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Kavanaugh accuser comes forward about alleged attack: “I thought he might inadvertently kill me”

She said Kavanaugh put his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream.

The woman who anonymously accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a high school party in 1982 has come forward. Her name is Christine Blasey Ford, and she is a 51-year-old psychology professor in California who was 15 when the alleged attack took place. She told The Washington Post the experience “derailed me substantially for four or five years.”

A bare-bones description of the alleged assault has been circulating for several days since initial reports revealed the existence of a letter accusing Kavanaugh and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein issued a statement confirming it. Now, Ford is describing the alleged incident in more detail. She said Kavanaugh pushed her into a bedroom in the house while she was on her way to the bathroom, threw himself on top of her, and tried to remove her clothes while a friend, Mark Judge, watched.

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She said Kavanaugh put his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream. “I thought he might inadvertently kill me,” she told the Post. “He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing.” Then, she alleged, Judge, a fellow student of Kavanaugh's at the Jesuit all-boys Georgetown Preparatory School, jumped on them both.

Ford said she then managed to get free, locked herself in the bathroom, and waited until she could hear Kavanaugh and Judge stumble down the stairs of the house in Montgomery County, Maryland, where the attack allegedly took place.

Then, Ford said, her biggest concern was concealing that she had been attacked, worried her parents would find out she was at a party where people were drinking. “My biggest fear was, 'Do I look like someone just attacked me?'” she told the Post. Then, she recalled thinking, “I’m not ever telling anyone this. This is nothing, it didn’t happen, and he didn’t rape me.”

Ford took a polygraph test in early August that showed she was telling the truth when she said a summary of her allegations was accurate, according to the Post, which reviewed the results.

In response to Ford’s story, the White House issued the same statement attributed to Kavanaugh that it had made last week, before Ford’s identity or the additional details were known: “I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. I did not do this back in high school or at any time.”

Feinstein has had the letter since July but kept the existence of it confidential at Ford's request. Last week, after reports surfaced about the existence of the letter, she confirmed it in a statement: “I have received information from an individual concerning the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court,” Feinstein wrote. “That individual strongly requested confidentiality, declined to come forward or press the matter further, and I have honored that decision. I have, however, referred the matter to federal investigative authorities.”

Republicans had set the date for a committee vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation for this Thursday, but there's now a push to hold off on it.

Cover: President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, listens to a question during the third round of questioning on the third day of his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington, to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)