Arizona prosecutor says Kavanaugh sexual misconduct case is weak
Oct 1, 2018, 8:02 AM | Updated: 10:06 am
(Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP)
The sex crimes prosecutor from Arizona brought in by Senate Republicans to handle the questioning of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the woman who accused him of sexual misconduct has written a memo why she wouldn’t bring criminal charges against him.
Rachel Mitchell of the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said there were inconsistencies in Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee and claimed that no one has corroborated her account.
She also said that she did not believe a “reasonable prosecutor would bring this case based on the evidence before the committee.
“Nor do I believe that this evidence is sufficient to satisfy the preponderance-of-the-evidence standard,” she wrote in a 5-page memo released Sunday.
The Sept. 27 hearing — which featured testimony from Ford and Kavanaugh — was not a criminal proceeding, but part of the confirmation process for Kavanaugh. It lasted nearly nine hours.
In an emotional testimony, Blasey Ford told the committee that, one night in the summer of 1982, a drunken Kavanaugh forced her down on a bed, “groped me and tried to take off my clothes,” then clamped his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream before she was able to escape.
Kavanaugh has denied the allegations. He has also been accused of varying degrees of sexual misconduct from two other women.
The committee voted on Friday to send Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the full Senate, but only after U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) requested a delay on the vote to allow the FBI to conduct an investigation into Blasey Ford’s claims.
The investigation should be completed no later than Oct. 5.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.