USAToday “Breaking”: (corroborate is a relative term)
Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford offers Senate four people who corroborate her assault claims
The attorneys for Christine Blasey Ford have sworn and signed declarations from four people who corroborate her claims of sexual assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
In documents sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee and obtained early Wednesday morning by USA TODAY, Ford’s attorneys present declarations from Ford’s husband, Russell, and three friends who support the California college professor’s accusation that Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, groped her and attempted to pull off her clothes while both were high school students in 1982.
In her declaration, Adela Gildo-Mazzon said Ford told her about the alleged assault during a June 2013 meal at a restaurant in Mountain View, California, and contacted Ford’s attorneys on Sept. 16 to tell them Ford had confided in her five years ago.
“During our meal, Christine was visibly upset, so I asked her what was going on,” Gildo-Mazzon says in her declaration. “Christine told me she had been having a hard day because she was thinking about an assault she experienced when she was much younger. She said she had been almost raped by someone who was now a federal judge. She told me she had been trapped in a room with two drunken guys, and that she had escaped, ran away and hid.”
According to her declaration, Gildo-Mazzon has known Ford for more than 10 years and considers her to be “a good friend.”
In another declaration, Keith Koegler said Ford revealed the alleged assault to him in 2016, when the two parents were watching their children play in a public place and discussing the “light” sentencing of Stanford University student Brock Turner.
“Christine expressed anger at Mr. Turner’s lenient sentence, stating that she was particularly bothered by it because she was assaulted in high school by a man who was now a federal judge in Washington, D.C.,” Koegler said.
“Christine did not mention the assault to me again until June 29, 2018, two days after Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his resignation from the Supreme Court of the United States,” he said.
On that day, Koegler said Ford revealed to him in an email that the person who had assaulted her in high school was President Donald Trump’s “favorite for SCOTUS.”
In his response email, Koegler wrote, “I remember you telling me about him, but I don’t remember his name. Do you mind telling me so I can read about him?”
Ford’s emailed response: “Brett Kavanaugh.”
In his declaration, Koegler said he met the Fords while coaching their son’s baseball team more than five years ago.
In another declaration, Rebecca White, a neighbor and friend of more than six years, said Ford revealed the alleged assault against her in 2017.
“I was walking my dog and Christine was outside of her house,” White said. “I stopped to speak with her, and she told me she had read a recent social media post I had written about my own experience with sexual assault.
“She then told me that when she was a young teen, she had been sexually assaulted by an older teen,” White continued. “I remember her saying that her assailant was now a federal judge.”
In his declaration, Ford’s husband said he learned of his wife’s experience with sexual assault “around the time we got married” but that she didn’t share details until a couple’s therapy session in 2012.
“I remember her saying that her attacker’s name was Brett Kavanaugh, that he was a successful lawyer who had grown up in Christine’s home town, and that he was well-known in the Washington D.C. community,” Russell Ford said.
He said his wife was “afraid” Trump would nominate Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court and was “very conflicted” about whether she should come forward with her story.
“However, in the end she believed her civic duty required her to speak out,” Russell Ford said. “In our 16 years of marriage I have always known Christine to be truthful person of great integrity. I am proud of her for her bravery and courage.”
none of these statements comprise contemporaneous evidence, much less contemporaneous physical evidence.
all of these statements rely on a single source, christine blasey ford, the same source as the original accusation.
all of these statements are easily manufactured by people sympathetic to christine blasey ford and/or her political point of view.
none of these statements carry nearly as much evidentiary weight as kavanaugh’s calendar, which is contemporaneous physical evidence.
presumably, kavanaugh’s mother and father can vouch for kavanaugh’s calendar— perhaps also his sibling(s) if he has any.
(nb: i am not a lawyer and these are just my opinions)