Brett Kavanaugh hearing: Why is there only one camera to record Christine Blasey Ford's testimony?

Witness to be heard with minimal 'media circus'

The Senate Judiciary Committee considering the appointment of Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, will hear testimony from Christine Blasey Ford on Thursday.

Professor Ford was the first of three women to come forward accusing Justice Kavanaugh of sexual assault or misconduct, her allegation followed by two more from Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick respectively.

Until concerns about the candidate’s past have been resolved to the committee’s satisfaction, his appointment to the bench cannot proceed.

Here’s everything you need to know about the hearing.

What will she say?

Professor Ford intends to tell the committee that, one night in the summer of 1982, a drunken Brett Kavanaugh forced her down on a bed, “groped me and tried to take off my clothes”, then clamped his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream before she was able to escape.

“I believed he was going to rape me”, she will say, according to her prepared testimony.

What has been said ahead of her appearance before the Senate?

The 51-year-old psychology professor from California says: “It is not my responsibility to determine whether Mr Kavanaugh deserves to sit on the Supreme Court... My responsibility is to tell the truth.”

Mr Kavanaugh himself has repeatedly denied all the allegations, saying he had never even heard of the latest accuser and calling her accusations “ridiculous and from The Twilight Zone.”

For his part, President Trump has so far backed his nominee but insists he remains “open to changing my mind”.

“I want to watch, I want to see,” he said.

Republicans have expressed scepticism about Professor Ford’s claims and those of her fellow accusers, suggesting they could be cynical smears invented to discredit Justive Kavanaugh and the president who selected him.

However, being seen to be participating in victim-blaming risks alienating potential voters ahead of November’s midterm elections so any senators who harbour doubts about her version of events will need to tread carefully.

Why will there only be one camera?

Given that Professor Ford has been the subject of death threats since she came forward with her allegation against Justice Kavanaugh, her legal team have sought to control the conditions of her appearance.

In addition to the threats to her life, the experience of having to recall in detail events that “altered [her] life” are likely to prove traumatic, especially given that Professor Ford will have the added pressure of doing so with the eyes of the world upon on her.

To mitigate the impact of what promises to be a stressful day, her attorneys have submitted a list of requests to the committee to avoid her testimony becoming a “media circus”.

Among these stipulations about the handling of the day’s proceedings was that only one pool camera be present, rather than many from multiple networks, to keep potentially distracting or unsettling coverage to a minimum.

This is also the reason for its being held in a small, wood-panelled hearing room that seats only a few dozen spectators.

Committee chairman Chuck Grassley agreed to the request, pledging to do “everything in his power to provide a safe, comfortable, and dignified forum for Dr Ford to testify”.

What other conditions were requested?

Professor Ford's attorneys Debra Katz and Lisa Banks also asked that Mr Kavanaugh speak first and not be present when Professor Ford spoke.

They also asked that questions be posed by the senators themselves - 11 Republicans, all men, and 10 Democrats – rather than outside counsel and that she be allowed unlimited time to make her opening statement. Republicans have instead hired Arizona prosecutor Rachel Mitchell to handle much of their questioning as a matter of sensitivity.

Democratic questioners will include two senators widely seen as potential presidential candidates in 2020: Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey, who aggressively challenged Mr Kavanaugh during the judge’s earlier confirmation hearing.

The team also asked for assurances regarding security, in light of the death threats made against Professor Ford.

Her team refused to schedule her appearance on Monday this week, as requested by the committee, to allow her more time to prepare herself emotionally for the appearance, while the senators refused to subpoena Mark Judge, a friend of Mr Kavanaugh’s said to have been in the room when the alleged attack took place.