Lawyers for Christine Blasey Ford said Wednesday that they will only turn over her therapist’s documents to the FBI if she is interviewed by the bureau.
In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, Ford’s lawyers Debra Katz and Lisa Banks said they were “prepared” to give the documents “to the FBI when she interviewed” – even hough an interview has still not yet been scheduled and time is running short.
“We have not yet heard from the FBI about scheduling an interview with her,” they wrote.
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On Tuesday, Grassley sent a letter to Ford’s defense team requesting “material evidence” relevant to the sexual assault allegation she made against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Grassley asked for the notes from therapy sessions in which Ford said she discussed the alleged assault. Ford gave some of those notes to the Washington Post in the interview that named her as Kavanaugh’s accuser, and said during her Senate Judiciary Committee testimony that the notes were relevant to her allegations.
Grassley also requested copies of “all audio or video recordings” that were produced during the polygraph exam Ford took, as well as all charts and data that were used in preparing the polygraph report.
Ford told lawmakers that she only discussed the lie-detector test with her lawyers and did not talk about any tips on how to pass a polygraph.
A statement released by Grassley and the committee on Tuesday included a sworn statement from an unidentified ex-boyfriend of Ford’s that raised “specific concerns about the reliability of her polygraph examination results.” “The Senate therefore needs this information,” he said in the letter.
The unnamed boyfriend told the committee that he dated Ford from 1992 to 1998 and that he witnessed Ford help a friend prepare to take a lie-detector test.
That friend, Monica McLean, said Wednesday that she never received such assistance.
“I have NEVER had Christine Blasey Ford, or anybody else, prepare me, or provide any other type of assistance whatsoever in connection with any polygraph exam I have taken at anytime,” McLean said in a statement.
Ford has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a high school party in 1982 when the two were high schoolers.
She and Kavanaugh both testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week in regards to her claims, which Kavanaugh has fiercely denied.
On Friday, President Trump directed the FBI to conduct a supplemental background investigation into the allegations against Kavanaugh. The investigation is expected to wrap up by week’s end.
