The all-male group of Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee has hired a woman to come ask their questions for them at Thursday’s Brett Kavanaugh sexual assault hearing, since they apparently don’t have confidence in themselves not to look like a pack of bullies if they’re asking the questions. They tried to keep this frontwoman’s identity a secret, but ultimately they folded and identified Rachel Mitchell, who heads the special victims division of the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office in Arizona. Just to show how nonpartisan a decision this was, here’s how Sen. Chuck Grassley announced the choice:
“The majority members have followed the bipartisan recommendation to hire as staff counsel for the committee an experienced career sex-crimes prosecutor to question the witnesses at Thursday’s hearing,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a statement. “The goal is to de-politicize the process and get to the truth, instead of grandstanding and giving senators an opportunity to launch their presidential campaigns.”
That’s right, Senate Republicans are bragging about how they’re depoliticizing the process and trying to get to the truth while taking shots at committee Democrats, when those Democrats have called for an FBI investigation while the Republicans have refused. Additionally, Christine Blasey Ford’s lawyers came out strongly against the idea of hiring outside counsel, writing that to do so “is contrary to the Majority’s repeated emphasis on the need for the Senate and this Committee’s members to fulfill their constitutional obligations. It is also inconsistent with your stated wish to avoid a ‘circus,’” and pointing out that there is no real precedent for such a decision.
Mitchell has a long career in prosecuting sexual assault and the Washington Post located (or was fed by Senate Republicans) a series of lawyers from her county who had good things to say about her record. “She is a very nuanced and wise prosecutor,” said one defense attorney who described Mitchell as a friend. “She doesn’t pigeonhole defendants. In my experience, she is a very pointed questioner of adverse witnesses. But she is also very fair.” Mitchell may be a fantastic sex crimes prosecutor—the question, though, is whether she is part of a process designed to get at the truth or to cover it up, and everything Republicans have done so far points to the latter.
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