Six to eight weeks after Kavanaugh allegedly assaulted her, Blasey went with her mother to a local Safeway market in Potomac, Maryland, and saw Mark Judge, a friend of Kavanaugh’s who was in the room with them during the alleged incident, she told the Senate Judiciary Committee during her Thursday morning testimony.
Judge was working there at the time, arranging shopping carts, according to Blasey. She said she said hello, noting that the two had been previously friendly for some time.
Judge “looked a little ill” and his face went pale, Blasey said.
Earlier, she had said Judge was present in the room when Kavanaugh jumped on top of her, ran his hands over her body and placed a hand on her mouth to drown out her yells. She made eye contact with him twice, she told the Senate, and his laughter along with Kavanaugh was the strongest part of her recollection.
The revelation matters because it would help pin Blasey’s claims to a specific point in time. She repeatedly referenced it in further responses during her testimony.
When pressed by a prosecutor representing the all-male GOP membership of the committee about the specific date of the alleged assault, Blasey responded by saying, “If I knew when Mark Judge worked at the Potomac Safeway, I could be more helpful in that way.”
GOP leadership in the Senate resisted calls to ask Judge to testify at the Thursday hearing along with Blasey and Kavanaugh.