Brett Kavanaugh hearing: Trump tweets support for nominee as hearing ends after Christine Ford says she is '100%' sure judge assaulted her
Dr Christine Ford tells senate she thought Brett Kavanaugh was 'going to rape and accidentally kill' her as Supreme Court judge says his wife and family have been left 'destroyed' by false allegations
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Christine Ford has told Congress that she believed Brett Kavanaugh was "going to rape her" in dramatic testimony over her sexual assault allegation against Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee.
Dr Ford said she was "100 per cent" sure it was Mr Kavanaugh who assaulted her.
Later, Mr Kavanaugh appeared in front of the same Senate panel, the judiciary committee, and denied the allegations calling the hearing a "circus". He said he believed Dr Ford had been assaulted at some point, but not by him.
Dr Ford said she was "terrified" of testifying, but that she believes it is her "civic duty". Before she began Senator Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, commended her on coming forward.
The clash pitted her word against his. Members of the Senate, controlled 51-49 by Trump's fellow Republicans, must now decide whether to vote to confirm him after the extraordinary nearly nine-hour-long hearing. Senate Republicans planned to meet on Thursday night to discuss the next steps on the nomination.
“I swear today, under oath, before the Senate and the nation, before my family and God, I am innocent of this charge,” Mr Kavanaugh told the Judiciary Committee later.
Calling himself a victim of “grotesque and obvious character assassination,” Mr Kavanaugh, speaking passionately, said he “unequivocally and categorically” denied Dr Ford's allegation.
“I will not be intimidated into withdrawing from this process,” Mr Kavanaugh added.
Writing on Twitter after the hearing, President Donald Trump said of Mr Kavanaugh, “His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats' search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote!”
Donald Trump has said "it's possible" he'll change his mind about nominating Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court after hearing the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford, who alleges the judge tried to force himself upon her at a party while both were high school students in the 1980s.
He told reporters in New York last night: "We’re giving the women a major chance to speak. It’s possible I’ll hear that and I’ll say: ‘Hey, I’m changing my mind.’ It’s possible."
But president has done little else to suggest Mr Kavanaugh's alleged victims would get a fair hearing, defending his nominee a number of times and branding the allegations a Democrat-driven "con job".
Our international editor Chris Stevenson has the full story:
Michael Avenatti, who is representing the third woman to come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh, has fired back at Donald Trump after he called him "a third rate lawyer who is good at making false accusations".
He took at dig at the president's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, who last month pleaded guilty to paying hush money during the presidential election.
Mr Avenatti's client, Julie Swetnick, said Mr Kavanaugh and one of his close friends drugged young women so that they could be raped by a succession of boys during house parties when they were teenagers.
Mr Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge have denied the allegation.
The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing is due to get underway at 10am local time (3pm BST).
The hearing will take place in a small committee room with only a few journalists admitted, with a limited number of cameras.
That's a change — at Christine Blasey Ford's request — from the first four days of hearings into Brett Kavanaugh's nomination for the Supreme Court.
Previous evidence was heard in huge, lit-for-television rooms typically used for high-profile proceedings.
You'll be able to watch the Senate Judiciary Committee live on The Independent from 10am local time (3pm BST):
In seeking to defend Mr Kavanaugh at his press conference last night Mr Trump claimed that "women had been paid to make things up" about the president.
The hearing will begin with Christine Blasey Ford, 51, giving her account of an alleged sexual assault in 1982.
According to Ms Ford, Mr Kavanaugh assaulted her at a party when she was 15 and he was 17. She has claimed he pinned her to a bed, groped her and tried to pull off her clothes, covering her mouth with his hand when she tried to scream.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee will then question Ms Ford. The committee's all-male Republican majority has hired a female lawyer with experience prosecuting sex crimes to take charge of their questioning.
Democratic senators will ask their own questions.
Mr Kavanaugh, who denies the allegations made by Ms Ford and two other women, will testify later, although he will not be in the room when Ms Ford is speaking.
Here is the view Dr Ford will see this morning from her seat in front of the committee.
Capitol Hill and the country are gearing up for the beginning of Dr Christine Blasey Ford's testimony in front of the Senate committee in charge of determining if Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump's second nominee for the US Supreme Court, is fit for the lifetime appointment.
You can read here about Mr Trump's last nominee, Justice Neil Gorsuch, whose Senate hearing was almost milquetoast in comparison.
Some of our readers have been saying Dr Ford's testimony reminds them, chillingly so, of Anita Hill.
In 1991 Ms Hill, a lawyer, accused Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment just ahead of his confirmation.
Mr Thomas, who was nominated by President George HW Bush, was almost certainly going to sail through his hearings with his public character intact until an FBI interview with Ms Hill was leaked to the media.
Ms Hill accused Mr Thomas of sexually harassing her while he was her boss at two different federal government agencies - the US Department of Education and, ironically, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Mr Thomas had then moved on to a judgeship just a year before his nomination.
When asked why she continued to work under Mr Thomas at the second job despite the harassment, Ms Hill explained working in a position to promote civil rights had meant more to her.
Her testimony brought to light what many thought were uncomfortable, intimate details of the harassment, but it served as a powerful moment in gender equality for many women:
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