Getty Christine Blasey Ford
Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, has filed a formal complaint against Debra S. Katz, Lisa J. Banks, and Michael R. Bromwich, who served as Christine Blasey Ford’s legal team during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing. You can read the full complaint here.
The group says that Katz, Banks, and Bromwich didn’t do their duty of protecting their client and keeping her informed about her case. To be precise, Judicial Watch says that Ford’s lawyers should have told her that Chuck Grassley offered to let her testify in California, instead of flying out to Washington, DC to testify in front of the Senate.
Judicial Watch’s complaint says,
“…by not informing their client Dr. Ford that Sen. Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee offered in a letter to “fly female staff investigators to meet Dr. Ford… in California, or anywhere else, to obtain (her) testimony,” Katz, Banks, and Bromwich violated the following District of Columbia Rules of Professional Conduct:
Rule l.4(a) – A lawyer shall keep a client reasonably informed about the status of a matter and promptly comply with reasonable requests for information.
Rule 1.4(b) – A lawyer shall explain a matter to the extent reasonably necessary to permit the client to make informed decisions regarding the representation.”
Judicial Watch says that Ford, who had a well-known fear of flying, was never told that she could have testified in her home state of California instead of traveling to Washington DC. The group says that Ford’s own testimony in front of the Senate made it clear that she had no idea that Grassley had offered to send a team of female investigators to meet Ford and listen to her testimony, either in California or in any other place where she would feel most comfortable.
Judicial Watch is arguing that by failing to inform Ford about that, her lawyers violated their duty to keep their client informed and to allow their client to make “informed decisions” about their case.