BY ZACHARY STIEBER
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said the comments made by the attorney who represented Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser could prompt a probe into the lawyer.
“I think it’s worth just checking off the facts. We had a number of people on the other side of the aisle undermining the credibility of the [Senate Judiciary] committee by threatening to expose information that was committee confidential,” Tillis said during an appearance on Fox News on Sept. 5.
“We have to always make sure that when people come and give sworn testimony before any congressional committee, that it’s truthful and accurate. Any time that you see something like this, it’s probably worth looking into,” Tillis added, suggesting the accusations made against Kavanaugh last year could have been “politically motivated.”
Tillis was referring to comments made by Christine Blasey Ford’s lawyer, Debra Katz, during a speech at the University of Baltimore’s 11th Feminist Legal Theory Conference, “Applied Feminism and #MeToo” in April. A video of her speech was made public for the first time on Sept. 4.
“In the aftermath of these hearings, I believe that Christine’s testimony brought about more good than the harm misogynist Republicans caused by allowing Kavanaugh on the court,” Katz said.
Christine Ford’s lawyer Debra Katz says putting “an asterisk” next to Kavanaugh’s name in case Kavanaugh attacked Roe v. Wade “is part of what motivated Christine.” pic.twitter.com/zoFr2T8Aec
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) September 4, 2019
“He will always have an asterisk next to his name. When he takes a scalpel to Roe v. Wade, we will know who he is, we know his character, and we know what motivates him, and that is important. It is important that we know, and that is part of what motivated Christine,” she added.
Roe v. Wade is the 1973 Supreme Court decision that ruled a pregnant woman has the Constitutional right to an abortion without excessive government restrictions.
Christine Blasey Ford, a professor, accused Kavanaugh of sexually abusing her when they were both in high school in 1982. She came forward just before a vote was to be held on his nomination, she said, because she felt it was her “civic duty.”
“I am here not because I wanted to be. I am terrified. I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school,” she told the Senate Judiciary Committee in a public hearing.
A prosecutor who analyzed the claims for lawmakers found that Ford’s claims had multiple inconsistencies. None of the witnesses Ford cited were able to corroborate her claims. Kavanaugh vociferously denied them.
Senators confirmed Kavanaugh on Oct. 6, 2018.
Tillis said on Fox that contrary to Katz’s claim, there is no asterisk next to Kavanaugh’s name.
“There is no asterisk next to Brett Kavanaugh,” he said. “That does seem to undermine what we all believed was a legitimate traumatic experience in [Ford’s] life. We’ll just let the process play out. But clearly, a misrepresentation before a Senate committee is a very serious offense, and hopefully, we can get past that.”
Ryan Lovelace, an author who first reported Katz’s comments in his new book, “Search and Destroy: Inside the Campaign Against Brett Kavanaugh,” told the Daily Caller News Foundation he believes the information would have called into question what Ford and Katz previously said.
If the motivation was known during the confirmation hearings, the results could have been different, he said.
“I think if we knew in September what we know now, there would have been all kinds of questions at the hearing about this,” he said.
Janita Kan contributed to this report.
