Republicans Reject Motion to Subpoena Brett Kavanaugh’s Pal, Mark Judge

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected a motion by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to subpoena Mark Judge, the high school classmate of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford alleges that Judge was present when Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a high school party in the early 1980s. Kavanaugh has firmly denied the accusation and Judge says he does not recall any such incident.

Blumenthal explained that Ford’s testimony showed there were “details in that story that can be corroborated and other facts that can be uncovered if we hear from other witnesses.”

“[Judge] has never been interviewed by the FBI. He has never been questioned by any member of our committee. He has never submitted a detailed account of what he knows and so I move,” Blumenthal said, “that we subpoena Mark Judge.”

Seems reasonable, no?

The motion failed by a close vote of 10-11, The Washington Post reports.

In her testimony Thursday, Ford said that Judge watched Kavanaugh assault her and “seemed ambivalent”—“at times urging Brett on and at times telling him to stop.”

“A couple of times I made eye contact with Mark and thought he might try to help me,” Ford recalls. “But he did not.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), current Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, referenced a letter that Judge sent the committee on Thursday. The statement read: “Brett Kavanaugh and I were friends in high school, but we have not spoken directly in several years. 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.”

Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) both refused to vote on the matter.

Shortly after the motion failed, Blumenthal staged a walkout in protest, alongside Sens. Harris, Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).