US Senate committee postpones Kavanaugh hearing

A key US Senate committee postponed its high-stakes hearing on sexual assault allegation against President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh after his accuser Christine Blasey Ford declined the committee’s request to testify before it on Friday.
Senator Chuck Grassley, who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Friday that both Kavanaugh and accuser Ford had been invited for the hearing scheduled to take place on Monday. He said while Kavanaugh had agreed to testify, Ford, a clinical psychology professor at Palo Alto University, declined.Grassley asked Ford, 51, to respond to the request by 10 pm Friday in the absence of which, he said, the Senate Judiciary Committee would vote on the nomination of the 53-year-old Judge Kavanaugh.”I’m extending the deadline for response yet again to 10 o’clock this evening. I’m providing a notice of a vote to occur Monday in the event that Dr Ford’s attorneys don’t respond or Dr Ford decides not to testify,” Grassley said.
“In the event that we can come to a reasonable resolution as I’ve been seeking all week, then I will postpone the committee vote to accommodate her testimony. We cannot continue to delay,” the top Republican Senator said in a statement.Soon, thereafter, he issued a notice of a committee executive business meeting, at which the committee can vote on the nomination of Kavanaugh to be an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States.The Senate Judiciary Committee, in a letter to Ford’s lawyers, said it had been “extremely accommodating” to her.
“We want to hear Dr Ford’s testimony and are prepared to accommodate many of your demands, including further delaying a hearing that is currently scheduled for Monday. We are unwilling to accommodate your unreasonable demands. Outside counsel may not dictate the terms under which Committee business will be conducted,” the letter said.The committee said it was not able to accommodate Ford’s demand that Kavanaugh testify first.”You demanded that Judge Kavanaugh be the first person to testify. Accommodating this demand would be an affront to fundamental notions of due process. In the United States, an individual accused of a crime is entitled to a presumption of innocence,” the committee said. “And, further, the accused has the right to respond to allegations that are made about him. Judge Kavanaugh cannot be expected to respond to allegations that have been made to the press. He is entitled to hear the full, detailed testimony of Dr Ford before he testifies.