Rachel Mitchell's Former Colleague Slams Her Kavanaugh Memo as "Absolutely Disingenuous" [View all]

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https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/10/rachel-mitchells-former-colleague-slams-her-kavanaugh-memo-as-absolutely-disingenuous/

Mitchell stated in her memo that potential witnesses named by Ford have “either refuted her allegations or failed to corroborate them” in signed statements submitted to the committee. “That’s absolute bullshit,” said Long, again arguing that Mitchell is applying a different standard to Ford’s case than she would to an investigation her own office was pursuing. “It’s bullshit because all we have are these signed statements, which are unreliable. They’re hearsay. They wouldn’t meet any type of standard that Ms. Mitchell would allow in considering their statements, but instead would have demanded that they be interviewed in a full-blown interview to really flesh out what are these people’s motivations.” As a judge, he added, Kavanaugh, who leaned on these statements in his own testimony before the Senate, knows they do not meet a standard of reliable testimony.

Long next attacked a section of the memo in which Mitchell focused on Ford’s inability to recall certain details about the circumstances of the assault, including whose house she was at, who invited her, how she got there, and how she got home. “The spotty memory that Ms. Mitchell talks about as if that’s an indication that it didn’t happen is just absurd,” he said. “Again, I was trained by Ms. Mitchell about how trauma explicitly does prevent memory from happening.” Trauma causes the body to go into “fight, flight, freeze,” a survival mode that creates tunnel vision and prevents certain memories from forming that might otherwise have been retained. “I was trained explicitly by Ms. Mitchell to identify that as corroborative, as corroborating that someone has been victimized and experienced trauma,” he stressed. “Ms. Mitchell knows better than that.”

Long was a prosecutor for 12 years, first under Mitchell in Maricopa County, then in neighboring Pinal County for eight years. Under Mitchell, he was trained in investigating sex crimes. He now represents both victims and defendants in private practice. Long said there’s no question in his mind that Ford was assaulted. What’s unclear is whether the perpetrator was Kavanaugh or someone else. The situation, he said, requires further investigation. If Mitchell were handling this case in her office, he said, she would not have leapt to conclusions and instead would have demanded further investigation.

“Her only analysis should have been: The process that you’ve given me, the information we have, is insufficient,” he said. Moreover, he noted, she didn’t analyze Kavanaugh’s testimony, which contained obvious falsehoods already pointed out by the media, or remark on the unreliability of the accused. To Long, the memo reflected the political theater of a fraught Supreme Court battle rather than the expertise of a seasoned prosecutor. “Rachel Mitchell’s failure to include any analysis of Kavanaugh reveals her political bias,” he said.