The former assistant chief counsel of the Senate Watergate Committee in 1973 said Wednesday that he believes Christine Blasey Ford and her lawyers are going too far in asking for more witnesses to appear at Thursday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
David Dorsen, who authored “The Unexpected Scalia: A Conservative Justice’s Liberal Opinions,” voiced his thoughts on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s embattled nomination, with The Daily Caller News Foundation. He believes Republicans are rushing the confirmation of Kavanaugh.
“We’re at a crucial point [in history],” and “the most astonishing thing to me as a former prosecutor and assistant chief counsel for the Watergate Committee is that no one seems to be interested on the Republican side to getting to the facts,” he said.
“This is a totally incomplete investigation,” he added.
At the same time, however, the way Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California handled the allegations brought to her by Ford certainly complicated the matter, Dorsen said.
Ford’s attorneys have repeatedly asked the committee to allow more witnesses to present their cases at the hearing to avoid a he said, she said environment, but Dorsen told TheDCNF that Ford’s camp shouldn’t have been the ones making such a request.
“I felt that Dr. Ford was becoming too partisan by asking the committee to call more witnesses,” he said, adding that while he thinks “there is strong grounds for having more witnesses,” when it comes from the accuser, it comes off too partisan.
“This is becoming worse now with Mr. [Michael] Avenatti weighing in. He’s a talented and engaging person, but one that is clearly declined with the Democrats,” he said.
Avenatti, who is also Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, said Wednesday that he represents a woman, Julie Swetnick, who claims Kavanaugh and his childhood friend Mark Judge were present at parties where boys would drug girls and give them enough alcohol to become so inebriated that they could not say “no” when the boys would go to “gang rape” them.
Kavanaugh has denied these allegations, along with allegations from Ford and a Yale University classmate who claims Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a drunken dorm room party in college. (RELATED: Kavanaugh’s Classmates Fire Back At Avenatti-Back Accuser)
Another request Ford’s lawyers asked for was a full investigation into their claims against Kavanaugh before Ford would testify, but Republicans and the White House said it was unnecessary for the FBI to perform another background investigation at this time, as the judge has already undergone six in his career.
Kavanaugh is “eminently qualified on paper to be a Supreme Court justice,” Dorsen said. “But if these disturbing allegations aren’t resolved in his favor, it would harm the courts for a long time to come.”
The former Watergate lawyer added that Republicans should have allowed for a full investigation to avoid any potential problems involving Kavanaugh’s nomination in the future.
Kavanaugh and Ford are set to testify Thursday and the committee could vote as soon as Friday.
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