White House slams 'ridiculous' NYT report on Kavanaugh's college ice-throwing incident

Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, called out The New York Times late Monday over its report on a 1985 bar fight that allegedly involved President Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, throwing ice at a fellow bar patron.
The report said that Kavanaugh and four others were questioned by New Haven police after the Sept. 25, 1985, incident. A 21-year-old man reportedly claimed that Kavanaugh was unprovoked when he threw the ice at him.
Sanders tweeted that Democrats are desperate to attack Kavanaugh and used a July tweet from one of the article's co-authors in an apparent attempt to show biased reporting.
“As a @YaleLawSch grad & lecturer, I strongly disassociate myself from tonight’s praise of Brett Kavanaugh,” Emily Bazelon, a Times reporter, tweeted at the time. “With respect, he’s a 5th vote for a hard-right turn on voting rights and so much more that will harm the democratic process & prevent a more equal society.”
Sanders asked in her tweet, “What motivated New York Times reporter to write this ridiculous story? Throwing ice 33 years ago, or her opinion of Judge Kavanaugh in July?”
Fox News reached out to the paper in an email early Tuesday morning and did not immediately receive comment. Sanders did not challenge any allegations in the article.
The incident occurred after a UB40 concert at a place called Demery’s, according to Chad Ludington, a former classmate. The group of men apparently saw someone who looked like the lead singer of the band. When the man asked them to stop looking at him, Ludington said Kavanaugh launched a beer at the man. Ludington told CNN that he earlier mixed up a beer for a drink with ice, but said that the man "took a swing at Brett" and they fought.
He said  Chris Dudley, a friend of Kavanaugh’s at Yale who went on to play professional basketball, took his drink and "smashed  it up against the guy's head."
The alleged victim "who was bleeding from the right ear" was treated at a nearby hospital, the paper reported.
Dudley denied the allegations at the time, the paper reported. He did not comment for the paper's article.
Ludington, who now teaches at North Carolina State University, said he was friend of Kavanaugh’s at Yale and that Kavanaugh was “a frequent drinker, and a heavy drinker."
Trump said Monday that he called on the FBI to do a "comprehensive" investigation into sexual assault allegations invovling Kavanaugh. But he also said Senate Republicans are determining the parameters of the investigation and "ultimately, they're making the judgment."
"My White House will do whatever the senators want," Trump said. "The one thing I want is speed."

Ex-Boyfriend says Kavanaugh accuser Julie Swetnick threatened to kill his unborn child, 'was exaggerating everything'

The ex-boyfriend of Julie Swetnick, the third woman to make uncorroborated, lurid allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, told Fox News exclusively on Monday that she had threatened to kill his unborn child and at times even bizarrely asked him to hit her.
"Right after I broke up with her, she basically called me many times and at one point she basically said, 'You will never, ever see your unborn child alive,'" Richard Vinneccy said on "The Ingraham Angle."
According to Vinneccy, Swetnick told him at the time, 'I'm just going to go over there and kill you guys.'"
Swetnick is represented by anti-Trump lawyer Michael Avenatti. He did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment on Vinneccy's allegation, but in an interview on CNN Monday night, he cast doubt on Vinneccy's credibility and characterized him as an estranged ex-boyfriend.
Vinneccy, who said he dated Swetnick off-and-on for seven years, maintained that Swetnick never once mentioned to him her extraordinary claims, apparently made for the first time last month, that Kavanaugh had engaged in systemic gang rapes decades ago. He said the relationship spanned from 1994 to 2001.
"Never, never once [did] she mention that to me," he told host Laura Ingraham. "We used to talk about everything. She never once mentioned that at all. ... If you ask me personally if I believe her, I don't believe her. I really don't believe her. Nobody knows Julie Swetnick better than me."
He added that while he was not aware of Swetnick's political tendencies, "She always wanted to be the center of attention. . .. She was exaggerating everything. Everything that came out of her mouth was just exaggerations."

