Sen. Susan Collins — a pivotal swing vote in the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation fight — has some thoughts on how the Judiciary Committee should handle its public hearing on Monday: She wants Kavanaugh’s lawyer to be able to question Christine Blasey Ford, and Ford’s lawyer to be able to question Kavanaugh.
Susan Collins thinks lawyers should be able to cross-examine Kavanaugh and Ford on sexual assault allegations
She has some suggestions for Monday’s public hearing.
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
Li Zhou is a former politics reporter at Vox, where she covers Congress and elections. Previously, she was a tech policy reporter at Politico and an editorial fellow at the Atlantic.
The panel has invited Kavanaugh and Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University, to testify at a hearing on the sexual assault allegations early next week. (Ford’s appearance at the hearing was still uncertain as of Tuesday morning.) Ford has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her while the two were both teenagers, allegations that he has flatly denied.
Collins thinks that Kavanaugh and Ford’s respective attorneys should be able to, in effect, cross-examine the other witness as part of the hearing.
“I respectfully recommend that you invite the attorneys retained by Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh to pose questions during the hearing,” Collins writes in a letter to Committee Chair Chuck Grassley. “Dr. Ford’s attorney would be permitted to question Judge Kavanaugh, and Judge Kavanaugh’s attorney would question Dr. Ford. Each would be permitted equal time to do so before Senators began their round of questions.”
Collins argues that the additional questioning from both lawyers would help to “elicit the most information, and allow for an in-depth examination of the allegations.” All 21 senators who sit on the committee are expected to have time to pose questions of their own as well.
Grassley’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Collins’s recommendation.
Read her full letter below.
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