News from the note…

A round up of the day’s news that might be of interest to you.

This is an OPEN THREAD,  folks. Chat about any of the stories listed, share links to stories that caught your eye today, and generally have a good time discussing whatever you want.

Lawyers for Christine Blasey Ford say she has accepted Senate Judiciary Committee’s request to testify against Kavanaugh

Lawyers for Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers, said Saturday that she has accepted the Senate Judiciary Committee’s request to testify about her allegation next week while signaling that a final deal on her testimony has not been reached.

In an email sent to the committee at 2:17 p.m. Saturday, attorneys Debra Katz and Lisa Banks asked Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley’s (R-Iowa) staff to set up a phone conversation later Saturday to work out specifics.

“Dr. Ford accepts the Committee’s request to provide her first-hand knowledge of Brett Kavanaugh’s sexual misconduct next week,” the lawyers wrote to the committee. “Although many aspects of the proposal you provided via email, on (Friday) are fundamentally inconsistent with the Committee’s promise of a fair, impartial investigation into her allegations, and we are disappointed with the leaks and the bullying that have tainted the process, we are hopeful that we can reach agreement on details.”

Washington Post

Former top White House official revises statement to special counsel about Flynn’s calls with Russian ambassador

A former top White House official has revised her statement to investigators about a key event in the probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election, after her initial claim was contradicted by the guilty plea of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, according to people familiar with the matter.

K.T. McFarland, who briefly served as Flynn’s deputy, has now said that he may have been referring to sanctions when they spoke in late December 2016 after Flynn’s calls with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, these people said.

When FBI agents first visited her at her Long Island home in the summer of 2017, McFarland denied ever talking to Flynn about any discussion of sanctions between him and the ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, in December 2016 during the presidential transition.

For a time, investigators saw her answers as “inconsistent,” putting her in legal peril as the FBI tried to determine if she had lied to them.

Washington Post

PR firm helped Whelan stoke half-baked Kavanaugh alibi

It turns out that the Keystone Cops detective work by conservative legal activist Ed Whelan — which set Washington abuzz with the promise of exonerating Brett Kavanaugh, only to be met by mockery and then partially retracted — was not his handiwork alone.

CRC Public Relations, the prominent Alexandria, Virginia-based P.R. firm, guided Whelan through his roller-coaster week of Twitter pronouncements that ended in embarrassment and a potential setback for Kavanaugh’s hopes of landing on the high court, according to three sources familiar with their dealings.

Politico

Federal judge says ‘meaningful closure’ could be soon in family reunifications

The latest report from government and American Civil Liberties Union attorneys about reunifications of families separated at the southern border is “very promising,” US District Judge Dana Sabraw said Friday.
Sabraw praised the government’s recent efforts to conduct three-way calls to help the ACLU-led steering committee reach deported parents.

“So it would appear in the next few weeks the parties will be able to report to the court and the public that all parents have been contacted and their wishes have been communicated, and then we will simply be in a position of effecting their repatriation or pursuing … sponsorship relief for children in country?” Sabraw said.

ACLU attorney Anand Balakrishnan said that was correct.

CNN

Trump hits McCain on ObamaCare vote

President Trump attacked the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) at a campaign rally on Friday in Missouri for his vote last year against repealing the Affordable Care Act.

“We had it defeated, unfortunately we lost a certain vote, but we lost all the Democrat votes when you think,” he said.

McCain’s was the deciding vote against the GOP’s push to overhaul former President Obama’s signature health-care plan.

McCain, who famously broke with his party with his vote, died last month at the age of 81 after being diagnosed an aggressive form of brain cancer. 

The Hill

GOP woman on Kavanaugh allegations: ‘What boy hasn’t done this in high school?’

A panel of five Republican women in Florida joined CNN this week to defend Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh amid sexual assault allegations leveled against him.

Christine Blasey Ford went public Sunday with an allegation that Kavanaugh pinned her down and tried to remove her clothes at a high school party in the 1980s and covered her mouth to muffle her screams.

The women interviewed by CNN offered multiple defenses for President Trump‘s pick for the Supreme Court, who has flatly denied Ford’s allegations.

“How can we believe the word of a woman of something that happened 36 years ago. This guy has an impeccable reputation. There is nobody that has spoken ill will about him,” said Lourdes Castillo de la Pena, one of the defenders.

The Hill

From The “Thanksgiving At The Gosar House Is Going To Be Awkward This Year” File