Washington Post investigator Emma Brown worked with Christine Blasey Ford over the summer in preparation for her expose on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Ford has claimed that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in college. She wrote an anonymous letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) in July sharing her concerns. Feinstein did not reveal the letter until last week, when she referred it to the FBI.
Then, Ford came forward as the anonymous accuser and published a piece about how Kavanaugh supposedly sexually harassed her.
"Her feeling was that Feinstein honored request to keep it confidential" and she "feels grateful to her," Brown said.
Ford never voiced the incident until 2012, Brown said. She started to share it with her therapist and her husband "has a clear recollection" of the sessions where his wife recounted the incident and he remembers her mentioning Kavanaugh.
In recent weeks, the media started to follow her trail. People were knocking on her door for information. She no longer had privacy, and "it was likely that someone would out her," Brown explained. It wasn't until then that Ford revealed her identity and Feinstein publicized the letter.
Feinstein "respected the wishes of the victim," civil rights lawyer Areva Martin agreed on CNN.
Republicans, meanwhile, are suspicious of the timeline, wondering why it couldn't have gone through a more confidential process.
At the White House, President Trump said he wishes Democrats would not have waited to release the information. Now, there may need to be a "little delay" on the confirmation.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized his Democratic colleagues on the Senate floor Monday for releasing this information at the "eleventh hour," instead of by a standard bipartisan process.
"It's not fair to either of them," he said.
.@SenateMajLdr: "[Democrats] did not raise it in the closed session, the proper forum where such an allegation could have been addressed with discretion and sensitivity. They did not raise it in the 1,000+ follow up questions that senators sent to Judge Kavanaugh in writing." pic.twitter.com/G5yFk5x6wQ
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 17, 2018