"She basically said, 'You will never, ever see your unborn child alive.'"
— Richard Vinneccy

Vinneccy charged that "most of my friends did not like her" and that she would often become belligerent -- even at times asking him to "hit" her, for reasons that Vinneccy said were unclear.
"This has nothing to do with political issues," Vinneccy continued, calling his decision to come forward his "civic duty."
Vinneccy then explained why he did not follow-up on his attempts to get a restraining order enforced against Swetnick. While he filed a petition for a restraining order more than a decade ago, the petition was dismissed shortly afterwards.
"I knew that I had to see her again. ... I didn't want to provoke her," he said. "I knew the type of person Julie is, and I was afraid. So we decided to just leave it alone. At the time, the only thing I was concerend [about] was my family. So we decided to change our numbers, and move. And after that, we never heard from her again."
Swetnick was sued in 2000 by her former employer, Portland-based Webtrends, for allegedly falsifying her educational background and concocting false sexual harssment allegations. The suit, which Avenatti has called "bogus," was voluntarily dismissed by Webtrends shortly afterwards.
POLYGRAPH RESULTS REVEAL MAJOR INCONSISTENCIES IN CHRISTINE FORD'S CLAIMS
In 2001, after her employment at Webtrends ended, Vinneccy filed for a restraining order against her in Florida, claiming that Swetnick threatened him and his family after he ended their four-year relationship. “She was threatening my family, threatening my wife and threatening to do harm to my baby at that time,” Vinneccy told Politico last week. "I know a lot about her. She’s not credible at all,” he said. “Not at all.”
According to The Washington Post, in 2015, the state of Maryland filed a lien against Swetnick's property, citing more than $30,000 in unpaid taxes dating back to 2008. Court records obtained by The Post showed that the total amount owed, nearly $63,000, was resolved in December 2016, although the paper reported it was unclear exactly how. And, in 2017, the federal government filed a lien on Swetnick's property, citing a $40,000 unpaid tax bill from 2014, according to The Post. That lien reportedly was released in March 2018, and the debt was similarly satisfied.
WATCH: MCCONNELL UNLOADS ON SENATE DEMS FOR SHIFTING GOALPOSTS ON KAVANAUGH FBI PROBE
Swetnick has told NBC News that she saw Kavanaugh "paw on girls" and "[touch] them in private parts" at parties as a high school student, but stopped short of claiming that he drugged or sexually assaulted her or other women. MSNBC aired an interview with Swetnick on "The Beat with Ari Melber" Monday evening, with reporter Kate Snow noting that NBC News "has not been able to independently verify [Swetnick's] claims."
Swetnick said she was inspired to come forward after Christine Blasey Ford claimed she was sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh during a party that Ford and Kavanaugh purportedly attended as high school students in the early 1980s. (Ford's account has not been backed up by any of the witnesses she said were at the party, including her lifelong best friend, and she has repeatedly changed key details in her story, including how many people were at the party and when the episode occurred. Notably, Ford also testified she could not recall how she got home from the party, which she said took place far from her residence at the time.).
"I started to think back to ... the early '80s in Montgomery County in Maryland and I thought that I might have some information that might corroborate some of the things that she had stated," Swetnick said.
She added that she met Kavanaugh when she was in community college and attending house parties that would draw "everybody between an age range of 15, 16 to 25, maybe even more." Swetnick said she remembered "specifically being introduced to him" and described him as "very aggressive."
SWETNICK SUED BY FORMER EMPLOYER FOR ALLEGEDLY MAKING UP SEXUAL HARASSMENT CLAIMS
"Very sloppy drunk, very mean drunk," she said of the future federal judge. "I saw him try to shift clothing ... I saw him push girls against walls. He would pretend to stumble and stumble into them and knock them into a wall. He'd push his body against theirs. He would grope them."
However, Swetnick could not say whether she ever saw Kavanaugh or his friend Mark Judge spike the punch at those parties with drugs.
"Well, I saw him giving red Solo cups to quite a few girls during that time frame and there was green punch at those parties," Swetnick said. "And I would not take one of those glasses from Brett Kavanaugh. I saw him around the punch, I won't say bowls, or the punch containers ... I don't know what he did, but I saw him by them."
Swetnick said that Kavanaugh and Judge attended a party where she was drugged and sexually assaulted at the age of 19, but added: "I cannot specifically say that he was one of the ones who assaulted me. But before this happened to me at that party, I saw Brett Kavanaugh there. I saw Mark Judge there and they were hanging about the area where I started to feel disoriented and where the room was and where the other boys were hanging out and laughing. I could hear them laughing and laughing."
Swetnick claimed she reported her assault to the Montgomery County Police Department, but officials there told NBC News that it could take up to a month to recover documents related to any report she may have made.
Swetnick also gave NBC News the names of four friends she said could corroborate her story. Snow said two of those people had not responded to requests for comment, a third was deceased and a fourth said he could not recall knowing Swetnick. Kavanaugh has called Swetnick's accusations a "joke," while Judge has said he "categorically" denies her claims.
President Trump has ordered that the FBI conduct a supplemental background check of Kavanaugh ahead of a planned Senate vote on his confirmation this week. Swetnick's allegations are reportedly not considered credible by the White House, and her account has not been corroborated.

