Kavanaugh, who was nominated to fill former Justice Anthony Kennedy’s seat on the Supreme Court, was accused by Christine Blasey Ford of groping her and drunkenly trying to remove her clothing against her will at a party in high school.

Feinstein received a letter from Ford dated July 30 detailing her allegations in full, but Feinstein held onto the letter for months, before making the contents public.

Host Joe Scarborough asked if Feinstein held onto the letter to preserve Ford’s anonymity and Coons agreed. He also said the California Democrat released the letter without Ford’s blessing.

“That’s my understanding,” Coons said. “Two things: First, Dr. Ford then hired a lawyer and there was a fair amount of back and forth with her, Debra Katz, her attorney, about whether there would be another letter forthcoming, whether she would be willing to testify or not.”

“I respect that Sen. Feinstein was principally respecting repeated assertions by her attorney that Dr. Ford wanted to remain confidential or anonymous,” he continued. “I believe it was a leak to the media that compelled this. I believe it was a leak to the media of the underlying letter that ultimately forced Sen. Feinstein’s hand.”

When Scarborough asked who may have leaked the letter, Coons said he had “no idea.” Scarborough asked who else had access to the letter.

“I don’t know that,” Coons concluded. “My hunch is that there were folks on committee staff who had seen the letter and I don’t know whether the chairman of the committee had been told about it or had seen the letter.”