Grassley calls hearing on Kavanaugh accusation

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the professor who accused him of a 1982 sexual assault while they were in high school will be called to testify Monday in the Senate, complicating what appeared to be a sure-thing confirmation process for the judge.

With that vote now uncertain, the conservative federal appeals court judge nominated by President Donald Trump had meetings Monday at the White House and called the assault allegation 'completely false.”

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said the committee would hold a public hearing with Kavanaugh and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, Monday morning.

'As I said earlier, anyone who comes forward as Dr. Ford has done deserves to be heard. My staff has reached out to Dr. Ford to hear her account, and they held a follow-up call with Judge Kavanaugh this afternoon,” Grassley said in a statement. Monday's hearing will 'give these recent allegations a full airing,” he added.

The move would delay a planned vote Thursday in the committee to advance Kavanaugh's confirmation to the floor.

Grassley's statement Monday also marked a departure from comments he made last week to Iowa reporters when the name of the accuser had not yet become public: 'The word ‘anonymous' tells you a lot as far as I'm concerned because if people aren't willing to put your name on an accusation it says something,” he said then.

Monday's developments evoked memories of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' contentious confirmation hearings in 1991 involving sexual harassment allegations from lawyer Anita Hill.

'I have never done anything like what the accuser describes - to her or to anyone,” Kavanaugh said in a statement issued by the White House, his first comment since Ford's identity was revealed Sunday.

'Because this never happened, I had no idea who was making this accusation until she identified herself yesterday,”

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he wants to hold a full Senate vote on Kavanaugh before the Oct. 1 start of the Supreme Court's new term. It was unclear whether that goal would have to be adjusted.

The White House appeared eager to resolve the matter quickly.

'Judge Kavanaugh looks forward to a hearing where he can clear his name of this false allegation. He stands ready to testify tomorrow if the Senate is ready to hear him,” the White House said before Grassley's announcement.

Democrats, already fiercely opposed to Kavanaugh, whose confirmation could consolidate the conservative grip on the top U.S. court, had demanded a delay in the committee's vote to let the FBI investigate.

The FBI said in statement that last Wednesday it received a letter dated from July concerning the allegation, and forwarded it to the White House counsel. It said the alleged misconduct 'does not involve any potential federal crime.”

Moderate Republicans also said Kavanaugh and Ford should be heard.

'Obviously, if Judge Kavanaugh has lied about what happened, that would be disqualifying,” Republican Sen. Susan Collins told reporters, adding she would like to observe Ford, the California professor who made the allegation, to decide the credibility of her account.

Republicans control the Senate by only a narrow margin, meaning any defections could sink the nomination and deal a major setback to Trump, who has been engaged in a so-far successful effort since becoming president last year to move the Supreme Court and broader federal judiciary to the right.

Ford, 51, a professor at Palo Alto University, said Kavanaugh attacked her and tried to remove her clothing while he was drunk 36 years ago in a Maryland suburb when they were students at different high schools.

In an interview published Sunday in the Washington Post, Ford said that one summer in the early 1980s, Kavanaugh and a friend - both 'stumbling drunk” - corralled her into a bedroom during a gathering of teenagers at a house.

While his friend watched, she said, Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed on her back and groped her. He put his hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming, she said.

Ford said she escaped when Kavanaugh's friend, Mark Judge, jumped on top of them. She said she locked herself in a bathroom and then fled the house.

Judge declined to speak to the Post but in an earlier interview when the accuser's name was not publicly known denied such an incident.

Ford told the Post she had not spoke of the incident in any detail until 2012, when she was in couples therapy with her husband. She said that, after all these years, she did not remember details including whose house that party was at or how she got there or home.

The Washington Post and Rod Boshart from The Gazette contributed to this report.