Sen. Mazie Hirono Cartoons

Sen. Hirono doesn't answer when asked whether Dems leaked Christine Ford's letter on Kavanaugh

Sen. Mazie Hirono, who has emerged as one of the most vocal opponents of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, on Sunday didn't directly answer when asked if she was confident Democrats didn't strategically leak Christine Ford's accusations against him just days before a crucial Judiciary Committee vote.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., received a letter from Ford in July outlining her claim that Kavanaugh had attacked her at a house party in the 1980s, and her office immediately recommended Ford retain a prominent liberal lawyer. But, as Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and other top Republicans repeatedly noted last week, Feinstein failed to follow committee protocols and notify her colleagues or federal authorities, even on a confidential basis, about the accusations.
"Are you confident the Democrats didn’t leak that letter, and how do you respond to Senator Graham’s charge that it was inappropriate for the Democrats to refer Dr. Blasey Ford to a lawyer?" host George Stephanopoulos asked Hirono on ABC's "This Week."
"All of these things do not focus on what we should be focusing, which is the credibility of Judge Kavanaugh," Hirono, D-Hawaii, responded, before calling Kavanaugh's claims of a political conspiracy against him "bizarre."
HIRONO SAYS KAVANAUGH DOESN'T DESERVE DUE PROCESS BECAUSE HE'S CONSERVATIVE
"And, by the way, even as all of these accusations about this being politically motivated are being tossed around, everyone acknowledges, including Judge Kavanaugh, that Dr. Ford is not being politically motivated," Hirono, who has suggested Kavanaugh did not deserve due process because of his "outcome-driven" conservative legal philsophy, continued. "That is very clear."
The apparent non-answer likely would fuel Republicans' efforts to seek a deeper inquiry into exactly how news of Ford's confidential letter ended up in the hands of The Intercept -- a leak that GOP leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have strongly suggested was orchestrated by Democrats.
"I'm going to get to the bottom of it," Graham told Fox News on Sunday, suggesting that someone in Feinstein's office or one of Ford's attorneys may have been responsible for strategically deploying the leak to harm Kavanaugh's chances. Graham also flatly said it was improper for Feinstein's office to recommend to Ford that she hire an attorney, especially one with connections to Feinstein and the Democratic Party.
In an explosive exchange during Thursday's hearing, Feinstein denied leaking the letter under questioning from Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, R-Texas. Feinstein then turned to her staff behind her, who also claimed they did not leak it, and suggested Ford's friends were behind the disclosure.
"Well, I'm telling you I did not," said Feinstein, who added: "It's my understanding that [Ford's] story was leaked before the letter became public and she testified that she had spoken to her friends about it, and it's most likely that that's how this story leaked ... But it did not leak from us, I assure you that."
Feinstein's handling of the letter has drawn the ire of top Republicans for weeks. In a scathing letter to Feinstein earlier this month, Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote that "I cannot overstate how disappointed I am" in the California Democrat's refusal to share Ford's allegation, saying her decision had ultimately compromised Ford's anonymity and unfairly stalled Kavanaugh's confirmation by politicizing a sexual assault claim.
Separately, Hirono also suggested that the unfolding FBI supplemental background check into Kavanaugh -- which Democrats had long demanded -- is shaping up to be a "farce," saying it should not be limited to seven days or limited to certain topics.
President Trump has insisted the FBI will have discretion to interview "whoever" it wants, and in response to Hirono's interview, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said the Hawaii senator was being predictable.
"The goalpost moving never stops," Hatch wrote on Sunday.
LINDSEY GRAHAM TEARS INTO DEMS DURING 'SHAM' HEARING
None of the witnesses that Ford, a California professor, has identified as being present at the party where she was allegedly assaulted -- including Leland Ingham Keyser, her best friend at the time -- have said they remember anything about the episode. Asked about Keyser's statement, Ford suggested on Thursday her friend was having medical issues.
In her testimony earlier in the day, Ford -- who had told Feinstein in her July letter that the party included "included me and 4 others" -- changed the tally, and told senators that there were four boys there, in addition to her female friend. In an August note Ford wrote in advance of a polygraph exam she took at the direction of her lawyers, she maintained that "there were 4 boys and a couple of girls" at the party, again apparently contradicting her letter to Feinstein in July.
Crucially, in Ford's Thursday testimony, she mentioned for the first time that she did not know the identity of one of the boys at the party, offering a possible last-minute explanation for why the other purported attendees were at a party relatively far from their own neighborhoods.
Ford has claimed that her therapist inaccurately recorded in 2012 that she had said four boys were in the room when she was attacked. Ford has also testified that the alleged attack occurred in 1982, after first telling The Washington Post it happened in the mid-1980s.
Additionally, Ford testified Thursday she had been unaware of committee Republicans' offers, which were communicated publicly and to her attorneys, to fly out to California to meet with her so that they could accomodate her reported fear of flying and expedite the confirmation process -- one of several discrepencies that Graham told Fox News on Sunday he wanted to probe.

