Mark Judge, the high school friend of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh who Christine Blasey Ford alleges was in the room when Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a house party in 1982, has agreed to testify before the FBI.
Ford alleged that while Kavanaugh was trying to remove her clothes, Judge was in the room watching and laughing. Judge and Kavanaugh have denied these accusations.
The Democrats failed to get Judge to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, but he has since agreed to answer questions from the FBI he is requested to do so.
"If the FBI or any law enforcement agency requests Mr. Judge's cooperation, he will answer any and all questions posed to him," Judge's lawyer Barbara Van Gelder told CNBC via email.
Earlier, in a signed letter presented to the Judiciary Committee, Judge wrote :
I will cooperate with any law enforcement agency that is assigned to confidentially investigate these allegations.
He has consistently refused to testify in a public setting, citing depression and anxiety he said he suffers as "a recovering alcoholic and a cancer survivor."
Earlier on Friday, the Senate Judiciary Committee had voted 11 to 10 along party lines to recommend that the Senate vote to confirm Kavanaugh.
Before this committee vote, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) had asked Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to request a weeklong FBI investigation into allegations leveled against Kavanaugh. Grassley had agreed to relay the request, although the authority to authorize such an investigation rests with the executive branch, and not with the Senate.
The final decision on whether or not to conduct an investigation would rest with either the Justice Department or with President Donald Trump.
All the Senate has the authority to do is to delay the vote to give the FBI time to conduct such an investigation. Even then, that decision to delay rests with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), not with Grassley or any of the other Judiciary Committee members.
