FBI question Brett Kavanaugh’s friend Mark Judge over Christine Ford’s claim they both attacked her

Brett Kavanaugh’s high school best friend Mark Judge has been interviewed by the FBI, and still faces more questions, his attorney said Monday afternoon. 

Barbara ‘Biz’ Van Gelder issued a statement Monday saying: ‘Mr. Judge has been interviewed by the FBI but his interview has not been completed.

‘We request your patience as the FBI completes its investigation.’

Judge is one of multiple people the FBI has already interviewed as part of its reopened background investigation into Kavanaugh.

The 53-year-old self-described recovering alcoholic had initially written a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee simply saying he had no recollection of any incident like the one described by Christine Ford.

Judge had previously claimed he could not testify in Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings because of depression and anxiety.

Then on Friday Judge said he would ‘cooperate with any law enforcement agency that is assigned to confidentially investigate these allegations,’ and signed the statement ‘under penalty of felony.

In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein, Judge, denied the latest round of accusations brought against him and Kavanaugh by Julie Swetnick, a client of Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti.

Schoolfriends: Brett Kavanaugh (right) and Mark Judge (left) were friends at the elite Georgetown Prep. It was then, alleges Christine Ford, that they both took part in the attack in which, she told senators, Kavanaugh tried to rape her

And now: Mark Judge has spoken to FBI agents having previously denied that his friend Brett Kavanaugh had committed a sex attack

And now: Mark Judge has spoken to FBI agents having previously denied that his friend Brett Kavanaugh had committed a sex attack

And now: Mark Judge has spoken to FBI agents having previously denied that his friend Brett Kavanaugh had committed a sex attack

Swetnick accused Kavanaugh and Judge of drugging the ‘punch’ at parties and being present at  ‘gang rapes’ and ‘train rapes’  in the early 1980s

‘In response to the Committee’s request for information, I, MARK JUDGE, declare: The allegations in the Swetnick affidavit are so bizarre that, even while suffering from my addiction, I would remember actions so outlandish. I categorically deny them,’ Judge, a recovering alcoholic, said in the letter.

‘I do not know Julie Swetnick,’ he continued. ‘I do not recall attending parties during 1981-1983 when I fondled or grabbed women in an aggressive or unwanted manner.’

Judge went on to say that he has ‘never spiked punch to get anyone drunk or disoriented.’

‘Nor have I witnessed Brett Kavanaugh spike punch,’ Judge wrote. ‘I have never engaged in any gang rape of any woman, including Ms. Swetnick.”

Judge, also in a letter to the committee, had previously denied the allegations that he and Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted made by Christine Blasey Ford when they were in high school.  

‘We have 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,’ Judge wrote in a letter to the committee Thursday. ‘As a result, I avoid public speaking.’

He added: ‘I do not recall the events described by Dr. Ford in her testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee today. I never saw Brett act in the manner Dr. Ford describes.’ 

Despite the earlier claim from Judge that he’s unavailable to testify publicly about Kavanaugh’s suitability for the Supreme Court because of chronic illnesses, his publisher advertises that he’s available for press interviews and paid speeches.

Judge insisted in a letter to the Judiciary Committee after Thursday’s blockbuster hearing that ‘[a]s a recovering alcoholic and a cancer survivor, I have struggled with depression and anxiety. As a result, I avoid public speaking.’

Encounter Books, which published his 2004 book ‘Damn Senators,’ lists Judge among its stable of authors. Its website says that he ‘is available for media and speaking engagements.’ 

Judge did not respond to an email asking him if he is still available for speeches booked by Encounter, which last published him 14 years ago.

But a spokesman for encounter Books told DailyMail.com that it no longer books public appearances for him.

‘It has been brought to our attention that boilerplate text that appears on the book pages of all of our living authors lists Mark Judge as ‘available for media and speaking engagements.’ This message has appeared on author pages on our website since 2015. We offer this service for inquiries about all books published by Encounter,’ the spokesman said.

Judge has claimed he has no recollection of an alleged sexual assault described by Christine Blasey Ford, and has pleaded to be left out of the spotlight.

President Donald Trump responds to questions about U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House

President Donald Trump responds to questions about U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House

He also jumped to the Supreme Court nominee’s defense by insisting he ‘never saw Brett act in the manner [Ford] described,’ but admitted they haven’t spoken in several years.  

His interview emerged hours after it became clear that the White House has instructed the FBI to interview anyone it considers necessary in its background investigation of the Supreme Court nominee – so long as the review is done by the end of the week.

