Christine Blasey Ford Thanks Supporters: “Words are not adequate to thank all of you who supported me”.
Christine Blasey Ford has faced numerous death threats and has had to move four times since she testified against Brett Kavanaugh.
But Ford said she is grateful to have ‘had the opportunity to fulfill my civic duty’ after she came forward and claimed the Supreme Court Justice sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers.
Ford has written a new post to her supporters, thanking them for their donations and revealing she will no longer be accepting contributions on GoFundMe.
The California professor has been using the campaign – which raised nearly $650,000 – to pay for a security team after her name became headline news.
‘Words are not adequate to thank all of you who supported me since I came forward to tell the Senate that I had been sexually assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh,’ Ford wrote on Monday.
‘Your tremendous outpouring of support and kind letters have made it possible for us to cope with the immeasurable stress, particularly the disruption to our safety and privacy.’
Ford, who could not return to her home or workplace in the weeks following the hearing, said her supporters has given her hope that ‘our lives will return to normal’.
‘Although coming forward was terrifying, and caused disruption to our lives, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to fulfill my civic duty,’ she added.
Ford told her supporters that their donations have been a ‘godsend’ and allowed her and her family to take ‘reasonable steps to protect ourselves against frightening threats, including physical protection and security’.
She said the family began using a security service on September 19, shortly before the hearing, and that it has ‘recently begun to taper off’.
The Ford family has also purchased a home security system, have incurred housing and security costs while in Washington DC, and have also had to fund local housing for ‘part of the time we have been displaced’.
‘Part of the time we have been able to stay with our security team in a residence generously loaned to us,’ she added.
Ford said any funds not used for security expenditures would be donated to organizations supporting trauma survivors.
‘With immense gratitude, I am closing this account to further contributions,’ she wrote.
Ford also took a moment to pay tribute to those who have shared their own stories of assault since she first spoke out against the Supreme Court Justice.
‘I am in awe of the many women and men who have written me to share similar life experiences, and now have bravely shared their experience with friends and family, many for the first time,’ she wrote.
‘I send you my heartfelt love and support. I wish I could thank each and every one of you individually. Thank you.’
Ford stood before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a hearing that was broadcast across America as she recollected the night she said Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a high school party when she was 15.
‘I don’t have all the answers, and I don’t remember as much as I would like to,’ Ford said in her opening statement.
‘But the details about that night that bring me here today are ones I will never forget. They have been seared into my memory and have haunted me episodically as an adult.’
‘I have had to relive my trauma in front of the entire world, and have seen my life picked apart by people on television, in the media, and in this body who have never met me or spoken with me,’ she added.
‘I have been accused of acting out of partisan political motives. Those who say that do not know me. I am a fiercely independent person and I am no one’s pawn.
‘My motivation in coming forward was to provide the facts about how Mr Kavanaugh’s actions have damaged my life, so that you can take that into serious consideration as you make your decision about how to proceed.’
‘It is not my responsibility to determine whether Mr Kavanaugh deserves to sit on the Supreme Court. My responsibility is to tell the truth.’
