Lisa Banks, the attorney for Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, told CNN viewers Tuesday night that a Monday hearing doesn't seem possible when there is still an FBI investigation to do. An investigation which Republicans do not want to undertake, by the way.
Anderson Cooper asked Banks whether or not she was saying she'd refuse to testify if the FBI did not investigate.
“What we’re saying is that there should be an investigation, because that’s the right thing to do,” Banks answered.
Cooper pressed, asking again whether she would appear before the Committee again on Monday if the FBI did not investigate.
“She is prepared to cooperate with the Committee and with any law enforcement investigation,” Banks reokued. “She will cooperate with the Committee in whatever form that takes and it remains to be seen. We have to talk with Senator Grassley’s office and the other committee members to determine what form that will take.”
She did, however, warn that "any talk of a hearing on Monday is premature."
Anderson Cooper did not seem to understand that the FBI does not choose whether or not to investigate this. Because they are doing background checks, the FBI must be asked to investigate by the White House, and the White House is refusing. I am not at all sure why CNN's producers couldn't whisper that in his ear, but he certainly burned some bandwidth asking hypotheticals about what might happen if the FBI refused to investigate, which is not how this works.
During the interview, Banks shared some disturbing facts about Dr. Blasey Ford's life right now.
“She just came forward with these allegations 48 hours ago,” Banks reminded viewers. “Since that time, she has been dealing with hate mail, harassment, death threats. She’s been spending her time trying to figure out how to put her life back together, how to protect herself and her family.”
According to the New York Times, Blasey Ford is dealing with impersonators online and serious online harassment. When the news broke on Sunday, internet trolls immediately began spamming Twitter with all of her telephone numbers and her home address. It took hours before Twitter (or the trolls) removed the post. Last time I checked, they hadn't banned the account spamming everyone, however.
As the gears of injustice grind in the Republican Party, I cannot emphasize enough why we have to excise this cancer from our body politic. We can't fix the wreckage they're leaving behind until we excise the tumor.
