FBI questions Kavanaugh’s friend
TRUMP HURT US IMAGE: STUDY
WASHINGTON: The FBI has completed its interview of Mark Judge, a high school friend of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, his lawyer said on Tuesday. Judge has in the past said he has no recollection of an attempted rape by Kavanaugh.
Barbara Van Gelder, the lawyer, said, “We are not commenting on the questions the FBI asked Mr Judge.”
Christine Blasey Ford, a California research psychologist, testified in a Senate hearing last week that Kavanaugh tried unsuccessfully to rape her during a high school party while Judge watched. Kavanaugh, who is President Donald Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, angrily denied the accusation.
Three Republican senators have refused to allow Kavanaugh’s nomination to move forward until the FBI conducted an additional inquiry into Kavanaugh’s behaviour, including an in-person interview with Judge.
An author, filmmaker and journalist who has written for conservative publications, Judge was the subject of numerous questions during last week’s tes- timony of Blasey and Kavanaugh.
Blasey said that Kavanaugh and Judge “were drunkenly laughing during the attack. They seemed to be having a very good time.” “Mark seemed ambivalent, at times urging Brett on and at times telling him to stop. ”
Judge has disputed her account. In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, he said , “I do not recall the events described by Dr Ford in her testimony before the US Senate judiciary committee. I never saw Brett act in the manner Dr Ford describes.” Judge has also been mentioned by Julie Swetnick, another of Kavanaugh’s accusers. Swetnick has said Kavanaugh and Judge both attended parties in high school where women were gang raped.
TRUMP: KAVANAUGH HAS ALCOHOL PROBLEM
US President Donald Trump defended his embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, but said that the appeals court judge has had a “bit of difficulty” with alcohol.
Trump on Monday called Kavanaugh’s treatment unfair and sought to excuse excessive drinking by teenagers. BERLIN : The image of the United States has deteriorated further among its traditional allies after a year in which president Donald Trump ratcheted up his verbal attacks on countries like Canada and Germany, a leading survey showed.
The survey of 25 nations by the Pew Research Center also showed that respondents from across the globe have less confidence in Trump’s ability to lead than they do in Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping.
Since taking office in January 2017, Trump has pulled the United States out of international agreements like the Paris climate accord and Iran nuclear deal, cozied up to authoritarian leaders like Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, and criticised his neighbours and NATO allies. In June, after a G7 summit in Canada, Trump refused to sign a joint statement with America’s allies.