Who Is Bart O'Kavanaugh? Mark Judge's Book Describes Drunken Friend

It's long been believed that the "Bart O'Kavanaugh" Mark Judge referred to in his 1997 book, "Wasted: Tales of a GenX Drunk," was a pseudonym for Brett Kavanaugh, his good friend growing up, and President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee.

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford alleges that Judge witnessed Kavanaugh sexually assaulting her in the early 1980s when they were in high school.

During questioning by the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, Kavanaugh did not deny that he was the drunken "Bart O'Kavanaugh" who was said to have vomited and passed out in a car in Judge's book. A heated exchange between Kavanaugh and Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont left the question unanswered, but suggested Kavanaugh believed Judge was referring to him.

"Mark Judge was a friend of ours in high school who developed a very serious drinking problem–an addiction problem–that lasted decades and was difficult for him to escape from," Kavanaugh said.

He added that Judge nearly died from drinking too much and later developed cancer. As part of his therapy and process to become sober, Kavanaugh explained Judge wrote a book that is a "fictionalized account" of parts of his life. Judge chose friends who he had in real life to portray characters he wrote about in the book. It was previously known Judge referred to real people and gave them pseudonyms to protect their identities.

"So, we don't know if that's you or not?" Leahy asked.

"We can sit here and make fun of someone who has an addiction," Kavanaugh said. "You'd have to ask [Judge]."

Leahy said he agreed with him that Judge should be present to testify. Republicans on the committee would only allow Ford and Kavanaugh to testify, despite Ford naming Judge as being present during the alleged assault. Ford also named other witnesses who were present in the house during the incident.

Leahy and Kavanaugh then went on to discuss other topics, leaving the Bart O'Kavanaugh question without a specific answer from the Supreme Court nominee.

Two named women, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick, along with other anonymous people, also made sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh. Neither Ramirez nor Swetnick were asked to testify before the committee.

Kavanaugh denied the sexual assault allegations Thursday, saying the claims by Ford and other women were false.