Trump defends Supreme Court nominee, accuser faces deadlinehttps://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-kavanaugh/trump-defends-supreme-court-nominee-accuser-faces-deadline-idUSKCN1LZ1OXQuote
With Trump’s effort to cement conservative control of the nation’s highest court on a knife’s edge, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley set a Friday morning [21st] deadline for Christine Blasey Ford to decide if she will talk to lawmakers.
Quote
“I think it’s not fair to Judge Kavanaugh for her not to come forward and testify,” moderate Republican Senator Susan Collins, whose vote could be crucial, said in a radio interview.
Grassley’s committee wants prepared testimony from Ford by Friday and an answer on whether she will accept its invitation to testify to the panel on Monday, either publicly or privately. The committee also has invited Kavanaugh to testify on Monday.
Quote
Ford’s lawyers said on Tuesday she would testify before the committee only if the FBI first investigated her allegation. The FBI has said it is not investigating the matter, a decision backed by Republicans.
“It is not the FBI’s role to investigate a matter such as this,” wrote Grassley, who also sent a letter to committee Democrats formally rejecting their bid for the FBI to investigate.
Quote
Republican panel member Lindsey Graham said on Twitter that requiring an FBI investigation of a 36-year-old allegation “is not about finding the truth, but delaying the process till after the midterm elections.”
The Justice Department has said the FBI sent Ford’s initial letter making the allegation against Kavanaugh to the White House and considers its role in the matter complete.
Quote
Cristina Miranda King, who said she attended the same school as Ford, wrote on Twitter that the alleged incident “was spoken about for days afterwards in school” at the time. King later deleted the post and a similar one on Facebook.
“I do not have first hand knowledge of the incident,” King, who did not respond to requests seeking comment, said in a subsequent Twitter post. She later deleted her account.
Seems Susan Collins is leaning towards her distrust of this whole issue and the way her party will vote.