Christine Blasey Ford Will Testify on Thursday

Despite being broadsided in the media and receiving death threats, just as she had anticipated she would–and Doxxed and forced to flee her home–Dr. Christine Blasey Ford has announced via her attorneys that she will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee as to her allegation that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh attempted to rape her while they were in high school. Kavanaugh has denied the allegations and has also agreed to testify. The open hearing will take place on Thursday at 10 AM.

Ford’s attorneys have criticized the committee for neglecting to subpoena Kavanaugh’s friend Mark Judge, whom Ford has claimed helped Kavanaugh to corner her and hold her down. (Judge has denied the allegations). Her counsel also states that the judiciary committee have refused to hear from other witnesses “who are essential for a fair hearing that arrives at the truth about the sexual assault.” According to CNN, her attorneys and Democrats will continue to fight for those witnesses to be heard, though Republican committee chairman Chuck Grassley has released a statement saying that the committee alone will decide whom to call without any outside input.

In the face of incessant attempts by GOP lawmakers and rightwing reporters to discredit and minimize her allegation–even accusing her of “character assassination,” attention-seeking, and being under the influence of hypnosis–numerous victims of sexual assault have thrown themselves into the media ringer to support Ford.

On Friday, Ronald and Nancy Reagan’s daughter Patti Davis shared her own long-buried story of sexual assault in a Washington Post piece in order to counter the classic victim-shaming attacks on Ford for waiting so long to come forward and for forgetting details such as the exact location of the house where she was attacked.

On Sunday, Kristina Ruehli, who was publicly maligned for accusing Bill Cosby of sexual assault, told the Washington Post “I can’t imagine what Dr. Ford is going through right now. I was swimming without a life raft, but at least I had 59 other women to divert attention.”

And this week, Donald Trump inadvertently sparked an outpouring of support for Ford on Twitter after disparaging her for not immediately filing a police report, a timeworn attack despite well-documented research showing that most victims don’t report sexual violence. The resulting hashtag #WhyIDidntReport brought out Weinstein accusers Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino, New York Times reporter Kate Conger, Washington Post columnist Karen Tumulty, WNYC host and editor Rebecca Carroll, and civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson, and countless people explaining why they stayed silent about sexual assault.