Sheldon Whitehouse on Kavanaugh: ‘I don’t believe a devil’s triangle is a drinking game’

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said Friday that he believes Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh misled the Senate Judiciary Committee about the meaning of the term “devil’s triangle” as written in his high school yearbook.

[Click here for complete Kavanaugh coverage]

Kavanaugh testified Thursday that the term included in his self-written yearbook biography referred to a drinking game, rather than a sex act.

“I don’t believe ‘boof’ is flatulence, I don’t believe a ‘devil’s triangle’ is a drinking game, and I don’t believe calling yourself a girl’s ‘alumnius’ is being her friend,” the Rhode Island senator said as the Judiciary Committee prepared to vote on Kavanaugh, who defended the yearbook references as innocent.

Kavanaugh testified Thursday that “devil’s triangle” referred to a game similar to “quarters,” in which players bounce coins into a glass.

The term “devil’s triangle” is more commonly known to refer to a sexual act with two men and one woman.

In an interview with Senate Judiciary Committee staff Tuesday, Kavanaugh said he never had a threesome, while denying gang rape allegations made by Julie Swetnick, his third named sexual misconduct accuser.

“I’ve never participated in sexual activity with more than one woman present and me. I think — yeah. Just making sure I accurately described that. In other words, I’ve never had a threesome or more than a threesome,” Kavanaugh said, according to a transcript released by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Committee members are poised to vote along party lines Friday to confirm Kavanaugh, following testimony Thursday from both Kavanaugh and his first sexual misconduct accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, who says he pinned her to a bed, attempted to remove her clothes, and covered her mouth when she was 15 and he was 17.

Kavanaugh emotionally denied Ford’s allegation and has also denied allegations made by Swetnick and his former Yale University classmate Deborah Ramirez, who alleges that Kavanaugh flashed her while she was drunk in college, forcing her to touch his penis without her consent.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said Friday that he believed Kavanaugh had a history of making misleading statements under oath, referring to testimony during his confirmation hearing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Leahy has accused Kavanaugh of being untruthful about his receipt of leaked Democratic documents, about his involvement with a judicial nomination, and about his role in establishing a warrantless surveillance program.

“Time and time again, when confronted under oath with questions about his involvement in Bush-era scandals or controversial matters, he misled the Senate,” Leahy said. “Now, the fact that he misled the Senate over and over again does not make him guilty of sexual assault as a 17-year-old nor does the fact he minimized the heavy drinking in his youth and misrepresented the misogyny in his yearbook, but it goes to the heart of Judge Kavanaugh’s truthfulness anytime he’s faced with potentially incriminating questions.”

Republican senators voting in favor of Kavanaugh say that no evidence emerged that he committed sexual assault. The full Senate is expected to vote as early as Saturday on his nomination.