Restaurant where anti-Kavanaugh protesters disrupted Ted Cruz's dinner hires security

The upscale Italian restaurant Fiola has hired security guards after protesters confronted Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and his wife, Heidi, as they prepared to dine there.
"We are trying to run a restaurant that was besieged this week with the sort of vitriol that is the story of divided politics in America now," the owners of Fiola, located in downtown Washington, D.C., said in an email to customers.
The owners said staff would be re-trained on how to deal with similar instances and went on to implore customers to keep dining there. They described the current situation as a "PR disaster."
STAFFERS AT RESTAURANT WHERE CRUZ WAS CONFRONTED GET DEATH THREATS, OWNER SAYS
"We promise that Fiola is better than ever, and with your support we will emerge from this challenge quickly," they wrote.
Video on social media of Monday's incident shows protesters confronting the Cruzes chanting, "We believe survivors." The protests were tied to Cruz's support for Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court nominee who faced allegations of sexual assault that date back decades. Kavanaugh has denied the allegations, and an FBI investigation is being conducted.

California governor vetoes abortion bill for university campuses

Moonbeam

California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill on Sunday that would have mandated California public universities to provide abortion pills, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.
SB320, introduced by Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino, would have required university health centers to offer women medical abortions on campus by Jan. 1, 2022. The majority of the funds-- $9.6 million-- would come from private donors, The Sacramento Bee reported.
The bill also required a $200,000 grant to the University of California and California State University systems to provide 24-hour phone service to abortion medication recipients, according to the report.
CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR SIGNS BILL TO RAISE AGE REQUIREMENTS TO 21 FOR PURCHASE OF RIFLES, SHOTGUNS
In his veto message, Gov. Brown called the bill “unnecessary,” noting that abortions are a “long-protected right in California.” He said most abortion providers are within a reasonable distance from campus communities.
After the governor’s veto, Leyva said she will introduce the bill next session.

