What Happened When The FBI Interviewed Me About The Smear Campaign Against Brett Kavanaugh

This is an excerpt of “The Devil’s Triangle: Mark Judge vs. the New American Stasi,” by Mark Judge, out on Nov. 14 from Post Hill Press.

On September 18, simply two days after [Christine Blasey] Ford broke her story [claiming Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her] within the Post, the Hill reported that President Trump was bent on exposing what he known as a “corrupt” FBI. John Solomon and Buck Sexton reported that Trump “mentioned Tuesday he ordered the discharge of categorized paperwork within the Russia collusion case to indicate the general public the FBI probe began as a ‘hoax’ and that exposing it may turn out to be one of many ‘crowning achievements’ of his presidency.”

It later can be revealed that [FBI Director James] Comey wrote seven memos summarizing his interactions with Trump after which despatched one among them to a private good friend and lawyer, directing him to leak the contents to a New York Times reporter. The leak resulted within the appointment of a particular counsel to analyze the president.          

As the IG’s report later concluded, “The unauthorized disclosure of this info—info that Comey knew solely by advantage of his place as FBI Director—violated the phrases of his FBI Employment Agreement and the FBI’s Prepublication Review Policy.”

Then there was the ridiculous determine of Frank Figliuzzi. The former assistant director of the FBI, Figliuzzi was a fixture on MSNBC, the place he served up left-wing concern porn about conservatives.

Right after the FBI probe was introduced, Figliuzzi appeared on MSNBC with infamous liar and hack Brian Williams. Figliuzzi didn’t have something to say about Ford’s testimony. He was too enthusiastic about us getting nailed by the bureau. “This is the place the FBI shines when it’s allowed to,” he mentioned. “Pagers have gone off, textual content messages are being despatched, calls are being made. Everybody has been on standby. If you’re within the Baltimore division that covers Georgetown Prep the place Kavanaugh went to highschool, if you’re within the New Haven, Connecticut division that covers Yale, if you’re in California the place a few of the accusers and survivors are, you’re in motion…tonight.”

Another speaking head on Williams’s show was left-wing lawyer Barbara McQuade. To her there was little question the place the investigation ought to begin: “The place that I might begin with is with Mark Judge. This is the one person who Dr. Ford really places within the room when this alleged sexual assault occurred. And so speaking to him may very well be so critically essential. I do know that he has submitted a letter saying that he doesn’t bear in mind this, however that’s so totally different from having an FBI agent present up on his doorstep.”

Given all this proof of partisan corruption on the Bureau, I used to be naturally apprehensive about my interview.

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At my request the assembly occurred on the shiny new FBI constructing in Manassas, Virginia, about twenty miles exterior of Washington. I arrived early, earlier than three o’clock, parked in a decrease lot, then walked as much as the primary entrance. Just then, within the car parking zone of a shopping mall throughout the road, a van got here roaring up and, when the driving force caught sight of me, squealed to a cease. The media was right here.

Biz confirmed up a couple of minutes later, driving a white convertible. It was Sunday, and the grounds had been quiet. We went via safety and had been met inside by two brokers, a person and a lady, who seemed to be of their late thirties or early forties. The male agent knowledgeable me that the interview would final “wherever between three and 7 hours.”

That was fairly a large swath of time. I later discovered that if an interview is shorter, it means you’re telling the reality. The solely cause it could stretch to seven hours is for those who had been mendacity. In different phrases, the FBI most likely already knew the reality of no matter did or didn’t occur to Christine Blasey Ford. I used to be simply there to substantiate it.

My interview lasted three hours.

We sat round a desk in an immaculate convention room. At the beginning I reiterated what I had been saying from the start: I had nothing to cover, and I had no drawback speaking to Ford herself, certainly I needed to take action, anytime, with anybody she needed within the room together with the FBI. I simply, hand to God and standing earlier than Jesus, had no recollection of any social gathering the place she was there and Brett and I had been drunkenly stumbling round forcing hapless girls into bedrooms.

The brokers began broad and drilled right down to the precise. I described the social gathering scene of the Eighties and my friendship with Brett. I described him as I knew him—a superb, considerably nerdy and shy man who cherished sports activities and was a bit awkward round women. I couldn’t think about him attacking anybody.

They requested if I knew any guys in highschool who had been aggressive towards women, and I mentioned sure—each at Georgetown Prep and different locations. They requested if I had ever drunk a lot that I blacked out at events. The reply was sure. However, I additionally defined that the character of alcoholism is progressive. I wasn’t stumbling round blind drunk all through my 4 years at Georgetown Prep. I bear in mind most of my expertise there with love and fondness. While I had blacked out a couple of times in highschool, it didn’t turn out to be a horrible nightmare till faculty.

Slowly over the course of three hours I started to develop my very own concept. Opposition researchers had appeared into my life, discovered a loopy interval within the mid-Eighties when my alcoholism was at its worst, and tried to tie Brett into that period. The benders, the blackouts, the nameless girls—it was important for them to place me and Brett collectively throughout that interval.

