It would be unremarkable if Ford didn’t name Leland Keyser as one of four other people who was there during the attack — Brett Kavanaugh as the attacker, Mark Judge as a sort-of accomplice, and Patrick “PJ” Smyth and now Leland Ingham Keyser as witnesses that could put Ford and Kavanaugh at the same party. If Ford named Keyser as a witness, this becomes a huge problem for the credibility of her allegation, as all four people named now have denied any such knowledge. The denial of Keyser is probably most important because of her status as one of Ford’s “lifelong” friends, as Keyser’s attorney put it in the letter to the committee.
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This would tend to put a spike in this story, if — and only if — Keyser actually is the fourth person named by Ford in her conversation with Washington Post reporters. Smyth went public when Post reporters left messages for comment, and also filed his own testimony with the Senate Judiciary Committee. Keyser hasn’t gone public with the information, but the committee must have gotten the name at some point. If Keyser wasn’t the person named, then a fourth person might still be out there. However, if Keyser wasn’t the fourth person named by Ford, why wouldn’t Katz have said that tonight?
If that’s all Ford has, she can still show up on Thursday and make some headlines. But right now, this development makes it one person and one person only making the allegation, and the three other people that the accuser named as corroboration are all on the record denying it. It’s not a he-said-she-said at the moment, but a she-said-witnesses-debunk situation. If Ford and her attorneys find another reason not to show up for the hearing, this will likely be the reason why.