Who Is Rachel Mitchell? What to Know About the Prosecutor Who Grilled Christine Blasey Ford

Mitchell was hand-picked by Republicans to conduct Dr. Ford's questioning.

Rachel Mitchell is the woman who was handpicked by Senate Republicans to question Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.

She is a respected career sex crimes prosecutor from Arizona, who began Thursday's hearings by striking a sympathetic tone. 

"I just wanted to tell you that the first thing that struck me from your statement this morning is that you're terrified," she said. "I want to tell you I am sorry — that's not right." 

But she wasted no time getting into specifics, asking Dr. Ford whether she had anything to drink or was on medication on the night she claims she was sexual assaulted by Kavanaugh.

Mitchell also tried to clarify or point out inconsistencies in Dr. Ford's various statements.

"Let’s make sure we're on the same page, were you not able to hear the conversation or not able to understand the conversation?” she asked Dr. Ford at one point. 

"I couldn't hear the conversation," Dr. Ford replied. "I was upstairs." 

"How do you know there was a conversation?” Mitchell asked. 

"I was just assuming, since it was a social gathering," Dr. Ford responded. 

Inside Edition spoke to legal analyst Areva Martin about Mitchell’s handling of the situation. 

"I think Mitchell’s goal was to undermine the credibility of Dr. Ford, to cause not only the senators on the Judiciary Committee, the entire senate body but the American people, to have doubts, to question the credibility of Dr. Ford and I think she failed miserably at that," Martin said. 

Body language expert Lilian Glass also examined footage of Mitchell and Dr. Ford for Inside Edition. 

"I think the prosecutor is very tuned into Ford’s needs," she said. "She smiles, she doesn’t frown, she doesn’t give body language cues that are questioning — she is just very open and trying to gather the information." 

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