credible the investigation will be given the time limit.

"That's bad enough, but then to limit the FBI as to the scope and who they're going to question, that - that really - I wanted to use the word farce, but that's not the kind of investigation that all of us are expecting the FBI to conduct," she said.

Trump initially opposed such an investigation as allegations began mounting but relented and ordered one on Friday. He later said the FBI has "free rein."

"They're going to do whatever they have to do, whatever it is they do. They'll be doing things that we have never even thought of," Trump said Saturday as he departed the White House for a trip to West Virginia. "And hopefully at the conclusion everything will be fine."

He revisited the "scope" question later Saturday on Twitter, writing in part, "I want them to interview whoever they deem appropriate, at their discretion."

Sanders said Trump, who has vigorously defended Kavanaugh but also raised the slight possibility of withdrawing the nomination should damaging information be found, "will listen to the facts."

At least three women have accused Kavanaugh of years-ago misconduct. He denies all the claims.

The third woman, Julie Swetnick, accused Kavanaugh and Judge of excessive drinking and inappropriate treatment of women in the early 1980s, among other accusations. Kavanaugh has called her accusations a "joke." Judge has said he "categorically" denies the allegations.

Swetnick's attorney, Michael Avenatti, said Saturday that his client had not been contacted by the FBI but was willing to cooperate with investigators.

Ford also has said Judge was in the room when a drunken Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her. Judge has said he will cooperate with any law enforcement agency that will "confidentially investigate" sexual misconduct allegations against him and Kavanaugh. Judge has also denied misconduct allegations.

Sanders spoke on "Fox News Sunday," Conway appeared on CNN's "State of the Union" and Graham and Hirono were interviewed on ABC's "This Week."

____

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Lisa Mascaro and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington and Jonathan Lemire in New York contributed to this report.