Alex Brandon/AP
Mark Judge, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s high school pal who has now been cited in two affidavits as being present when Kavanaugh engaged in sexual misconduct, will not publicly discuss any of the allegations until after the confirmation process, according to his lawyer, Barbara Van Gelder.
On Wednesday morning, Michael Avenatti, the attorney for porn star Stormy Daniels, released a sworn affidavit from a woman named Julie Swetnick, who maintains Kavanaugh and Judge tried to get girls drunk at alcohol-soaked high school parties so they could be “gang raped.” She asserts the pair engaged in “abusive and physically aggressive behavior towards girls.” Previously, Christine Blasey Ford claimed Judge was in the room when Kavanaugh allegedly assaulted her.
Meanwhile, Judge has skedaddled out of Washington, DC, laying low at a beach house in Bethany, Delaware.
After the Swetnick affidavit was released, I asked Judge’s attorney for her client’s response and whether he would return to Washington and make himself available to any investigators who might want to examine these latest allegations against Kavanaugh.
“He is denying the allegations in the Swetnick affidavit,” Van Gelder replied, “and not publicly talking about these matters during the pendency of the confirmation hearings.” She then amended her statement to “during the pendency of the confirmation process,” meaning Judge won’t say anything until it can no longer have any bearing on whether Kavanaugh is confirmed.
“Can you say why that is?” I asked Van Gelder.
“No,” she said.
I took a stab at one other question: “Does Mark know Julie Swetnick?”
“I just gave you my statement,” she said.
And that was it. But it does seem rather obvious that if any official body wants to fully assess the Swetnick allegations—as with the Ford allegations—Judge must be interviewed. He has been identified as Kavanaugh’s wingman and, possibly, a partner in crime. No complete accounting can occur without questioning Judge.
