September 16, 2018

Feinstein Calls for Kavanaugh Hearings To Stop While FBI Investigates Sexual Assault

The allegations “bear heavily on Judge Kavanaugh’s character,” she said.

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP

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On Sunday, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), called for the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to be halted while the FBI investigates allegations of sexual assault.

Feinstein’s statement came after The Washington Post published a detailed investigation featuring a first-hand account by California professor Christine Blasey Ford, who was speaking out for the first time since news of her confidential letter containing details of the alleged attack became public last week. Kavanaugh has denied the accusations.

Feinstein wrote that Ford’s allegations—which include being pinned down, groped, and silenced by Kavanaugh at a high school party—were “extremely serious and bear heavily on Judge Kavanaugh’s character.” 

The FBI investigation “should happen before” the continuation of the confirmation process, she wrote:

Feinstein’s call may well go unanswered. Before the Post’s report containing Ford’s account was published, three of her colleagues, Sens. Doug Jones (D-Ala.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and John Neely Kennedy (R-La.) told Sunday talkshows that new allegations should not delay proceedings. “Senator Feinstein’s had the letter since July,” Kennedy told “Fox News Sunday.” “For three months, she said nothing, nothing, zero, nada, zilch.”

Read the full story at The Washington Post.

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