Time’s Up released a statement calling on the U.S. Senate to delay moving forward on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court until a sexual assault accusation leveled against him could be fully investigated.
“A man who could be our next U.S. Supreme Court Justice has been accused of sexual assault. There is no path forward for Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination until those credible and serious allegations have been investigated,” said the group in a statement. “We demand that the U.S. Senate postpone any vote on Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination until a thorough and complete examination has been completed.”
“There was a time when business as usual could continue amid credible allegations of sexual violence,” the group added. “But that era has ended forever.”
Times Up, a women’s legal advocacy organization, was founded in January, 2018 in response to the dozens of allegations of sexual misconduct against Harvey Weinstein.
Kavanaugh had been on track for a smooth — if partisan — confirmation until California professor Christine Blasey Ford came forward to the Washington Post on Sunday with a detailed on-record description of what her lawyer said was an attempted rape by a drunken Kavanaugh at a party in the early 1980s.
Kavanaugh has denied any accusation of wrongdoing.
The Post report nevertheless immediately threw the nomination into turmoil as Democrats and some Republicans called for the nomination to be halted until Ford could be allowed to offer sworn testimony. On Monday the White House appeared to concede that the Kavanaugh accuser would have to be heard, with counsellor Kellyanne Conway telling “Fox & Friends” that Ford should be taken seriously.
“This woman should not be ignored and should not be insulted,” said Conway. “She should be heard.”