Buried inside the New Yorker’s bombshell story on a second woman coming forward to allege sexual misconduct by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is a disturbing paragraph about the hard-drinking culture at his high school. The New Yorker quotes Elizabeth Rasor, who was in a relationship with Kavanaugh’s high school classmate and friend Mark Judge for three years, contradicting his claim that he couldn’t recall any type of sexual aggression toward girls.*
Christine Blasey Ford has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a drunken party while Judge was in the room. As Ford tells it, Judge at points even egged Kavanaugh on, telling him to “go for it” as he tried to remove her clothing. Judge has said he has “no recollection of the incident” and has characterized the allegations as completely unrealistic and out of character. “I can recall a lot of rough-housing with guys,” he said in an interview with the Weekly Standard. “I don’t remember any of that stuff going on with girls.”
Rasor, however, says that’s not true and is coming forward to contradict his claim. “Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t reveal information that was told in confidence,” Rasor said. But she said that “I can’t stand by and watch him lie.” The New Yorker summarizes why Rasor says Judge was being disingenuous claiming that there weren’t incidents of “rough-housing” with female students at Georgetown Prep:
Rasor recalled that Judge had told her ashamedly of an incident that involved him and other boys taking turns having sex with a drunk woman. Rasor said that Judge seemed to regard it as fully consensual. She said that Judge did not name others involved in the incident, and she has no knowledge that Kavanaugh participated. But Rasor was disturbed by the story and noted that it undercut Judge’s protestations about the sexual innocence of Georgetown Prep.
Judge’s lawyer says he “categorically denies” Rasor’s claim.
But Rasor isn’t alone. Another woman, who asked to remain anonymous, also disputed Judge’s claims about the culture at Georgetown Prep. She said that it was common for male students to “get a female student blind drunk” on a mixture of grain alcohol and Hawaiian Punch that they called “jungle juice” and then try to take advantage of her. “It was disgusting,” she said. “They treated women like meat.” Judge has told the Senate Judiciary Committee he doesn’t want to testify about Ford’s allegations.
Read more from Slate:
• Feinstein Says Kavanaugh Nomination Must Pause for FBI Investigation
• #WhyIDidntReport and #MeToo Have Higher Aims Than Converting Skeptics
• Why the Brett Kavanaugh “Evil Twin” Theory Is So Diabolical
• The Kavanaugh Accusation Has Men More Afraid Than Ever
Correction, Sept. 24, 2018: This post originally misidentified Mark Judge as Mike Judge.