[L]egislation such as this is urgently needed to make sure that Californians are able to access the full range of reproductive care regardless of where they may live.
— California state Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino

“As the Trump Administration continues to unravel many of the critical health care protections and services for women, legislation such as this is urgently needed to make sure that Californians are able to access the full range of reproductive care regardless of where they may live,” Leyva said in a statement.
CALIFORNIA’S JERRY BROWN SIGNS TOUGH NET-NEUTRALITY BILL, PROMPTING JUSTICE DEPARTMENT LAWSUIT
The bill was drafted after a failed effort in 2016 by students at UC Berkeley to provide medical abortions on campus, according to The Chronicle. Medical abortions differ from surgical abortions in that the former requires taking a pill over two days during the first 10 weeks of a pregnancy to trigger a miscarriage.

House could investigate Kavanaugh if he's confirmed, Nadler says

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Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said the House Judiciary Committee would investigate Brett Kavanaugh if he’s confirmed to the Supreme Court and Democrats regain control of the House. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke, File)

The House Judiciary Committee would investigate Brett Kavanaugh if he’s confirmed to the Supreme Court and Democrats regain a majority in Congress’ lower chamber, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said Sunday.
Nadler, who likely would chair the committee if Democrats regain control of the House, told ABC News’ “This Week” that lawmakers “would have to investigate any credible allegations ... of perjury and other things that haven’t been properly looked into before.”
A Senate vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation is on hold while the FBI conducts a supplemental background review of sexual misconduct allegations against the federal judge dating from his days as a high school and college student in the early 1980s.
“We can’t have a justice on the Supreme Court for the next several decades who will be deciding ... all kinds of things for the entire American people who has been credibly accused of sexual assaults,” Nadler said. “This has got to be thoroughly investigated.”
“If he is on the Supreme Court and the Senate hasn’t investigated, then the House will have to.”
COMEY BLASTS KAVANAUGH PROBE DEADLINE, SAYS FBI SHOULDN'T HAVE 'SHOT CLOCK'
The latest investigation was requested by Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who voted along with the rest of his GOP colleagues to recommend Kavanaugh’s nomination to the full Senate on Friday. On Sunday, Nadler called on Flake and other senators who requested the investigation to ensure the FBI had a “free hand” to investigate the allegations against Kavanaugh.
“I would hope that Senator Flake and others would not vote -- would make clear that their votes cannot -- will be for the nominee unless there is a free hand for proper investigation of these very serious allegations of sexual assaults,” he said.
KAVANAUGH SOUNDED LIKE HE WAS 'UNJUSTLY ACCUSED' AT HEARING, FLAKE SAYS
Kavanaugh has denied allegations that he sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford when he was in high school, as well as claims that he exposed himself to college classmate Deborah Ramirez during a party at Yale University.
A third woman, Julie Swetnick, accused Kavanaugh and high school friend Mark Judge of excessive drinking and extremely inappropriate treatment of women in the early 1980s, among other accusations. Kavanaugh has called her accusations a "joke." Judge has said he "categorically" denies the allegations.

