Basically every woman involved in the Kavanaugh imbroglio is now getting death threats

Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Susan Collins

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

last updated 21 September 2018

Christine Blasey Ford stepped forward Sunday afternoon to detail to The Washington Post what she described as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh attempting to rape her at a high school party in the 1980s. By Tuesday morning, several Twitter accounts had posted her address, a different Christine Ford had been harassed after being fingered by a conservative news site, and by Tuesday evening, Ford's lawyers wrote to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley that Ford had been the target of "vicious harassment and even death threats," her email had been hacked, and she was being impersonated online.

Ford and her family "moved out of their home as a security precaution, and she and her husband are staying apart from their two children," The San Jose Mercury News reported Tuesday. "Judge Kavanaugh’s wife, Ashley Estes Kavanaugh, also has faced threats, which are being investigated by the U.S. Marshals Service," The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing a senior administration official. "She has received two profane notes on her work email account in recent days" from the same account, one of which suggested Kavanaugh tell her husband he should "put a bullet in his ... skull." CNN also saw some abusive emails to Ashley Kavanaugh.

At least two Senate Judiciary Committee members, Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), have also reported getting vulgar and threatening messages, including sexual violence against staffers. "In one case — and we are going to turn this over to the police, but unfortunately, of course, the person didn't leave a name or number — but they actually threatened to rape one of my young female staffers," Collins told the Journal. Feinstein reported similar threats against specific staff members.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.