In early July 2018, after Judge Brett Kavanaugh was reported to be on Donald Trump's shortlist to become an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Ford contacted both The Washington Post and her congresswoman, Anna Eshoo.[8] On July 20,[9] eleven days after Trump nominated Kavanaugh, Eshoo met with Ford, becoming convinced of her credibility and noting that Ford seemed "terrified" that her identity as an accuser might become public. Eshoo and Ford decided to take the matter to Senator Dianne Feinstein, one of Ford's senators in California and the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which would deliberate Kavanaugh's nomination.[22] In a July 30, 2018 letter to Feinstein, Ford alleged that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when both were in high schools in Bethesda, Maryland, and stated that she expected her story to be kept confidential.[8][23] In August, Ford took a polygraph test with a former FBI agent, who concluded Ford was being truthful when attesting to the accuracy of her allegations.[8]
Owing to her confidentiality commitment to Ford,[24] Feinstein did not raise the issue in the initial Kavanaugh confirmation proceedings.[25] On September 12, The Intercept reported (without naming Ford) that Feinstein was withholding a Kavanaugh-related document from fellow Judiciary Committee Democrats.[26] On September 13,[27] Feinstein referred Ford's letter to the FBI, which redacted Ford's name and forwarded the letter to the White House[8] as an update to Kavanaugh's background check.[28] The White House in turn sent the letter to the full Senate Judiciary Committee.[8]
Senator Dick Durbin asks Ford about her certainty of Brett Kavanaugh's identity in the alleged 1982 attack.
On September 16, after media reported anonymous allegations and reporters started to track down her identity, Ford went public.