Not long after Mark Judge graduated from Catholic University, he attended the rehearsal dinner for a close friend’s wedding in Washington, D.C. The dinner was in a private room above an Irish bar, and as soon as Judge arrived, he downed a shot of bourbon — and another and another. The next thing he knew, it was the morning and he was in a friend’s house. He woke up in his disheveled suit from the night before. His head ached, and he could barely open his eyes. “I had blacked out again,” Judge recalled in a memoir about his troubled youth. “I didn’t remember anything after doing the shots.” He asked his friend, Denny, what had happened. “You put on quite a show,” Denny said. “After doing all those shots, you tried to get up on the table and started taking your clothes off, but Shane and I pulled you down. You also tried to make it with one of the bridesmaids.” Judge was surprised. “I tried to make it with a bridesmaid?” he said. “Please tell me I didn’t hurt her.” Denny reassured Judge that he hadn’t harmed the bridesmaid, though he had made a “serious lunge” at her and started kissing her toes. His friends had pulled him off and got him out of the bar and took him to Denny’s home a few blocks away. This passage from Judge’s long-forgotten memoir is newly relevant in light of the accusation that Judge was in the room when Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh assaulted Christine Blasey Ford in 1982, when she was 15 years old. Kavanaugh and Judge were about 17 years old at the time, classmates at the all-boys Georgetown Preparatory School. Ford, now a professor in clinical psychology in California, has accused Kavanaugh of drunkenly locking her in a room at a house party and trying to tear off her clothes while holding his hand over her mouth as she screamed in protest. According to Ford, a drunken Judge was also in the room, watching and laughing. Kavanaugh has denied the accusation, and so has Judge, who stated in a letter that “I have no memory of the alleged incident. … I never saw Brett act in the manner Dr. Ford describes.” Book cover: Hazelden But the wedding scene in Judge’s 1997 book, titled “ Wasted: Tales of a GenX Drunk ,” amounts to a clear acknowledgement from Judge that he engaged in drunken acts he could not remember afterward, and that those acts involved aggression toward women, if not outright violence. The wedding scene is not the only one of its sort in his book, which is out of print and extremely hard to find. Judge also wrote that about a week before the wedding, he went to his favorite bar, ordered a shot and a beer, and struck up a conversation with a woman who was there. “We bought each other several rounds of drinks, and when I looked at the clock it was after midnight,” he wrote. “Then, in what seemed like an instant, it was suddenly the next morning. … I couldn’t remember a thing after I had looked at the clock. I had blacked out.” When he came to, he was back in his apartment, still dressed in the clothes he wore at the bar. “I started to panic, terrified of what I could have done during the blackout,” Judge wrote. “I could have done anything and not know it — I could have murdered somebody.” Judge does not explain why, in that instance and after the wedding dinner, he was concerned about committing violence against a woman while he was inebriated. Did he have a history of that? While the wedding and the bar scenes are the only blackouts described in his book, he writes about verbally assaulting a woman he knew well. During the Christmas break of his fourth year at college, he went to his favorite bar to drink with friends. One of them informed Judge that his high school girlfriend had gotten engaged. Even though Judge and the woman were no longer going out — they were attending different colleges —he wrote in his book that he viewed her engagement as “the most egregious betrayal imaginable.” He went to a pay phone in the bar and called her. “Mary, what are you trying to do to me?” he asked. “What?” she replied. “I thought we were going to get married,” he said. “Wait a minute,” she said. “You’re drunk. Are you at O’Rourke’s?” She told him to go home and go to sleep. They could talk when he sobered up. But Judge wouldn’t have it; she was betraying him. His anger took over. “Goddammit you bitch, fuck you and your fucking husband,” he snarled. He wrote in “Wasted” that he understood what was happening – the alcohol had flipped a switch that led to him acting in a way that he wouldn’t if he were sober. As he wrote, “It was as though there was a different version of myself — Mr. Hyde — who had taken over my body, and I couldn’t stop him.” His former girlfriend said he was an alcoholic and needed help. He replied that he hated her. He hung up and left the bar. Outside, police were arresting