Brett Kavanaugh’s Accuser Reaches Deal to Testify
The talks between the two sides on Sunday morning produced an agreement on the general shape of the hearing, a person briefed on the talks said. It will be open to the public; there will be breaks at 45-minute intervals, or on request; and while Dr. Blasey prefers that Judge Kavanaugh testify first, she will accept that she might have to go first. There will also be security for Dr. Blasey, who has received death threats, and she will have two lawyers at the witness table with her.
But other sticking points remain. One is whether the committee will subpoena Mark Judge, a high school friend of Judge Kavanaugh’s who Dr. Blasey has said was in the room at the time of the assault, or any others said to be at the gathering where the alleged assault occurred. Mr. Judge has said he knows of no such incident.
Two other potential witnesses identified by Dr. Blasey — who she says were not in the room at the time of the assault — have provided statements to the Judiciary Committee to the same effect. One man, Patrick J. Smyth, told committee Republicans in a letter last week that he had “no knowledge of the party in question.” And a woman, Leland Keyser, told the Republicans through a lawyer that she “does not know Mr. Kavanaugh and she has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present, with, or without, Dr. Ford.”
She later told The Washington Post that she believed Dr. Blasey’s story anyway. No one answered the door when a reporter knocked at Ms. Keyser’s suburban Maryland home on Saturday.
Republicans, including White House officials, have quickly seized on the potential witness statements in an effort to undercut Dr. Blasey’s testimony. But her lawyers argue that at least in the case of Ms. Keyser, the statement is all but meaningless; she was not in the room when Dr. Blasey says she was assaulted, they said, and Dr. Blasey did not tell her, or any others, about the matter at the time.
Republicans have been resisting calling additional witnesses. Dr. Blasey’s lawyers have also asked for outside witnesses, including two trauma experts and the former F.B.I. agent who administered a polygraph examination to Dr. Blasey, the person familiar with the call said. But those issues remain unsettled.
Dr. Blasey “has agreed to move forward with a hearing even though the committee has refused to subpoena Mark Judge,” her lawyers’ statement added. “They have also refused to invite other witnesses who are essential for a fair hearing that arrives at the truth about the sexual assault.”