September 22, 2018

Christine Blasey Ford Has Agreed to Testify Before the Senate Judiciary Committee

Bill Clark/ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Update, 2:55 pm EST: Christine Blasey Ford said she was willing to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee next week. Ford’s attorney continues to negotiate the terms of her appearance. We will update as more information is provided.

 

Previously:

In a decision late Friday night, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) announced that he would give Christine Blasey Ford one more day to negotiate the terms of her testimony before lawmakers next week on the allegations of sexual assault she has made against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. 

The decision to extend the deadline from 10 pm EST Friday to 2:30 pm EST Saturday came after Ford’s lawyers sent a scathing letter to Grassley slamming the initial deadline as “arbitrary” with the intent of intimidating Ford from testifying. “Your cavalier treatment of a sexual assault survivor who has been doing her best to cooperate with the Committee is completely inappropriate,” Ford’s lawyer Debra Katz wrote.

Grassley made the announcement in an odd tweet directed at Kavanaugh. The message also appeared to ask for Kavanaugh’s forgiveness as the committee continued negotiations with Ford’s lawyers. 

He followed up with another tweet mocking Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

During a rally in Missouri Friday evening, President Donald Trump praised Kavanaugh as “central casting” and a “brilliant man.”

“We have to fight for him, and not worry about the other side—and by the way, not worry about the other side, and by the way, women are for that more than anybody would understand,” Trump said. The remarks came on the same day the president openly questioned the veracity of Ford’s claims for the first time.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate