A lawyer for Mark Judge, the high school buddy of embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, told CNBC that Judge “will answer any and all questions posed to him” by the FBI about serious sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh.
The cooperation offer came after several senators asked for Kavanaugh’s final confirmation vote to be delayed until the FBI has a chance to investigate claims that he tried to rape a 15-year-old high school girl in the early 1980s while Judge looked on.
“If the FBI or any law enforcement agency requests Mr. Judge’s cooperation, he will answer any and all questions posed to him,” Judge’s lawyer Barbara Van Gelder told CNBC in an email.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee for days have blasted the Republican majority for not issuing a subpoena to Judge to testify at that committee on Thursday with Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who claims Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the early 1980s.
Judge was the only other person who Ford has said was in the room during the alleged attack.
Judge, a recovering alcoholic who has admitted to abusing alcohol in high school, has said he has no memory of the incident described by Ford.
“I never saw Brett act in the manner Dr. Ford describes,” Judge said in a letter to the Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
He also told the committee that “I do not want to comment about these events publicly.”
“As a recovering alcoholic and a cancer survivor, I have struggled with depression and anxiety,” his letter said. “As a result, I avoid public speaking.”
Ford, a research psychologist, has said Judge and Kavanaugh both were extremely drunk and laughing as Kavanaugh grinded his body against hers on a bed and tried to take off her clothes in a house in suburban Maryland. She testified that the attack only ended after Judge jumped on the bed, sending them tumbling off of it.
Kavanaugh had repeatedly refused Thursday under questioning by Democrats to call for an FBI probe of Ford’s allegations. He also angrily denied ever sexually assaulting anyone.
On Friday, Judge sent the Judiciary Committee a letter strongly denying allegations by another accuser, Julie Swetnick. She has claimed that during house parties in the early 1980s, she saw Judge and Kavanaugh spike punch with grain alcohol or drugs to lower the inhibitions of girls so they then could be gang raped.
Swetnick had also said she said Judge and Kavanaugh waiting in lines of boys to take their “turn” with girls who had become “inebriated and disoriented” at parties.
Judge, in his letter, denied knowing Swetnick and the substance of his claims. He said “I am submitting this letter under penalty of felony.”
He also said, “I will cooperate with any law enforcement agency that is assigned to confidentially investigate these allegations.”
Van Gelder sent that a copy of that letter to CNBC after the Judiciary Committee voted to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Asked if Judge is also willing to cooperate with law enforcement officials to investigate Ford’s allegations, in addition to those made by Swetnick, Van Gelder said he was.
“Mr. Judge did not intend his comment to be limited in scope. If the FBI or any law enforcement agency requests Mr. Judge’s cooperation, he will answer any and all questions posed to him,” Van Gelder said in an email.
CNBC has requested comment from the offices of Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, as well of other committe members, Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.
Flake was the first GOP senator to request delaying a final vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation until after the FBI investigates Ford’s claims.
Graham’s office declined to comment.
Swetnick’s lawyer, Michael Avenatti, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier Friday, Avenatti had tweeted that he was asking the Judiciary Committee, once again, for a response to his offer to have Swetnick testify before the committee under oath. Avenatti also reiterated that Swetnick is willing to talk to the FBI about Kavanaugh.
Avenatti had released Swetnick’s sworn affidavit about her claims Wednesday.
