Read Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford's prepared testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee
- Christine Blasey Ford, the first woman to come forward alleging that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her, will tell the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday that "I am no one's pawn."
- "I tried to yell for help. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from screaming," Ford says in her prepared testimony. "This was what terrified me the most, and has had the most lasting impact on my life."
- Ford says she was first prompted to discuss her allegation in 2012, during a couple's counseling session, because she wanted to install a second door on her family home during a remodel and her husband disagreed and did not understand her insistence.
Christine Blasey Ford, the first woman to come forward alleging that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her, will tell the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday that "I am no one's pawn."
In her prepared testimony, released Wednesday night, Ford will provide new details about the incident she said took place at a high school gathering in Maryland more than three decades ago.
"I believed he was going to rape me. I tried to yell for help. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from screaming," Ford says in her prepared testimony. "This was what terrified me the most, and has had the most lasting impact on my life."
Kavanaugh has categorically denied Ford's allegation, although he has said he believes she may have been sexually assaulted by somebody else. Trump has called Ford's allegation "false," and said that if it were "as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed."
Two more women have come forward in recent days with allegations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh. He has denied all of them, calling them "smears." The federal appeals court judge has committed not to withdraw his nomination.
In his testimony before the Judiciary Committee, Kavanaugh will call the allegations part of a "grotesque and obvious character assassination," according to his prepared remarks.
"I have been accused of acting out of partisan political motives," Ford will say Thursday. "Those who say that do not know me."
She writes that she is "fiercely independent" and testifying "because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school."
She also writes that she was first prompted to discuss her allegation in 2012, during a couple's counseling session, because she wanted to install a second door on her family home during a remodel and her husband disagreed and did not understand her insistence.
"In explaining why I wanted to have a second front door, I described the assault in detail," Ford wrote in her remarks. "I recall saying that the boy who assaulted me could someday be on the U.S. Supreme Court and spoke a bit about his background."
Download Ford's full testimony here, or read it below.