The apparent go-ahead for an un-proscribed interview, reported by the New York Times and as stated by President Trump a press conference, follows reports that the White House counsel had told investigators to limit their queries to a small group of people.

The paper cited two people briefed on the instructions contained in a new directive over the last 24 hours – after the blowback over the initial scope of the background probe.

NBC had reported the FBI was authorized only to query only four people: witnesses to the alleged assault by Christine Blasey Ford, Ford herself, and fellow accuser Deborah Ramirez, under arrangements also made with the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

The others were Kavanaugh friend Mark Judge and P.J. Smyth, as well as Ford friend Leland Keyser, who Ford says attended the party where Kavanaugh allegedly assaulted her. 

The FBI has already contacted four people on its list, the Times reported.  

The narrow inquiry drew howls from Democrats, including from attorney Michael Avenatti, whose client Julie Swetnick brought forward her own assault claims and was apparently left off the list.

Democrats feared the narrow probe was an exercise in box-checking that could ultimately give Republicans license to vote for Kavanaugh without fully probing any new allegations that emerge, as well as other parts of his background such as high school and college drinking he acknowledged in testimony.    

Trump appeared to confirm the marching orders in his public comments. 

‘The F.B.I. should interview anybody that they want within reason, but you have to say within reason,’ Trump said Monday in the White House Rose Garden.

“But they should also be guided, and I’m being guided, by what the senators are looking for.”

The president was pressed repeatedly on whether the White House was keeping the FBI on a leash to prevent it from conducting a full investigation of allegations against Kavanaugh.

‘I think the FBI should interview anybody that they want, within reason,’ Trump said.

Then he added: ‘But they should also be guided, and I’m being guided by what the senators are looking for.’

That was a reference to the guidelines provided by the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

He said FBI agents have been working ‘around the clock’ and working ‘late into the evenings’ to resolve the issue.   

‘I’m instructing them as per what I feel the Senate wants,’ Trump said.

‘I did also say within the bounds of what the Senate wants. We don’t want to go on a to use an expression often used by me, we don’t want to go on a witch hunt do we?’ he said, using his favorite pejorative for the Russia probe.

Trump didn’t say reports of Kavanaugh’s drinking should be off-limits, but said the nominee had been candid about his youthful drinking. Some Democrats are charging the nominee wasn’t truthful in some of his testimony, such as saying his membership in the ‘Beach Week Ralph Club’ was due to his weak stomach.

‘I was surprised about how vocal he was about the fat that he likes beer,’ said Trump, who doesn’t drink. 

‘This is not a man that said that he was perfect with respect to alcohol,’ said Trump, who found the testimony ‘excellent.’

‘I want them to do a very comprehensive investigation, whatever that means, according to the senators and the Republicans and the Republican majority,” Trump said. 

“I want it to be comprehensive. I think it’s actually a good thing for Judge Kavanaugh,” he added.

Trump said on Monday he wants the FBI to conduct a comprehensive investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, but said he did not want to see a “witch hunt.”

“I want them to do a very comprehensive investigation. Whatever that means, according to the senators and the Republicans and the Republican majority, I want them to do that,” Trump said at a White House news conference. “With that being said, I’d like it to go quickly.”

Trump on Friday ordered the FBI to carry out an investigation lasting up to a week of the allegations against Kavanaugh, acting on a request from Senate Republican leaders who were pressed by moderate senators in Trump’s own party.

Christine Blasey Ford, a university professor from California, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in 1982 when they were both high school students in Maryland. Kavanaugh has denied her allegation, as well as sexual misconduct accusations by two other women.

Questions about the scope of the FBI investigation emerged over the weekend amid reports that Senate Republicans were working with the White House to contain the number of witnesses and the allegations to be investigated.

Democrats expressed concern on Sunday about reported efforts to stymie the probe, which comes after the Judiciary Committee approved Kavanaugh’s nomination on Friday before it goes to the full Senate for a final vote.

“It is up to me, but I’m instructing them (FBI) as per what I feel the Senate wants,” Trump said. “I want it to be quickly, because it’s unfair to the family and to the judge. It’s so unfair to his kids and his wife.”

“We don’t want to go on a witch hunt, do we?” Trump asked.

The Republican president was sympathetic to Kavanaugh, saying the nominee has been treated unfairly and that he believes Kavanaugh did not lie about the extent of his drinking in high school and college during testimony before the Senate panel on Thursday.

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