What were the specific allegations made by Christine Blasey Ford against Brett Kavanaugh?

1. The core allegation, in Ford’s words

Ford’s written statement and Senate testimony describe a single episode at a small summer gathering in suburban Bethesda around 1982: she says four boys were present, including Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge; that Kavanaugh, while “drunkenly laughing,” pushed her into a bedroom, pinned her on a bed, attempted to remove her clothing, groped her, and placed his hand over her mouth to silence her, leaving her afraid he might inadvertently kill her ^{[5] [1] [2]}.

2. What Ford said about who was there and her certainty

Ford named Kavanaugh as the assailant and identified Mark Judge as a witness who was in the room; she said she was “100%” certain it was Kavanaugh who attacked her and that the episode occurred when they were teenagers—her age 15, his 17—at a party after a club diving event ^{[6] [7] [1]}.

3. How the allegation entered the confirmation process

Ford first contacted Senator Dianne Feinstein in a confidential July 2018 letter; the allegation became public in mid‑September and prompted additional Senate Judiciary Committee attention, a high‑profile public hearing on Sept. 27, 2018, and requests from Ford and Democrats for an FBI review before the final confirmation vote ^{[4] [3]}.

4. Responses from Kavanaugh, Judge and investigatory record

Kavanaugh categorically denied Ford’s account in his written statement and in the public hearing; Mark Judge told the committee he did not recall the event. The Judiciary Committee conducted its investigation, and the White House later said the FBI’s supplemental review found no corroboration of Ford’s allegation ^{[3] [4] [2]}.

5. Corroboration, witnesses and limits of available inquiry

Multiple contemporaneous witnesses either said they did not recall the party or did not corroborate Ford’s version; some friends Ford said had heard about the incident gave mixed accounts. Critics and supporters of Ford disagreed over whether the available testimony and documentary records permitted corroboration; commentators urged standard investigatory steps—interviewing witnesses, tracking calendars and employment records—that they say were incomplete in the supplemental probe ^{[4] [8]}.

6. How the media and later accounts summarized the charge

News outlets and Ford’s memoir frame the allegation consistently: a sexual assault at a high‑school party in the summer of 1982 in Bethesda, Maryland, where Kavanaugh allegedly pinned and groped Ford while a friend watched ^{[6] [1] [2]}. Biographical sources and post‑hearing books and reporting revisited witnesses and timelines but the central description Ford provided in 2018 remained the focal account ^{[3] [9]}.

7. Competing narratives and political stakes

Republicans on the Judiciary Committee emphasized Kavanaugh’s denials and the limits of corroboration; Democrats and many legal scholars highlighted Ford’s detailed testimony and the seriousness of the allegation, calling for further investigation. Analysts and advocacy groups disagreed about whether the available record satisfied a standard for fact‑finding or for judging fitness for the Supreme Court—an explicitly political decision intertwined with the evidentiary record ^{[3] [8]}.

8. What the sources do not settle

Available sources do not resolve material factual disputes about what happened in that room beyond the competing testimony: they report Ford’s detailed allegation and Kavanaugh’s categorical denial, and they describe the committee’s review and the FBI’s limited supplemental probe, but they do not produce independent, contemporaneous eyewitness corroboration that conclusively settles the event ^{[4] [3] [8]}.

Limitations: this account synthesizes Ford’s letters, testimony, news reporting and committee materials in the provided record; it does not rely on reporting or documents beyond the sources listed here.