Cotton Lights Up Ford's Legal Team for Delay Tactic, Calls Them 'Democratic Operatives'
Supporters of Christine Blasey Ford are currently busy slamming the FBI for not interviewing her during their week-long supplementary investigation of Brett Kavanaugh’s background. Which, weird, I thought this had already happened.
In fact, I’m sure it did. We were all glued to our TV’s and expecting something magical to happen, like it was some episode of “Law and Order” and someone’s case would fall apart at the last moment as a dramatic chord plays in the background. Except none of that happened. Ford’s story still had the same flagrant inconsistencies that it did before, but now Kavanaugh was too “angry” about being accused of gang rape to be a judge on the nation’s highest court. Funny, I thought this was why jurists must necessarily recuse themselves in cases where they’re involved.
But I digress, as I always do. Ford’s counsel is indignant over the fact that she wasn’t included in the supplementary interviews and is issuing strongly worded statements about it. Strongly worded statements are usually worth the paper the website you’re reading it at is printed on, however, so they’re offering a quid pro quo — if they interview Ford, they say, they’ll release her therapist notes.
Sen. Tom Cotton isn’t buying it. In a tweet after the news broke, the Arkansas Republican called Ford’s counsel “Democratic operatives” and said it was just another stall tactic.
Here’s the letter from counsel, which was tweeted by The Washington Post’s Seung Min Kim:
Ford’s lawyers tell Grassley that they will provide her therapy notes, polygraph data to the FBI once she is interviewed (that hasn’t happened as of now) pic.twitter.com/t1N6jhDPwE
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) October 3, 2018
Regarding the therapist notes, Ford counselors Debra Katz and Lisa Banks said, “Dr. Ford is prepared to provide those documents to the FBI when she is interviewed. We have not heard from the FBI about scheduling an interview with her.”
Cotton noted three separate problems with this proposition:
1. Let’s quit calling them “Ford’s lawyers.” They’re Democratic operatives.
2. They could’ve provided notes in July.
3. If notes incriminated Kavanaugh & corroborated allegations, they’d be released. What has been shared to media is exculpatory. Draw your own conclusion. https://t.co/TYlCG2Rvy2
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) October 3, 2018
All of Sen. Cotton’s reservations, it’s worth noting, are materially true.
First, virtually every member of Ford’s legal team isn’t just a Washington personage, they’re personages very clearly identified with one particular party. Katz is a liberal activist who has self-identified as part of “the resistance;” together with co-attorney Banks, she was still going to host a fundraiser for Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin while representing Ford until the news got out. As for other members of the team, Michael Bromwich was a Clinton and Obama apparatchik who represented former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
Now, whether this is due to the fact that Ford received advice on counsel from Sen. Dianne Feinstein or whether surrounding herself with Democratic functionaries was the best way to defend herself is somewhat immaterial here; the point is that these are all individuals who have a definite motive to stall as long as possible.
On the second point, well, yes. They could have provided the notes in July — along with a lot of other things, like Ford’s cooperation. They could have done it out in California. We could have all avoided this political disarray. Instead, this seems specifically timed and arranged to create a succès de scandale — something that having Democratic operatives as your counsel will do, I suppose.
And as for the third point, again — yes. If there was something in the selectively released notes that buttressed Ford’s case and deprecated Kavanaugh’s, what do you think the odds are that it would be concealed within the notes? How many people do you think Katz, Banks and Bromwich had pouring over those notes over the past few weeks? Does anyone really think the notes will end up being the Key to All Kavanaughian Mythologies?
This is a stall tactic, plain and simple. Kavanaugh and Ford have been interviewed, as were the witnesses she said would corroborate her testimony. (They didn’t.) Whether they were interviewed under oath in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee or the FBI is irrelevant; the Kavanaugh nomination and its attendant problems have been looked at thoroughly and comprehensively. We’re dealing with nothing more than delay tactics at this point.
Sen. Cotton is right. It’s time to give up the ghost and move on with a vote.
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