There was just one drawback. I used to be in Washington on the time, and Brett was at Yale in New Haven. We simply by no means noticed one another.

This would assist clarify Ford’s altering dates. A July 6 textual content to the Washington Post stated that the incident occurred within the “mid Eighties”; Ford’s July 30 letter to Feinstein mentioned it occurred “within the ‘early 80s’”; her August 7 polygraph assertion claimed it occurred “one ‘highschool summer time in early 80’s,’ however then she crossed out the phrase ‘early.’” Why the fixed adjustments until she was attempting to attach me and Brett at a selected time in our lives when based on my very own revealed writings I used to be an acknowledged binge drinker?

When I used to be requested about my hanging out at DC’s nation golf equipment, I needed to remind the brokers that I used to be by no means a member of any membership, nor was any member of my household. My mother and father thought they had been elitist and corny.

I used to be additionally requested about my notorious summer time job on the Safeway grocery store in Potomac. Ford had claimed that she had run into me there after the assault and that I appeared “unwell” with disgrace and couldn’t face her. I by no means denied working at Safeway—I had written about it in my memoir. I simply had no recollection of working into Ford there.

I additionally saved questioning about Monica McLean. According to the Wall Street Journal, Leland Keyser informed FBI investigators that she was pressured by Ford’s buddies and allies to rethink her preliminary assertion that claimed she was unaware of proof supporting Ford’s allegations of sexual assault towards Brett. Keyser told the FBI that following her preliminary assertion, Monica McLean, a retired FBI agent and a good friend of Ford’s, suggested Keyser to “make clear” what she had mentioned. If true, this may quantity to witness tampering.

This information got here after CNN obtained a declaration by a person who mentioned that “he dated Ford within the mid-90s.” The man wrote that he “witnessed Dr. Ford assist Monica McLean put together for a polygraph examination.” According to her ex-boyfriend, “Ford defined intimately what to anticipate, how polygraphs labored and helped McLean turn out to be acquainted and fewer nervous for the examination. Dr. Ford was in a position to assist due to her background in psychology.”

McLean denied working with Ford on easy methods to deal with a polygraph in addition to prices of witness tampering. “I’ve by no means had anybody help me with the preparation of any polygraph,” she informed CNN. “Ever. Not my entry polygraph, not my 5-year reinvestigation polygraphs. Never. I’m extraordinarily indignant he would make this up.”

McLean’s lawyer additionally issued an announcement. “Any notion or declare that Ms. McLean pressured Leland Keyser to change Ms. Keyser’s account of what she recalled regarding the alleged incident between Dr. Ford and Brett Kavanaugh is totally false,” David Laufman informed the Wall Street Journal.

Laufman is a former DOJ lawyer who interviewed Hillary Clinton through the investigation into her non-public e-mail server. He interviewed Clinton alongside former FBI agent Peter Strzok through the 2016 presidential election. Strzok was fired in 2018 after texts from 2016 expressing anti-Trump bias had been uncovered between him and former FBI lawyer (additionally his lover) Lisa Page. The texts included Strzok’s assertion that the FBI would “cease” Trump from being elected. In 2022, after the questionable FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, Laufman spent quite a lot of time on Twitter and cable information calling for Trump’s head.

Toward the tip of the interview, the stress lastly bought to me, and I began crying involuntarily. I used to be wrung out. I had had twenty-eight sober years and possessed what the Jesuits would name a “well-formed conscience.” I wasn’t attempting to cover something or defend anybody. I used to be prepared and in a position to make amends for any youthful drunken antics. But the techniques of the Stasi, from Ronan Farrow’s telephone name to whoever within the FBI had tipped off the media and was probably going to leak my interview earlier than my automotive even left the grounds, had been simply an excessive amount of to take.

Nevertheless, the FBI brokers I spoke to had been courteous, skilled, thorough, and empathetic. As we had been strolling out the feminine agent did a half-turn and smiled at me. I believe she knew that all the factor was bullshit.

When the background examine—Brett’s seventh—got here again clear, a report from NBC News mentioned that there was “euphoria on the White House.” Liberal senators, after all, known as the report a sham. It wasn’t. The greatest summation got here from Republican Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, who said, “If you suppose that is about [liberals] trying to find the reality, you must put down the bong. This will not be concerning the reality. This is about gamesmanship and energy, political and politics. It’s that straightforward.” Kennedy added, “The FBI requested Dr. Ford’s counsel to submit further proof, they usually refused.”

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Mark Judge is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared within the Wall Street Journal, American Greatness, the New Criterion, the Stream, the Washington Post, the New York Times, National Review, Law & Liberty, Modern Age, and Splice Today. A co-founder of the Unknown Hoya, Mr. Judge is the writer of a number of books, together with “God and Man at Georgetown Prep,” “Damn Senators,” and “A Tremor of Bliss.” He spends his free time skateboarding in America.