Christine Blasey Ford May Not Testify on Monday After All

Another wrench was thrown into Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination plans this evening when the woman who has accused him of sexual assault, Christine Blasey Ford, said through her lawyers that she wants the FBI to investigate her claims against Kavanaugh before she testifies in front of Congress.

According to the New York Times, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the scheduled hearings won’t proceed next Monday as planned, but it does throw them into doubt. Ford said that an investigation should be “the first step” before she is “on national television to reliv[ing] this traumatic and harrowing incident.”

It’s possible that her reluctance to testify without an investigation will lead to the hearings being cancelled, or held without her. Republicans have emphasized that she could testify on Monday in order to move on with the nomination as quickly as possible, and dismissed the idea of an investigation.

“If she does not come on Monday, we are going to move on and vote on Wednesday,” Senator Lindsey Graham said on Fox News .