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Christine Blasey Ford Says Alleged Kavanaugh Attack ‘Drastically Altered My Life’

Kavanaugh has strongly denied her claims as well as allegations by two other accusers.

Christine Blasey Ford Says Alleged Kavanaugh Attack ‘Drastically Altered My Life’
The words “Brett Kavanaugh Must Withdraw” are projected by demonstrators onto the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse in Washington, D.C., U.S. (Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Christine Blasey Ford will testify Thursday that a sexual assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh "drastically altered my life" and that she was too afraid and ashamed to tell anyone about the details at the time.

Ford, in prepared testimony for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday, described in detail an evening during which she thought Kavanaugh was going to rape her at a house party in summer 1982 when they were teenagers.

Kavanaugh has strongly denied her claims as well as allegations by two other accusers.

Ford’s statement said she didn’t know Kavanaugh well and that she recalls the house party as "almost surely a spur of the moment gathering." She said that when she went upstairs to use the bathroom, she was pushed into a bedroom and onto a bed and that Kavanaugh got on top of her.

"Brett groped me and tried to take off my clothes," her statement said. She said she tried to yell for help, but that he put his hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming.

"This was what terrified me the most and has had the most lasting impact on my life," she said. "It was hard for me to breathe and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me."

“I don’t remember as much as I would like to” about the incident, Ford said in her prepared testimony.

To contact the reporters on this story: Arit John in Washington at ajohn34@bloomberg.net;Steven T. Dennis in Washington at sdennis17@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo

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