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Woman comes forward after accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of abuse

Brett Kavanaugh, who is Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, has repeatedly denied sexual misconduct allegations.

Brett Kavanaugh, who is Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, has repeatedly denied sexual misconduct allegations. Photo: Getty

A California clinical psychology professor has come forward as the woman who wrote a letter to lawmakers recounting claims of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. 

Christine Blasey Ford revealed her letter recounted an incident in the early 1980s when she says Mr Kavanaugh pinned her down and sexually assaulted her during a high school party.

Ms Ford, agreed to go public with her story to The Washington Post, after calling the publication’s tip line earlier this year, before President Donald Trump nominated Mr Kavanaugh, but when it was clear he was being considered.

Mr Kavanaugh, in a statement to the New Yorker that was published on Friday, said: “I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. I did not do this back in high school or at any time.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on his nomination on Thursday, with the full Senate considering his confirmation the following week.

Ms Ford said that she had been reluctant to identify herself publicly for fear that it would disrupt her life, but she decided to as her letter and the story leaked.

“Why suffer through the annihilation if it’s not going to matter?” she said.

Ms Ford believed that the incident occurred in the (northern) summer of 1982, when she was 15 and going to an all-girls school in Bethesda, Maryland.

She knew Mr Kavanaugh and a friend, Mark Judge, who went to the nearby all-boys Georgetown Prep.

She claims that at a party, where the students were drinking, Mr Kavanaugh held her down on a bed and groped her and then tried to pull off her bathing suit.

He put his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream, she said.

She broke away and ran from the room when Mr Judge jumped on top of them.

Ms Ford is a professor at Palo Alto University and trains graduate students in clinical psychology, the Post reported.

According to the Post, she sent a letter to Democrat Anna Eshoo in late July, which was forwarded to Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.

A former FBI agent administered a polygraph test in August, and concluded that she was being truthful, the Post reported.

“From the outset, I have believed these allegations were extremely serious and bear heavily on Judge Kavanaugh’s character,” Ms Feinstein said in a statement.

“However, as we have seen over the past few days, they also come at a price for the victim. I hope the attacks and shaming of her will stop and this will be treated with the seriousness it deserves.”

The Senate judiciary committee, under Republican chairman Chuck Grassley on Friday released a letter from 65 women who say they knew Mr Kavanaugh in high school and said that he “always treated women with decency and respect”.

After Ms Ford came forward, the committee released a new statement, saying: “It’s disturbing that these uncorroborated allegations from more than 35 years ago, during high school, would surface on the eve of a committee vote after Democrats sat on them since July.”

It called on Ms Feinstein to publicly release the letter she received in July “so that everyone can know what she’s known for weeks”.

-AP

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