Former Girlfriend of Mark Judge, Named in Numerous Kavanaugh Accusations, Ready to Talk to FBI

By Greg Sargent, The Washington Post

27 September 18

he onetime girlfriend of Mark Judge, who is alleged by Christine Blasey Ford to have been present while Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the 1980s, has emerged as a pivotal if hidden figure in this whole affair — and now she’s prepared to speak to the FBI and the Judiciary Committee about what she knows, according to a letter from her lawyer that I’ve obtained.

Judge’s college girlfriend, Elizabeth Rasor, is represented by lawyer Roberta Kaplan, who sent a letter to the Judiciary Committee today. The letter, which was provided to me by a senior Senate Democratic aide on the committee, says that Rasor “would welcome the opportunity” to speak to “agents of the FBI as part of a reopened background investigation” into Kavanaugh’s conduct.

After Ford alleged to The Post that Kavanaugh and Judge had assaulted her — something Kavanaugh and Judge have both denied — Rasor and what she knows became a subject of interest in this whole affair when she spoke to the New Yorker. In that piece — which was primarily about the second Kavanaugh accuser, Deborah Ramirez, who claimed Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at Yale in the 1980s — Rasor did not make any allegations about Kavanaugh.

But Rasor did say that Judge had confided in her about a group sex incident at the time. As the New Yorker piece put it:

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 in it.

The letter from Rasor’s attorney confirms that this account faithfully reflects what she recalls — and, now, what she is prepared to tell the FBI. The letter says:

Ms. Rasor’s recollection of what occurred is stated accurately in the New Yorker piece and she would welcome the opportunity to share this information with agents of the FBI as part of a re-opened background investigation.

In recounting this particular episode to the New Yorker, Rasor did not name Kavanaugh.

[Brett Kavanaugh and the moral ugliness of casual lying]

But Judge’s role — and whatever Rasor is prepared to say about it — has suddenly taken on a lot more potential significance, now that lawyer Michael Avenatti has produced a sworn statement from a third woman, which claims that Judge did conspire with Kavanaugh to get women drunk so they could be assaulted by numerous young men.

As the statement from Avenatti’s client, Julia Swetnick, put it, recounting incidents that sound like the one Rasor recounted in the New Yorker:

I also witnessed efforts by Mark Judge, Brett Kavanaugh and others to cause girls to become inebriated and disoriented so they could then be ‘gang raped’ in a side room or bedroom by a ‘train’ of numerous boys. I have a firm recollection of seeing boys lined up outside rooms and many of these parties waiting for their ‘turn’ with a girl inside the room. These boys included Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh. …

In approximately 1982, I became the victim of one of these ‘gang’ or ‘train’ rapes where Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh were present. … I believe I was drugged using Quaaludes or something similar placed in what I was drinking.

The New Yorker piece quotes Rasor saying Judge confessed to a similar episode, but without implicating Kavanaugh in it.

The letter from Rasor’s lawyer does not address this separate set of allegations from this third woman, and it’s unclear whether she’d be willing to address them. So it’s possible, if this additional woman’s account is false, that Rasor might end up failing to confirm it or saying that she knows nothing of these particular episodes which are alleged to have also involved Kavanaugh.

Still, Democrats are likely to cite Rasor’s willingness to share what she knows to increase the pressure on Judiciary Committee Republicans to call for a re-opened FBI investigation or, barring that, to allow her to speak to the Committee.

“Ms. Rasor’s statement that Mark Judge told her about his participation in a gang rape when he was in high school is powerful corroborating evidence,” the senior Democratic aide to the Judiciary Committee told me. “She is willing to cooperate with the Judiciary Committee and the FBI.” The aide added that this raises further questions about why “Mark Judge is hiding out in Bethany Beach and Republicans refuse to call him as a witness.”

It is not clear whether Kavanaugh would ultimately be implicated even if Rasor did testify, but her willingness to do so does highlight just how limited the hearing — at which only Ford and Kavanaugh are expected to testify — is shaping up to be.

Rasor is also willing to speak to the hearing, if Republicans don’t call for a reopened FBI background check, her lawyer’s letter says. “Although Ms. Rasor does not welcome the unwanted attention that would inevitably result if she were to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee,” it says, “she believes that it is her duty as a citizen to tell the truth about what happened.”

Rasor’s willingness to speak would also seem to increase pressure on Republicans to subpoena Judge to testify, though there’s no indication that they will give ground on that point.