Mark Judge: GOP Refuses To Call On Alleged Witness for Clear Reasons,*UPDATE
Last edited Sun Sep 23, 2018, 09:48 PM - Edit history (1)
- Why isn't Mark Judge testifying about Kavanaugh? He is an alleged witness. Republicans are refusing to call on Mark Judge, who Christine Blasey Ford claims witnessed her assault, to testify. The reason is all too clear. Michael J. Stern, The Guardian, Sept. 21, 2018. EXCERPTS:
In my early career, as a state prosecutor outside of Detroit, I dreaded handling sexual assault cases. After my first 10 cases, the ache in my stomach would come like clockwork as I sat down to open a sexual assault file for the first time. Evidence in sexual assault cases is often thin and trying to bring justice to a victim in a case with thin evidence is a prosecutor’s worst nightmare.
“He said/she said” has become part of the lexicon of language used to discuss sexual assault cases for a reason. A significant number of sexual assaults occur with just two people in the room, the perpetrator and the victim. But, that’s not what occurred in the allegation of sexual assault made by Christine Blasey Ford against supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
In a recent interview, Ford claimed that Mark Judge, a close friend of Kavanaugh’s, was an eyewitness to the sexual assault. According to Dr Ford, Mark Judge observed the assault and drunkenly jumped on top of Kavanaugh while he was assaulting her, giving Ford the opportunity to escape. To a prosecutor, learning of a third-party eyewitness to an alleged sexual assault is a boon. Apparently, this additional evidence has had the opposite effect on the Senate judiciary committee.
There is a sleight of hand that has allowed Grassley to turn a blind eye to this pivotal piece of evidence. Mark Judge sent a letter to Grassley’s committee saying he had “no memory” of the incident Ford disclosed. Judge also said he never saw Kavanaugh “act in the manner Dr Ford describes”. Other Republican senators have fallen in line behind Grassley, saying that there is “no reason” to call Judge to testify because they already know what he will say – exactly what he said in his letter.
But wait. If Mark Judge’s letter to the judiciary committee is sufficient to make its Republican members accept the contents of the letter at face value, why don’t they do the same for the letter Ford sent to ranking committee member Diane Feinstein? The answer simple: Republican members of the judiciary committee want to believe Judge, not Ford.
Prosecutors know that one of the most common ways a witness tries to avoid testifying against family or friends is by saying “I don’t remember”. But nothing makes a memory rush back faster than questioning under oath, after the witness has just heard the words “under penalty of perjury”.
Given that Mark Judge published a memoir in which he admitted to spending much of his youth “wasted” on alcohol, it may be that he truly does not remember the events described by Ford. However, Judge’s testimony would allow the committee to determine if Judge is claiming that he is certain Ford’s account of events did not happen.
As it stands, there is a dangerous, if not insidious, precedent created by Grassley’s failure to subpoena Judge. Grassley has allowed Judge to testify unofficially, through the letter written by his attorney and released to the public.
The Republican-led judiciary committee is using Judge as a ghost witness to influence public opinion against Ford. Although they are employing a more gentle touch, Republican members of the committee are doing to Ford what they did to Anita Hill, 27 years ago, when they refused to allow three independent witnesses to testify in support of Hill’s version of events.
“He said/she said” is an unfortunate reality of many sexual assault cases; it is not something to which we should aspire. The Republicans have manufactured a “he said/she said” standoff and are using their own handiwork to make good on a promise to stack the supreme court with conservative judges. - More...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/21/mark-judge-testify-brett-kavanaugh-witness-subpoena
*UPDATE, DAILY KOS: 'Now We Know Why Senate Republicans Didn't Want Mark Judge To Testify,' Sept. 23, 18
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/9/23/1798104/-Now-we-know-why-Senate-Republicans-didn-t-want-Mark-Judge-to-testify
Mark Judge, Brett Kavanaugh
Brett Kavanaugh and PJ Smyth, another high school friend who refuses to testify.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211154554
https://grondamorin.com/2018/09/22/where-were-the-parents-of-teen-age-boys-who-went-to-drunken-parties-kavanaugh-story/
= new reply since forum marked as read
