The Trump administration is reportedly planning to question the credibility of the person who on Sunday came forward to accuse President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, of sexual misconduct.
Bloomberg reported on Sunday that Trump has no intention of dropping Kavanaugh’s nomination and that the White House plans to try to defend against the charges that were made.
{mosads}A White House official told the news outlet that the administration is preparing a counteroffensive that tries to taint the charges because they appeared so late in the confirmation process and because the accuser never told anybody about the incident at the time.
The administration is reportedly hoping to avoid a public hearing focused on the allegations. But a White House official told Bloomberg News that they are willing to have a confidential inquiry.
The news regarding the White House’s plans comes just a day after Christine Blasey Ford, a California psychology professor, came forward publicly to The Washington Post and detailed her allegations against Kavanaugh for the first time.
Ford, now 51, is accusing Kavanaugh of pinning her to a bed one summer while they were in high school in the 1980s. Ford told the Post that Kavanaugh “groped her over her clothes, grinding his body against hers and clumsily attempting to pull off her one-piece bathing suit and the clothing she wore over it.”
Kavanaugh has fiercely denied this allegation, but it has led many senators to voice concerns about his confirmation vote moving forward before his accuser is heard from.
Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said that he is trying to set up separate phone calls with Kavanaugh and Ford before the vote.