The results of a polygraph test taken by the first Kavanaugh accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, were released Wednesday, raising even more questions, and again, calling the question the legitimacy of Ford’s claims.
Only two general questions were asked. Two.
The polygraph results appear to show a discrepancy from Ford’s original claims.
Fox News reports:
Lawyers for Christine Blasey Ford, the California professor accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her more than three decades ago, on Wednesday released the results of a polygraph examination she took Aug. 7 — but a key detail in the report appears to contradict Ford’s past claims.The examination, which was administered by former FBI agent Jeremiah Hanafin, took place in a Hilton hotel in Maryland, according to a “Polygraph Examination Report” compiled by Hanafin.Hanafin first allowed Ford and attorney Lisa Banks to meet alone to formulate a handwritten statement that Ford signed and provided Hanafin when he returned to the room. Then, without Banks present, Hanafin interviewed Ford about the night of the alleged assault, according to the report.In the handwritten statement, Ford writes that “there were 4 boys and a couple of girls” at the party.But in Ford’s letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., in July, Ford gave a different tally, writing that the gathering “included me and 4 others.”The total number of people at the purported party, and their genders, has been a key area of focus for Senate Republicans investigating Ford’s claims. Ford told The Washington Post last week that there were a total of “four boys at the party” where the alleged episode occured, and that two — Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge — had been in the room during her attack. (According to The Post, Ford told her therapist in 2012 that four boys were in the room with her during the alleged attack — a disparity she has blamed on her therapist’s recording of her statements).The polygraph exam consisted of only two “relevant” questions: “Is any part of your statement false?” and “Did you make up any part of your statement?” (Ordinarily examiners ask a series of irrelevant questions to establish a baseline physiological response, which helps detect deception when relevant questions are asked, experts tell Fox News.)The test measured “thoracic and abdominal respiration, galvanic skin response, and cardiac activity,” Hanafin wrote in the report.The former FBI agent then ran the results of Ford’s two “no” responses through three separate scoring algorithms, including one developed by Johns Hopkins University. All three algorithms concluded that Ford’s responses did not indicate apparent deception, with one putting the probability that she was lying at .002 and another putting it at less than .02.
Polygraph tests don’t serve as lie detectors so much as they monitor the body’s physiological response when certain questions are asked. Typically, someone telling the truth will experience heightened heart rate when lying.
But that’s not the only issue raised with the release of the polygraph results.
The polygraph was administered in Maryland. One of the many excuses given for the delay in Ford’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee was an aversion to flying from California. So, did Ford drive to Maryland for the polygraph?
Ford is scheduled to testify before the committee Thursday.
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