California professor accuses Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct

WASHINGTON — The woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct when they were teenagers has come forward to The Washington Post.

California professor Christine Blasey Ford tells the newspaper that Kavanaugh and a friend corralled her in a bedroom during a gathering at a house in Maryland in the early 1980s. She says that both boys were “stumbling drunk” and that the friend watched as Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed and clumsily tried to pull off her clothes.

She says she tried to scream and Kavanaugh covered her mouth with his hand.

Ford says she escaped when Kavanaugh’s friend jumped on top of them and they tumbled.

The now-53-year-old Kavanaugh denies the allegation.

Ford says she didn’t reveal what happened until 2012 during couples therapy with her husband.

The Senate’s Democratic leader says the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee must postpone a vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination now that a woman accusing Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct decades ago has told her story to The Washington Post.

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer said Sunday that postponement is warranted until what he calls “serious and credible allegations” are thoroughly investigated. Kavanaugh has denied the accusations.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley has scheduled a Thursday vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination.

Schumer says that women making serious allegations of abuse have been ignored for too long.

Schumer says Kavanaugh’s credibility on other issues has been questioned. He says that to “railroad a vote now” would insult the women of America and the integrity of the Supreme Court.