Hearing Set for Monday to Hear Kavanaugh and His Accuser

The announcement of Monday’s hearing capped a tumultuous day in Washington, as senators of both parties absorbed the accusations against Judge Kavanaugh, who only last week seemed on a glide path toward confirmation. Dr. Blasey has said he sexually assaulted her at a social gathering in the 1980s when they were both teenagers. Judge Kavanaugh has categorically denied the accusations, which Dr. Blasey detailed in a letter sent in July to Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, who kept its existence secret until last week at Dr. Blasey’s request.

By Monday, both the contents of the letter and Dr. Blasey’s identity had spilled out into the open, intensifying what had already been a nasty partisan battle over Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, angrily assailed Democrats for raising the accusations at the last minute. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, demanded the F.B.I. investigate, and raised questions about Judge Kavanaugh’s veracity.

© T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh has been accused by Christine Blasey Ford of sexually assaulting her at a party in the 1980s when they were both teenagers in high school.On Monday evening, The Mercury News in California published the accounts of two friends of Dr. Blasey’s who said that she told them in July that she was going forward with her accusations.

It will be up to Judge Kavanaugh to convince wavering senators of his innocence. Both Senators Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, and Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, said Monday that if true, Dr. Blasey’s accusations would disqualify the nominee from the Supreme Court.

“Obviously, if Judge Kavanaugh has lied about what happened, that would be disqualifying,” Ms. Collins told reporters, adding, “For my part, I believe that it’s very important that both Professor Ford and Judge Kavanaugh testify under oath about these allegations. I need to see them and listen to their answers to the questions in order to make an assessment.”

Mr. Flake told reporters that he is “presupposing nothing with this hearing,” but added, “If you believe the charges are true, you vote no.”

Washington’s advocacy machinery also sprang to life. A conservative advocacy group said that it would spend $1.5 million on a television advertising campaign to defend Judge Kavanaugh, while a liberal group announced a $700,000 ad buy intended to pressure senators in swing states. Allies of Judge Kavanaugh made public letters from two former girlfriends, attesting to his character, while a hashtag sprang up on Twitter: #BelieveChristine.

Judge Kavanaugh spent the day at the White House, huddling and strategizing with aides in a war room across from the West Wing from which they had meticulously planned his path to confirmation. On Monday, though, the discussions were about how to salvage his chances through a hearing that officials were resigned to becoming a dramatic public spectacle.

Eager to defend himself from an accusation he insisted was untrue, Judge Kavanaugh had wanted to put out a statement over the weekend signaling his willingness to address the charge with the committee, according to allies and an administration official who insisted on anonymity to characterize his thinking.

But Donald F. McGahn II, the White House counsel, and others urged Judge Kavanaugh to hold back until they had a chance to determine how seriously the accusation was being taken. They believed there might be a chance that, working with Mr. McConnell and Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, they could push past the accusation of a decades-old episode and handle it privately while keeping a Thursday vote on track.

By Monday morning, however, with Dr. Blasey’s lawyer saying Dr. Blasey was willing to appear in front of Congress, Mr. McGahn and others changed course and agreed that Judge Kavanaugh should put out his statement.

“I have never done anything like what the accuser describes — to her or to anyone,” the statement said. “Because this never happened, I had no idea who was making this accusation until she identified herself yesterday.”

On Capitol Hill on Monday, Mr. Grassley and Mr. McConnell initially resisted calls for hearings, and instead arranged telephone calls to allow Republican and Democratic aides to interview both Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Blasey — a plan that Mr. Schumer rejected as “a biased, far-fetched process.”

But by day’s end, Republican leaders concluded that it would be necessary to move forward to satisfy the concerns of senators in both parties.

Still, there were other Republicans who feared the committee had made a dangerous misstep in agreeing so quickly to a public hearing. Without having fully deposed either Dr. Blasey or Judge Kavanaugh, these Republicans fear that the party and the White House could unexpectedly and irrevocably lose control of the nomination when the witnesses take the stand.

Both in the letter to Ms. Feinstein and in an interview published Sunday by The Washington Post, Dr. Blasey said that during a gathering of teenagers at a private home in suburban Montgomery County, Md., the future Judge Kavanaugh, along with a friend, pushed her into a bedroom as she was making her way to a bathroom. She said the young Mr. Kavanaugh jumped on top of her, grinding his body against hers as he tried to remove her clothing. When she tried to scream, she said, he clapped his hand over her mouth to muffle the cries.

“They both laughed as Kavanaugh tried to disrobe me in their highly inebriated state,” she wrote in the letter, made public Monday by CNN. “With Kavanaugh’s hand over my mouthI feared he may inadvertently kill me.”

Her lawyer, Debra Katz, said in an interview that Dr. Blasey was ready to go before the committee. “We hope that this hearing is fair and not another weaponized attack on a woman who has come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against a powerful man,” Ms. Katz said.

Public hearings could be charged, especially in a political year marked by rising female political activism and a surge of female candidates. No Republican women serve on the Judiciary Committee, and senior Republican men appeared ready to defend the nominee.

“I believe him,” Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, who serves on the Judiciary Committee, told reporters after a private phone call with Mr. Kavanaugh on Monday afternoon. Mr. Hatch said he saw “lots of reasons” not to believe Dr. Blasey’s accusation.

“He is a person of immense integrity,” the senator said. “I have known him for a long time. He has always been straightforward, honest, truthful and a very, very decent man.”

Ms. Feinstein came in for particular criticism from Republicans who took shots at her for withholding the information about Dr. Blasey until last week. “If they believe Judge Kavanaugh’s accuser, why didn’t they surface this information earlier so that he could be questioned about it?” Mr. McConnell asked. “And if they didn’t believe her and chose to withhold the information, why did they decide at the 11th hour to release it?”

Ms. Katz said Ms. Feinstein withheld the letter because she was respecting Dr. Blasey’s wishes to remain private. Ultimately, after rumors of the letter circulated on Capitol Hill, and she was confronted by Democratic colleagues on the Judiciary Committee, Ms. Feinstein referred the letter to the F.B.I. Asked why she had waited so long, the senator hesitated.

“I don’t know; I’ll have to look back and see,” Ms. Feinstein told reporters, before ducking into the Senate chamber. When she emerged, she said, “The answer is that she asked that it be confidential.”