Prosecutor hired by Senate Republicans explains why she wouldn't prosecute Brett Kavanaugh

Rachel Mitchell questiones Christine Blasey Ford

(Image credit: Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images)

published 1 October 2018

On Sunday night, the Arizona prosecutor who questioned Christine Blasey Ford on Thursday on behalf of the Senate Judiciary Committee's all-male Republican majority sent Senate Republicans a five-page memo laying out why Ford's sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh don't meet her standards for criminal prosecution.

"A 'he said, she said' case is incredibly difficult to prove," prosecutor Rachel Mitchell wrote. "But this case is even weaker than that," because "Dr. Ford identified other witnesses to the event, and those witnesses either refuted her allegations or failed to corroborate them." Mitchell, a registered Republican, pointed to what she called holes in Ford's memory, especially how she got home from the house party in 1982. "Her inability to remember this detail raises significant questions," Mitchell argued. "There is no clear standard of proof for allegations made during the Senate's confirmation process," she added. "But the world in which I work is the legal world, not the political world."

Mitchell's memo, which "is likely to prompt significant pushback from Democratic senators," doesn't go into her brief questioning of Kavanaugh, truncated by the GOP senators taking over, The Washington Post reports. "But the memo is clearly aimed at assuaging the concerns of a handful of GOP senators who are on the fence about whether to vote to confirm Kavanaugh and are considering whose story — Ford's or Kavanaugh's — to believe." In her testimony, Ford, a psychology professor, said she is "100 percent" certain that Kavanaugh pinned her on a bed, tried to remove her clothes, and covered her mouth when she tried to yell for help.

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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.

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