drunken revelers. Judge called the cops Nazis, and after one of them tried to warn him off, Judge replied, “Eat my shorts.” He fought as they arrested him, swearing and spitting at their shoes. Can the denials of Kavanaugh and Judge be trusted over the credible account from Ford, who in 2012 told her therapist and her husband about the assault, six years before Kavanaugh became a household name with his nomination to the Supreme Court? Judge’s credibility has come under particular scrutiny because he is an author and journalist who has flaunted his incendiary right-wing views, which his critics regard as sexist and racist (for instance, he described Barack Obama as “the first female president” in a 2013 article for the Daily Caller). In a recent story about Judge, the Washington Post noted that he had renounced his drunken past and repositioned himself as a conservative moralist, “albeit one who has written about ‘the wonderful beauty of uncontrollable male passion.’” The Post was referring to a 2015 article Judge wrote in support of aggressive male behavior toward women. “Of course, a man must be able to read a woman’s signals, and it’s a good thing that feminism is teaching young men that no means no and yes means yes,” he wrote. “But there’s also that ambiguous middle ground, where the woman seems interested and indicates, whether verbally or not, that the man needs to prove himself to her. And if that man is any kind of man, he’ll allow himself to feel the awesome power, the wonderful beauty, of uncontrollable male passion.” This theme has been consistent in Judge’s life. On his 1983 Georgetown Prep yearbook page, he included a quote from playwright Noël Coward that condoned violence toward women — “Certain women should be struck regularly, like gongs.” Until the sexual assault accusation, virtually no attention was paid to Kavanaugh’s early years at Georgetown Prep, from which both he and Judge graduated in 1983. But an enormous amount of interest is now focused on his conduct at the exclusive Catholic school, located in Bethesda, a wealthy Maryland suburb. A key piece of evidence that has gotten dissected in the past week is their senior yearbook, “Cupola,” in which the pages for Kavanaugh and Judge include shoutouts to each other and their connected lives. For instance, they each ask the same question of each other — “Have you boofed yet?” and they both mention “100 kegs,” which Judge’s book describes as the target for the senior class’s cumulative beer consumption.<doc-sep>“Would you like Mark Judge to be interviewed?” “That would be my preference. I’m not sure it’s really up to me, but ...” Mark Judge. It’s a name that keeps coming up in the Kavanaugh hearings. “Man, the old gym.” So just who is Judge? “And here’s something very interesting. This is the JUG room, Justice Under God detention, spent a lot of time in there. It’s locked right now but ...” In this self-shot video posted online, he’s walking around the campus of Georgetown Prep, the school he attended years earlier with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. “And I know they’ve asked me not to film here. They’ve told me not to film here. They’ve explained the legal ramifications of filming here. But, this is part of my past and these videos are part of my history, so — bring on the lawyers.” Christine Blasey Ford says Judge was in the room when, she alleges, Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the early 1980s. “She says that you tried to take off her clothes and she believes that you would have raped her if Mark Judge hadn’t climbed on top and everyone tumbled to the floor. And then she had an opportunity to get away.” Judge and Kavanaugh were close friends in high school and both have denied the episode occurred. Additional women have since come forward with accusations. “We’re starting to learn more about Mark Judge.” Judge is now a key figure in the Kavanaugh hearings. In other self-shot videos, Judge discusses things like spirituality and pop culture. “It’s about mysticism.” He also produced numerous short films. Many reviewed by The Times seemed like mood pieces. They don’t have dialogue, and almost all feature young-looking women, some almost naked, posing or staring at the camera. “I’ve been a journalist for — since college, and ...” Judge is a freelance writer, author and filmmaker. He has contributed to conservative news sites like The Daily Caller and The Weekly Standard, but also publications like The Washington Post and The New York Times. “I mean, I’m no Andrew Breitbart, but he is an inspiration.” He has written about topics ranging from culture and conservatism to masturbation and male sexuality. He has also written a number of books, including “Wasted: Tales of a Gen-X Drunk,” where he recounts drinking in high school and includes a character named Bart O’Kavanaugh, a suspected reference to Brett Kavanaugh. After the accusations surfaced, Mark Judge’s social media accounts appeared to be taken offline, and he has remained out of the public eye.