During the 2016 campaign, a rumor sprang up in some circles that a pizza place in Washington, DC, was being used for child sex trafficking and Satanic rituals…and its existence was revealed via John Podesta’s leaked emails. This is the story via Wikipedia:

This conspiracy theory emerged near the end of the 2016 United States presidential election cycle. On October 30, 2016, a white supremacist Twitter account that presented itself as belonging to a Jewish lawyer in New York included a display of a claim that the New York City Police Department, which was searching emails found on Anthony Weiner’s laptop as part of an investigation into his sexting scandals, had discovered the existence of a pedophilia ring linked to members of the Democratic Party. Internet users reading John Podesta’s emails released by WikiLeaks in early November 2016 speculated that some words in Podesta’s emails were code words for pedophilia and human trafficking. Proponents also claimed that the ring was a meeting ground for Satanic ritual abuse.

The theory was then posted on the message board Godlike Productions. The following day, the story was repeated on Your News Wire citing a 4chan post from earlier that year. The Your News Wire article was then spread by pro-Trump websites, including SubjectPolitics.com, which falsely claimed the New York Police Department had raided Hillary Clinton’s property. The website Conservative Daily Post ran a headline falsely stating that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had confirmed that story.

Now the left and their anti-Kavanaugh allies are going down a similar path to try to substantiate any tiny bit of Christine Ford’s story. As it stands right now, the only part of the story that has checked out is that she went to high school in Montgomery County, Maryland. Period.

What was notable about her histrionic testimony before Congress was that, miraculously, she suddenly had details she never had before. In her letter to Feinstein and all previous accounts she was unclear of the year of the alleged incident, the month of the incident, how she got there, how she got home, and all the witnesses she provided uniformly said: “we were never at any such gathering.” But under questioning, suddenly memories appeared. This is the key part from a scurrilous story by the Washington Post’s Philip Bump headlined Mark Judge’s book validates Christine Blasey Ford’s timeline of the alleged Kavanaugh assault:

She described having seen Kavanaugh’s classmate Mark Judge — who she alleges was in the room when the attack occurred — shortly after the alleged incident.

“I did see Mark Judge once at the Potomac Village Safeway after the time of the attack,” she said, “and it would be helpful with anyone’s resources if — to figure out when he worked there if people are wanting more details from me about when the attack occurred. If we could find out when he worked there, then I could provide a more detailed timeline about when the attack occurred.”
…
“I was going to the Potomac Village Safeway, this is the one on the corner of Falls and River Road,” she said. “And I was with my mother and I was a teenager, so I wanted her to go in one door and me the other. I chose the wrong door because the door I chose was the one where Mark Judge — it looked like he was working there and arranging the shopping carts.”

“I said hello to him, and his face was white and very uncomfortable saying hello back,” she continued. “And we had previously been friendly at the times that we saw each other over the previous two years. . . . I wouldn’t characterize him as not friendly, he was just nervous and not really wanting to speak with me. He looked a little bit ill.”

“How long did this occur after the incident?” Durbin asked.

“I would estimate six to eight weeks,” she replied.

Note that Judge says he worked at the store in his book and this is the first time Ford has ever mentioned it. The obvious conclusion is that a) she got this information from Judge’s book and b) has blended it in with her story. Beyond that, there (this has become a pattern in Ford’s story) is no witness to this meeting, there is no contemporaneous record by either party of the meeting, and there is no evidence that Judge behaved as she said. Documenting when Judge worked at the Safeway only proves he worked there. It is no evidence, whatsoever, that Ford ever encountered him there.

With that as bait, Meghan McArdle got to work. She falls squarely into a group of two other people, Nate Silver (of 538.com) and Ken White (aka PopeHat), who used to appear fair-minded but Kavanaugh has revealed them to be pretty much raving looney partisans.

Why does it matter? Because Ford testified that she had seen Mark Judge six to eight weeks after the attack, when he was working in that Safeway. https://t.co/33bp3iffUh

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) September 30, 2018

(Link to calendar: https://t.co/k9uRpVeLqf)

Now, what is "a few weeks"? I'm tempted to say "five or under", but can't guarantee that Mark Judge has the same definition that I do. I'm going to say "Less than 8" because 8 seems more like "summer job" than "a few weeks"

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) September 30, 2018

Already, this seems in conflict with what she told us about it being the "end of the summer". So more like the beginning or middle of the summer, because of course, every week we push back his employment from late August, we have to push back the attack as well.

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) September 30, 2018

She could have read the book and added it to her memory of that summer years later, something we know happens with traumatic memory. Or she could genuinely remember seeing him, but before the attack rather than after–at a distance of 35 years, memory is not that good.

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) September 30, 2018

It has been 25 years for me, since high school, but IIRC, late summer sports camps tended to want at least deposits in late spring/early summer, and full payment sometime before August 1st.

If Judge actually had to work to get the money (rather than pay his parents back…)

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) September 30, 2018

I doubt Safeway or the IRS has his employment records. But the Social Security Administration probably does, so the FBI should get them–and if they need a subpoena, and the Senate has the authority to issue it, they should do so.

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) September 30, 2018

And if there is exculpatory information, that can cast doubt on the reliability of Ford's memories, then you are most likely to find it by giving the FBI its head and saying "Go get 'em, Tiger!"

So unshackle the FBI. Offer Senate assistance with subpoenas. Investigate everything

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) September 30, 2018

Footnote: Okay, maybe they're lifting the limitations. https://t.co/zYa3JuayEg

If so, good!

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) September 30, 2018

This whole train of thought is total bullsh**. There can be no exculpatory evidence because the left and its #BelieveWomen allies won’t believe Ford is a liar. There is nothing about Judge’s employment record that is more exculpatory than what we already have: a statement from Leland Keyser, who Ford claims was with her at the party, saying the party never happened. We know Judge worked there because he’s told us he did. What we don’t and can’t know is the truthfulness of Ford’s story about meeting him there (well, actually we can and do but here allies won’t admit it). All Mark Judge working as Safeway does is tell us that he worked there, and we already know that from his book.

And this is why Trump going along with the Senate’s request, rather than saying “we don’t do that, you have your own investigators, and, by the way, separation of powers, bitches,” was a colossal mistake. There is no proof that will clear Kavanaugh because Ford’s tale is designed to be as difficult to substantiate as nailing Jell-O to a wall and no one has the guts to call her out as the liar she is.

Here are the Democrats & their media wing after they got the FBI supplemental background check they wanted: pic.twitter.com/vDXa7aGeeD

— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) September 30, 2018

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