Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who repeatedly changed her story about Justice Brett Kavanaugh during congressional testimony earlier this year, is back in the public eye.
This time it's on behalf of Sports Illustrated, which released a video of Ford presenting an award.
In her first public statement since September, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford presents Sports Illustrated’s Inspiration of the Year Award to Rachael Denhollander https://t.co/2lBOB9nVDk pic.twitter.com/AjRYVYfOmS
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) December 12, 2018
There's just one massive problem: Sports Illustrated and Ford are linking Kavanaugh to convicted, serial child sex abuser Larry Nasser.
Lawyer and former gymnast Rachael Denhollander has been selected as Sports Illustrated's Inspiration of the Year.
Denhollander was the first woman to publicly accuse former Michigan State and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar of sexual assault.
Denhollander filed a federal lawsuit against Nassar at the U.S. District Court for the Western District fo Michigan. Two-hundered and fifty-one other former gymnasts, along with 23 husbands of gymnasts, also brought up claims consolidated into her suit.
Following Denhollander's lead, more than 300 women in total have said they were sexually assaulted by Nassar.
Denhollander was the last to confront Nassar during his hearing for criminal sexual misconduct and delivered a powerful rebuke of the serial predator.
Nassar was sentenced up to 175 years on Michigan state charges of sexual assault, in addition to a sentence of 40 to 125 years in prison on three counts of sexual assault. He also was given a 60-year sentence on federal child-pornography charges.
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USA Gymnastics, whose officials repeatedly covered up Nassar's crimes, went bankrupt last week.
It is quite a shame Sports Illustrated chose Ford, who has been thoroughly discredited, to give this award. Their choice diminishes Denhollander's experience and the experiences of the other sexual assault victims.
As a reminder about Ford's claims:
Over the weekend, 25-year-veteran sex crimes prosecutor Rachel Mitchell released a nine page memo detailing the contradictions and lack of evidence presented by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford during testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.
"In the legal context, here is my bottom line: A 'he said, she said' case is incredibly difficult to prove. But this case is even weaker than that. Dr. Ford identified other witnesses to the event, and those witnesses either refuted her allegations or failed to corroborate them," Mitchell wrote about the situation. "For the reasons discussed below, I do not think that a reasonable prosecutor would bring this case based on the evidence before the Committee. Nor do I believe that this evidence is sufficient to satisfy the preponderance-of-the-evidence standard."
In addition to failing to remember timelines from the past seven weeks, not to mention the past 36 years, Mitchell explained that Ford "struggled" to even name Kavanaugh as the man who she believes engaged in sexual assault against her.
Further, a lengthy report released by the Senate Judiciary Committee showed not a single claim of sexual misconduct made against Kavanaugh could be backed up by hard evidence or corroboration.
"After an extensive investigation that included the thorough review of all potentially credible evidence submitted and interviews of more than 40 individuals with information relating to the allegations, including classmates and friends of all those involved, Committee investigators found no witness who could provide any verifiable evidence to support any of the allegations brought against Justice Kavanaugh," the report states. "In other words, following the separate and extensive investigations by both the Committee and the FBI, there was no evidence to substantiate any of the claims of sexual assault made against Justice Kavanaugh."
Ford is no Rachael Denhollander and Kavanaugh is no Larry Nassar. The implication there are any similarities is another disgusting smear.
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