Mitchell says she would not bring criminal charges against Kavanaugh in memo

Rachel Mitchell, the sex-crimes prosecutor who questioned Dr. Christine Blasey Ford last week, wrote in a memo released late Sunday that there were inconsistencies in Ford's testimony and that-- given the information at hand-- she would not bring criminal charges against Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
Mitchell, who was hired by the Senate Judiciary Committee to assist Republicans, addressed the letter to “All Republican Senators,” and said no senator approved the memo. She noted in the assessment that she is a Republican, but said she is not a political person.
She identified Ford's case as an example of  “he said, she said,” and said her case is “even weaker than that.”
Ford, a California psychology professor, claims Kavanaugh assaulted her while at a house party in the 1980s when they were both teenagers. She said he pinned her to a bed, attempted to forcibly remove her clothes and prevented her from screaming.
Ford said she was "100 precent" certain that Kavanaugh was her attacker.
Kavanaugh has vehemently denied the allegations.
Mitchell, who worked as a sex-crimes prosecutor for nearly 25 years in Arizona, pointed out what she identified as timing inconsistencies. She wrote that Ford appeared to jump around on the timing of the alleged sexual assault, ranging from the “mid 1980s” to “early 1980s,” and then the “summer of 1982.”
“While it is common for victims to be uncertain about dates, Dr. Ford failed to explain how she was suddenly able to narrow the timeframe to a particular season and particular year,” she wrote.
Mitchell also pointed out that Ford has a history of struggling to name Kavanaugh as her attacker. Mitchell noted that his name was not in notes from her 2012 marriage therapy or her individual therapy in 2013.
Ford also appears unable to remember key elements about the incident, Mitchell wrote. She does not recall how she got to the party or back home and she does not remember the house where the alleged assault took place.
She said Ford’s account has not been corroborated by anyone who she identified as attending the party, including a “lifelong friend.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa., said last week that he hired Mitchell because he wanted a hearing that “is safe, comfortable and dignified” for both Ford and Kavanaugh. He said the “goal” of Mitchell’s hiring is to “de-politicize the process and get to the truth, instead of grandstanding and giving senators an opportunity to launch their presidential campaigns.”
Since the hearing, President Trump ordered the FBI to conduct a limited, one-week "supplemental" background investigation into the allegations against Kavanaugh.
In a statement released Sunday, a Yale classmate of Kavanaugh’s said he is “deeply troubled by what has been a blatant mischaracterization by Brett himself of his drinking at Yale.” Charles “Chad” Ludington, who now teaches at North Carolina State University, said he was friend of Kavanaugh’s at Yale and that Kavanaugh was “a frequent drinker, and a heavy drinker.”
“On many occasions I heard Brett slur his words and saw him staggering from alcohol consumption, not all of which was beer. When Brett got drunk, he was often belligerent and aggressive,” Ludington said. While saying that youthful drinking should not condemn a person for life, Ludington said he was concerned about Kavanaugh’s statements under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Mitchell, who did not address Kavanaugh's testimony in her statement, pointed out that the Senate confirmation hearing is not a trial, but she said she provided her assessment based on a legal context.

Dianne Feinstein Dr. Ford Cartoons

Trump skeptical of Feinstein denial on leak of Ford letter, cites 'worst body language I've ever seen'

President Trump briefly singled out U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein during his West Virginia rally Saturday evening, insinuating that the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee leaked a letter from a woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her decades earlier.
“When you look at releases and leaks and they say, ‘No, I didn’t do it.’ Dianne Feinstein, did you leak?,” Trump said to a chorus of boos from the crowd. “Remember her answer? Uh uh, uh, what? No, no, I didn’t leak. Maybe she didn’t, but that was the worst body language I’ve ever seen.”

“Remember her answer? 'Uh uh, uh, what? No, no, I didn’t leak.' Maybe she didn’t, but that was the worst body language I’ve ever seen.”

Trump, who was in the state stumping for GOP candidates ahead of the midterm elections, was referring to the letter that Feinstein, of California, received from Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford in July. Feinstein maintains she never came forward with Ford’s claim because Ford had requested confidentiality.
"I don't believe my staff would leak it," Feinstein said in response to a question Thursday from Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas. "I have not asked that question directly."
Feinstein posted a Twitter message Saturday evening, denying that her office leaked the letter.
"From the moment I received Dr. Ford’s letter my actions have been consistent with her wishes," feinstein wrote. "We kept her letter confidential and did not leak the contents or its existence to anyone. Survivors have a right to decide how their stories are made public."
But one way or another, news of the letter was eventually leaked, sparking a divisive nationwide debate over Kavanaugh’s nomination to the highest court and Democrats calling for an FBI investigation into the allegations.
Ford’s letter alleging Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her was first reported Sept. 12 by the website the Intercept.
The Intercept reporter who broke the story tweeted: "Feinstein's staff did not leak the letter to The Intercept."
Ford claims Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her during a party in 1982 when they were high school students.
More women have since come forward to accuse Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.
On Thursday, Ford and Kavanaugh testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the allegations.
"Brett's assault on me drastically altered my life," Ford told the committee.
At the hearing, Kavanaugh maintained his innocence and sparred with Democratic senators.
"This confirmation process has become a national disgrace," Kavanaugh told the committee.
Trump on Friday ordered the FBI to conduct a limited “supplemental background"  investigation into the matter.
Maryland lawmakers have also called on authorities to investigate Ford’s claims -- and the authorities said they would do so, provided that an accuser files a formal complaint.