An NC State professor and former classmate of Brett Kavanaugh has made national news after releasing a statement regarding the validity of the U.S. Supreme Court nominee’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee last Thursday.
According to a statement released to The New York Times Sunday from Charles Ludington, a history professor at NC State, he was a classmate with Kavanaugh at Yale and often drank with him. Ludington said that Kavanaugh’s claims of the degree and frequency of his drinking, as well as his temperament, are not truthful.
“For the fact is, at Yale, and I can speak to no other times, Brett was a frequent drinker, and a heavy drinker,” the statement reads. “I know, because, especially in our first two years of college, I often drank with him. On many occasions I heard Brett slur his words and saw him staggering from alcohol consumption, not all of which was beer. When Brett got drunk, he was often belligerent and aggressive.”
Ludington released the statement after being contacted by the press multiple times since Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh came to light a few weeks ago.
In his statement, Ludington said that he is concerned with the truthfulness of Kavanaugh’s responses, which he gave under oath.
“If he lied about his past actions on national television, and more especially while speaking under oath in front of the United States Senate, I believe those lies should have consequences,” Ludington said. “It is truth that is at stake, and I believe that the ability to speak the truth, even when it does not reflect well upon oneself, is a paramount quality we seek in our nation’s most powerful judges.”
Like Ford stated in her testimony last Thursday, Ludington said he felt that it was his “civic duty” to come forward with this information, but he does not wish to speak on the matter further.
“I felt it was my civic duty to tell of my experience while drinking with Brett, and I offer this statement to the press,” the statement said. “I have no desire to speak further publicly, and nothing more to say to the press at this time. I will, however, take my information to the F.B.I.”
