Brett Kavanaugh Testimony: Three Inconsistencies the F.B.I. Investigation Could Address
The Senate testimony of Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, the man she alleges assaulted her at a small house party in high school, revealed several details in their stories that do not match up. Here are three of these inconsistencies and the people who Dr. Blasey said were connected to the story.
Whether the Party Happened
Statement from Blasey
There were four boys I remember specifically being there: Brett Kavanaugh, Mark Judge, a boy named P.J. and one other boy whose name I cannot recall. I also remember my friend Leland attending.
Statement from Kavanaugh
All four witnesses who are alleged to be at the event said it didn’t happen.
In his denial of the alleged assault, Judge Kavanaugh seemed to repeatedly claim that the people Dr. Blasey said were at the house have said the gathering “didn’t happen.” However, other than Judge Kavanaugh, the three people who have made public statements have only said they have no memory of it.
Mark Judge
Mr. Judge, a recovering alcoholic, was a close friend and classmate of Judge Kavanaugh who is accused of being in the bedroom during the alleged assault. In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Judge said he had “no memory of this alleged incident.”
Leland Keyser
Judge Kavanaugh stated that Ms. Keyser, a high school friend of Dr. Blasey, “refuted” the allegations. While Ms. Keyser told the Senate Judiciary Committee through her lawyer that she does not know Judge Kavanaugh and has no recollection of being at a party with him, she later told The Washington Post that she believed Dr. Blasey, her own memory notwithstanding.
Patrick J. Smyth
Mr. Smyth, called P.J. by Dr. Blasey, told the committee through his lawyer that he had “no knowledge of the party in question.”
In her testimony, Dr. Blasey, who also goes by her married name, Ford, said that she didn’t expect that Mr. Smyth and Ms. Keyser would remember the evening since nothing remarkable happened to them there. But, she said, “Mr. Judge is a different story. I would expect that he would remember that this happened.”
When It Happened
Statement from Blasey
One evening that summer, after a day of diving at the club, I attended a small gathering at a house in the Bethesda area.
Statement from Kavanaugh
The event described by Dr. Ford, presumably happened on a weekend because I believed everyone worked and had jobs in the summers.
Judge Kavanaugh repeatedly pointed to his personal calendar from the summer of 1982 as evidence that he “all but definitively” was not there. He said it showed he was out of town nearly every weekend and too busy during the week to go to parties.
Kavanaugh’s calendar
However, Judge Kavanaugh’s calendar entries show at least two weekend parties and one social gathering during the week. On July 1, a Thursday, he noted plans to go to “Timmy’s for skis,” slang for drinking beers, with three of the people Dr. Blasey said were at the gathering where she said the alleged assault occurred.
Mark Judge
Mr. Judge’s 1997 memoir talks about his struggles with alcohol during high school, and suggests that his group of friends frequently drank during the week in the summer of 1982. “It was the summer before senior year, and by now, even though I wasn’t drinking every day, I was completely hooked,” he said. “Going a week without getting drunk was unthinkable. I was spending between four and seven nights with the gang, either at a party or at O’Rourke’s.”
Whether Kavanaugh and Blasey Knew Each Other
Statement from Blasey
During my freshman and sophomore school years, when I was 14 and 15 years old, my group of friends intersected with Brett and his friends.
Statement from Kavanaugh
She and I did not travel in the same social circles. It is possible that we met at some point at some events, although I do not recall that.
Judge Kavanaugh said he did not know Dr. Blasey, but Dr. Blasey said she went out with one of his good friends and attended four or five parties where Judge Kavanaugh was present.
Chris Garrett
Dr. Blasey revealed during questioning Thursday that she “went out with” Mr. Garrett, known to his friends as “Squi,” for a few months, and that he was her primary connection to Judge Kavanaugh. Mr. Garrett, who appears nearly a dozen times on Judge Kavanaugh’s summer calendar, has not made any public comments.
Mark Judge
Six to eight weeks after the alleged assault, Dr. Blasey ran into Mr. Judge at the local grocery store, she said, describing him as “extremely uncomfortable in seeing me.” This was notable, she said, because they had “previously been friendly at the times that we saw each other over the previous two years.”
