Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is willing to answer questions under oath about his heavy drinking in high school and college, his lawyer said Wednesday.
Beth Wilkinson, who represents Kavanaugh as he fends off accusations by two named women, said Kavanaugh’s acknowledged drinking in no validates the charges being leveled.
‘He’ll answer whatever questions the committee decides to ask him,’ Wilkinson told ‘CBS This Morning.’
‘But trying to claim that some kind of drinking incident at some other time is indicative of this type of behavior is totally unfair,’ she argued.
‘He’ll answer whatever questions the committee decides to ask him,’ lawyer Beth Wilkinson told ‘CBS This Morning’ about her client, Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh
Christine Blasey Ford will testify Thursday about her allegation Kavanaugh climbed on top of her at a high school party, groped her and tried to take her clothes off while covering her mouth to prevent her from screaming. He vigorously denies it.
Since her claim, a former Yale classmate has written about his heavy drinking while in college. Kavanaugh friend Mark Judge wrote a semi-autobiographical book where a character named ‘Bart O’Kavanaugh’ vomits in a car.
‘If people want to ask him about his drinking … he admitted that he had beers,’ Wilkinson said.
‘I think that’s true of most people in college. He’s admitted that maybe he drank more than he should have on certain occasions. And of course he has his yearbook page. I think most of us would go back and probably wish we would rewrite our yearbook page,’ she said.
Wilkinson was referencing a page where Kavanaugh called himself a ‘Renate alumnius’
Renate Schroeder Dolphin, who appears to be the woman referenced, told the New York Times she was angry about it upon learning she was the apparent subject of a boast. ‘“I learned about these yearbook pages only a few days ago,” Dolphin told the paper. ‘I don’t know what ‘Renate Alumnus’ actually means. I can’t begin to comprehend what goes through the minds of 17-year-old boys who write such things, but the insinuation is horrible, hurtful and simply untrue. I pray their daughters are never treated this way. I will have no further comment.”
Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford will testify
Wilkinson said Kavanaugh didn’t know if he was the figure described in Judge’s book.
‘I have no idea whatMark Judge was doing. My heart goes out to him because he was honest and writing about addiction problems and he has been clean and sober for many years and I don’t know anything about him other than he issued a statement – he wrote that book and he issued a statement saying he was accused of being in that room with judge Kavanaugh,’ Wilkinson said.
‘He said that never happened and that was not like anything he knows about Brett Kavanaugh and that’s not consistent with what he knows about his character.’ As for the book: ‘I don’t think he has any idea who Mr. Judge is referring to either,’ she said.’
Wilkinson also spoke to CNN about whether or not Kavanaugh ever blacked out – something which could be relevant to whether he recalls incidents being alleged about his past.
‘I think he said he did not blackout. He did not say he never drank too many beers. He said that he did. Again, we are talking about 36 years ago. The question was did he blackout drink at that time, and he said no,’ she said.
She also discussed Kavanaugh’s odd decision to say he was a virgin for ‘years’ after high school while fending off the assault charge.
‘Nobody is claiming that your sexual activity could preclude or proves that you were involved with any kind of sexual assault,’ she acknowledged after repeated questions.
Wilkinson also told CBS Ford has not turned over either therapist’s notes dealing with her accusations or the results of a lie-detector test.
‘They announced that there were notes and there had been a lie detector test but as I understand it, they did not turn any of those over to the Senate committee even though they were requested so the information that would have shown what she said at the very first time when she revealed these allegations have not been turned over to the Senate,’ Wilkinson said.
‘That’s very important because apparently in those notes, there’s a differing story about how many people were present at the party, there’s no mention of Judge Kavanaugh, and so all that information would be very important to determine whether there’s any corroboration of this allegation,’ she added.