Another college classmate of Judge Brett Kavanaugh has come forward to accuse President Trump’s SCOTUS nominee of lying about both his collegiate drinking habits and the meaning of certain phrases (“devil’s triangle”) during his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Jamie Roche, who was Kavanaugh’s freshman-year roommate at Yale, said in an op-ed published by Slate and in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper that Kavanaugh was “frequently incoherently drunk” and would occasionally drink to the point of getting sick in his room.
Roche, who shared a suite with Kavanaugh and another roommate, claimed that he had not been contacted by the FBI, which turned in its expanded background-check report on Kavanaugh early Thursday after also being left out of the initial investigation. That report was given to the White House and will be shared with Senators in a controlled fashion to ensure that it doesn’t leak.
In the op-ed, Roche claimed that he refused to speak on the record with New Yorker reporter Ronan Farrow when he was contacted for Farrow’s story about Kavanaugh’s classmate (and accuser) Debbie Ramirez. Roche said he only told Farrow that there was “zero chance” that Ramirez was lying about her story (she accused Kavanaugh of pulling out his penis and shoving it in her face during a drunken form room party) and that Kavanaugh was “frequently incoherently drunk.” Still, Roche said he was the anonymous college classmate who told Farrow that Kavanaugh was frequently drunk, an allegation that was raised during Kavanaugh’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.
When asked about my comments in the New Yorker at his hearing last week, Judge Kavanaugh seemed to suggest that my account was not credible because “it was a contentious situation” where I “did not like” the third suitemate. He then referenced a prank I pulled on the third suitemate and some redacted portion of his closed-door questioning by Senate Judiciary Committee staff. It’s true that I played a prank on the third roommate. We were not close. But that relationship has no bearing on my ability to observe Kavanaugh’s behavior then and to describe it now.
Just like Ford, Ramirez and another college classmate of Kavanaugh’s, Roche said he did not want to come forward and only did so reluctantly, adding that he doubted that Kavanaugh would face legal consequences for his alleged lies, and that “either he will be confirmed or another conservative judge will be.” He also claimed that his involvement in the Kavanaugh case would come with “personal and reputational” damage.
I did not want to come forward. When the New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow contacted me while researching a story about Debbie and Brett, I told him that I didn’t see the point. There is no way that Brett will face legal consequences after this much time. Either he will be confirmed or another conservative judge will be. There would be a high cost. I was raised in a Republican family. My mother, who has since passed away, was a Republican state representative in Connecticut. My father owns a MAGA hat. I have close friends who are very conservative. In recent years I have had disagreements over politics with some of these friends and family, but I care deeply about them. My involvement has and will come with personal, professional, and reputational damage.
In a statement that will almost certainly be used by Democrats as ammunition to try and call the FBI’s expanded background-check report into question, Roche said he was not interviewed either initially or during the FBI’s most recent probe, which he said would suggest that the FBI “wasn’t looking for” information about Kavanaugh’s behavior in college.
Others would say: “Brett was background-checked many times. This must be made up.” As Brett’s college freshman roommate, I would have expected to be interviewed if a background check was looking for evidence of poor college behavior. I wasn’t called. I assume college behavior was not a topic of interest. The FBI didn’t find Debbie’s story because they were not looking for it.
As for this round of the investigation: I still haven’t been called, even though they are supposedly looking into Debbie’s case. How will they learn what happened if once again they are not allowed to truly and thoroughly investigate?
Roche said he had heard Kavanaugh and his friends use terms like “boofing” and “devils triangle” in a sexual way, and that he “cannot imagine why” anyone would want to confirm someone to the Supreme Court who would lie under oath about such easily verifiable information.
I do not know if Brett attacked Christine Blasey Ford in high school or if he sexually humiliated Debbie in front of a group of people she thought were her friends. But I can say that he lied under oath. He claimed that he occasionally drank too much but never enough to forget details of the night before, never enough to “black out.” He did, regularly. He said that “boofing” was farting and the “Devil’s Triangle” was a drinking game. “Boofing” and “Devil’s Triangle” are sexual references. I know this because I heard Brett and his friends using these terms on multiple occasions.
I can’t imagine that anyone in the Senate wants to confirm an individual to a lifetime appointment on the United States Supreme Court who has demonstrated a willingness to be untruthful under oath about easily verified information.
Still, while this certainly isn’t ideal, the fact remains that the Democrats will have an extraordinarily difficult time turning two of the three undecided Republicans to their side to vote against Kavanaugh’s confirmation. And even if they did, like Roche himself points out, Trump will just nominate another conservative judge in his place
Watch the CNN interview below:
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