WASHINGTON | Donald Trump's Conservative candidate for the Supreme Court was on Sunday witnessed by a woman accusing him of sexual assault in the 1980s as a high school student. A reversal that promises to disrupt his confirmation by the US Senate.
Conservative Magistrate, former advisor to President George W. Bush, 53-year-old judge Brett Kavanaugh categorically denies these accusations.
The Democrats reacted immediately, demanding the postponement of the vote in the Senate on its confirmation.
The stakes are high. Brett Kavanaugh could, if confirmed in this position for life, swing the balance of the Supreme Court for at least a generation. It is responsible in the United States for deciding on issues that deeply divide society, such as abortion or weapons.
Republicans have a very narrow majority (51-49) in the Senate, which has the last word on the candidates nominated by the US President. Already under the microscope, the reaction of two Republican senators defending the right to abortion will therefore be scrutinized in the coming days.
At two months of parliamentary elections that could see the Democrats take the majority in the US Congress, the White House and the Republicans have no time to lose.
But the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford, released Sunday by the Washington Post, could wreck a process that promised to be fast.
"Civic Duty"
A 51-year-old university psychology professor, she says that in the early 1980s, when Brett Kavanaugh was educated in the inner suburbs of Washington, he and a "drunk" friend would have stuck him in a room. an evening.
Brett Kavanaugh would have forcibly held her on a bed, before touching over her clothes, which he tried unsuccessfully to remove. When she tried to scream, he would have covered her mouth with her hand.
"I thought he might kill me without wanting to," she told the newspaper. She was finally able to free herself from his embrace and leave the room.
Christine Blasey Ford says she did not tell anyone about these facts, which affected her for a long time, until she had a couple therapy session with her husband in 2012. She provided the journal with notes taken by her psychotherapist to her husband. when she spoke of "an attempt at rape" during her adolescence.
This information was received this summer in a confidential letter to an influential Democratic Senator, Dianne Feinstein, who had not touched the other senators. The latter had finally revealed Thursday to have given his letter to inspectors.
Christine Blasey Ford explains to the Washington Post that in the face of the crazy rumors that have since circulated about her identity, she decided to come out of the shadows.
"I now feel that my civic duty is heavier than my fear and terror of retaliation," said the professor at Palo Alto University.
A Democratic Electrician, she made small donations to political organizations, says the Washington Post.
"An insult to women"
A vote in the Senate committee is scheduled for Thursday on the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, before the final vote in plenary that could intervene from late September.
Now that the accuser has spoken publicly, "it's up to the FBI to investigate. This should happen before the Senate advances on this nomination, "Dianne Feinstein said Sunday in a statement.
"Insisting on voting now would be an insult to American women and the integrity of the Supreme Court," thundered Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer.
Denouncing a "last-ditch operation" since Thursday, the White House has sent the Washington Post back to Brett Kavanaugh's "unequivocal and unequivocal denial" published later this week.
"I did not do that, whether it was in high school or any other time," wrote the judge, a practicing Catholic, married with two daughters.
More than 60 women who said they knew him at the time defended him in a letter.
"During his 25 years in the public service the FBI has conscientiously and regularly studied the course of Brett Kavanaugh," insisted Thursday the White House. An argument taken up by Republicans in the Senate.
After the publication of the interview, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, however, said she was ready to hear Christine Blasey Ford in committee if she so desires. Before adding that this should "be done immediately, so that the process can continue as planned".
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