Killer Qs: Brett Kavanaugh Friends’ Yearbook Mentions Quaaludes, Supporting Julie Swetnick Story, Reports Say
In her allegations against Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, 55-year-old web designer Julie Swetnick claimed that Kavanaugh and his high school friend Mark Judge were involved in spiking drinks at parties with Quaaludes — a powerful sedative drug — and high-potency alcohol, according to a sworn affidavit posted on the Twitter account of her lawyer, Michael Avenatti.
High school yearbook entries, according to the reporter who broke the story of the first sexual assault allegation against Kavanaugh in The Intercept, may actually corroborate Swetnick’s allegations of Quaalude and high-proof alcohol use amongst Kavanugh’s circle of friends. Several of the entries contain references to “Killer Qs” and “151.”
“‘Killer Qs and 151’ is quite plausibly a reference to quaaludes and grain alcohol, which Julie Swetnick said were used to drug high school girls,” wrote reporter Ryan Grim on his Twitter account.
In addition, HillHeat consulting editor Brad Johnson — who noted the yearbook “Killer Qs” references in an account published by Medium.com — reported that Kavanaugh friends Donald J. Urgo and Phil Merkle both mention “Killer Qs” in their yearbook entries, with Merkle referencing a “Killer Qs club,” and Urgo’s entry reading “Killer Qs and 151.”
Both Urgo and Merkle were specifically mentioned by Kavanaugh in his now-infamous 2015 speech in which he stated, “What happens at Georgetown Prep stays at Georgetown Prep. That’s been a good thing for all of us, I think,” as Johnson noted in an earlier article for the online environmental policy site Hill Heat.
Kavanaugh's friend Urgo documented "Killer Qs and 151" in the Georgetown Prep yearbook.
Quaaludes and Bacardi 151, a discontinued brand of highly alcoholic rum made by Bacardi, named for its alcohol proof level of 151, that is, 75.5% alcohol by volume, typical rum at 35%–40% pic.twitter.com/7hso4TVrdG
— RiotWomenn (@riotwomennn) October 1, 2018
Georgetown Prep is the elite, all-male private high school attended by Kavanaugh in the early 1980s.
In the speech, Kavanaugh described himself as “still good friends” with Urgo and Merkle. Urgo is now a principal and managing partner at Urgo Hotels, a company founded by his father, Donald Urgo Sr., who remains the firm’s CEO. Merkle is Director of the Office of Administration for the United States Department of Justice.
In her allegations, Swetnick said that she was gang-raped at a party where Kavanaugh was present, after she was incapacitated when she was drugged against her will with “Quaaludes or something similar,” according to CNBC.
Urgo was among 60 former Georgetown Prep students who knew Kavanaugh and signed a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee defending him against the Swetnick allegations, according to The Hill.
But on Monday, according to WUSA TV News, 80 Georgetown Prep alumni signed another letter, this one calling for anyone who knew Kavanugh in the early 1980s to come forward with information about Kavanaugh — and supporting Kavanaugh’s first public accuser, Christine Blasey Ford.
“It was well known that private schools in the 80s had an enormous problem with drug and alcohol use and with rampant partying,” said 1986 Georgetown Prep grad Bill Barbot, a co-organizer of the letter-signing. Another Georgetown Prep alumnus, Fikri Yucel, told WUSA that the allegations against Kavanuagh were “possible because of some of the behavior of some of the individuals at Prep.”
Kavanaugh denies all sexual assault allegations against him.