<doc-sep>MITCHELL: The entry says, and I quote, go to ‘Timmy’s for skis with Judge, Tom, P.J. Bernie and ... Squi?’ KAVANAUGH: Squi. It’s a nickname. MITCHELL: To what does this refer, and to whom? KAVANAUGH: [after explaining the “Tobin’s House” part] It looks like we went over to Timmy’s. You want to know their last names, too? I’m happy to do it. MITCHELL: If you could just identify: Is ‘Judge’ Mark Judge? KAVANAUGH: It is. It’s Tim Gaudette, Mark Judge, Tom Kaine, P.J. Smyth, Bernie McCarthy, Chris Garrett.<doc-sep>
He’s the mystery man who’s a key figure in the sexual assault allegations against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, and for $600, you can now learn some of his innermost thoughts. Or you can pay $1,999 for the hardcover of his book “Wasted: Tales of a Gen X Drunk.” Memoirs by Kavanaugh’s high-school friend Mark Judge have skyrocketed in price following last week’s emotional hearing, where Christine Blasey Ford described Kavanaugh allegedly sexually assaulting her at a party when they were teens. At the hearing, Kavanaugh tearfully maintained his innocence. Blasey Ford said Judge was in the room when the assault happened, but Judge didn’t testify at the hearing. People who want a glimpse into Judge and his past as a hard-drinking student can find it in his writings. Used copies of Judge’s memoir, “God and Man at Georgetown Prep: How I Became a Catholic Despite 20 Years of Catholic Schooling,” were selling for up to $784 on Amazon on Monday, up from $200 the day after the hearing. Another Judge book — “A Tremor of Bliss: Sex, Catholicism and Rock ‘n’ Roll” — was listed at $252 on the used book marketplace Alibris on Monday. In that book, Judge detailed “his personal journey from the playgrounds of the sexual revolution to his eventual belief in the need to combine sexuality with love and commitment,” according to a description on the site. Don’t miss: Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court hearing sparks dueling GoFundMe pages Bids for “Wasted: Tales of a Gen X Drunk” started at $88 on eBay the day after the hearing and were up to $221 on Monday. That memoir details the period when Kavanaugh allegedly assaulted Blasey Ford, and describes how Judge worked at a local grocery store, the Huffington Post reported. Blasey Ford testified that she ran into Judge at a Potomac, Md. Safeway supermarket weeks after the alleged assault. Books by Mark Judge, a high-school friend of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, have shot up in price. Hazelden, Doubleday Religion, The Crossroad Publishing Company In the “Wasted” book, Judge wrote about someone named “Barthold” Kavanaugh vomiting in a car and passing out, said Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy at Thursday’s hearing. Kavanaugh maintained that the book was a “fictionalized account.” Leahy asked Kavanaugh, “I’m trying to get a straight answer from you under oath. Are you Bart Kavanaugh that he’s referring to, yes or no?” Kavanaugh responded, “You’d have to ask him.” Blasey Ford testified that Judge was just a few feet away when Kavanaugh allegedly groped her, pinned her to a bed and put his hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming. Kavanaugh described Judge as a funny and popular friend of his at the elite all-boys school Georgetown Prep. While curiosity has surrounded Judge, the public has heard little from him. Judge has said he will cooperate with the FBI investigation that’s now probing some of the allegations against Kavanaugh. If confirmed to the highest judicial office in the land, Kavanaugh is expected to tip the Supreme Court to the right. In a letter submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee on the day of the hearing, Judge said he did “not recall the events” that Blasey Ford detailed in her testimony. He added that he does not want to comment about Blasey Ford’s allegation publicly. “As a recovering alcoholic and a cancer survivor, I have struggled with depression and anxiety. As a result, I avoid public speaking,” he said in a statement through his lawyer. Blasey Ford says that Judge was in the room when Kavanaugh allegedly assaulted her. “Mark seemed ambivalent, at times urging Brett on and at times telling him to stop,” Blasey Ford told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “A couple of times, I made eye contact with Mark and thought he might try to help me, but he did not.” Kavanaugh testified that Judge had “suffered tremendously” from a “serious addiction problem” that had nearly killed him twice.