by Kevin Daley and Andrew Kerr
The Daily Caller News Foundation has identified Brian Merrick as the author of a letter alleging that Dr. Christine Blasey Ford did not provide accurate testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee about her experience with polygraph tests.
Though a witness Merrick names has denied his accusation, Senate Republicans have requested additional information from Blasey Ford in view of the letter. Blasey Ford has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in the early 1980s while the two were teenagers.
Merrick met Blasey Ford in either 1989 or 1990, and the pair dated from 1992 to 1998, according to a letter he submitted to the Judiciary Committee. The letter also indicates that they lived together for a portion of their relationship. The couple met when they were students at Pepperdine University in California.
TheDCNF has independently confirmed that Merrick and Blasey Ford were associated with the same address in southern California while they were dating in the late 1990s. The Wall Street Journal identified Merrick as an ex-boyfriend of Blasey Ford in a pre-hearingarticle.
Though Merrick wrote that he finds Blasey Ford truthful, he disputed several portions of her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. In particular, Merrick charges that he observed Blasey Ford advising her best friend, Monica McLean, on polygraph tests in advance of job interviews with a federal prosecutor’s office and the FBI, which contradicts Blasey Ford’s testimony to the Judiciary Committee.
Investigative counsel Rachel Mitchell asked Blasey Ford if she has “ever had discussions with anyone besides your attorneys on how to take a polygraph.” Mitchell made it clear she was not referring to countermeasures, but to “tips or anything like that.”
Ford said she had not.
McLean denied the charge in a statement released via Blasey Ford’s lawyers.
“I have NEVER had Christine Blasey Ford or anybody else, prepare me, or provide any other type of assistance whatsoever in connection with any polygraph exam I have taken at any time,” McLean said.
McLean went to high school with Blasey Ford at the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Maryland. She is a signatory on a letter of Holton-Arms alumnae supporting Blasey Ford and attesting to her “honesty, integrity, and intelligence.” She worked for the Department of Justice from 1992 to 2016 and is currently an independent consultant, according to her LinkedIn page.
Merrick wrote that he broke up with Blasey Ford after discovering that she cheated on him.
Elsewhere in the letter, Merrick alleges that Blasey Ford used his credit card against his wishes after their relationship ended and never referred to her alleged encounter with Kavanaugh.
Merrick is currently a high-end real estate broker at Coldwell Banker in the Malibu, California, area, specializing in beachfront and unique properties.
He has received several awards for excellence at Coldwell and is currently designated as one of the top 100 agents of the firm’s 92,000 real estate agents worldwide.
Merrick couldn’t be reached for comment.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley requested additional information about the polygraph test Blasey Ford took concerning Kavanaugh in a letter sent to her attorneys on Tuesday evening.
“The full details of Dr. Ford’s polygraph examination are particularly important because the Senate Judiciary Committee has received a sworn statement from a longtime boyfriend of Dr. Fords, starting that he personally witnessed Dr. Ford coaching a friend on polygraph examinations,” the letter reads.
Blasey Ford has accused Kavanaugh of holding her down against her will and groping her while attempting further sexual assaults.
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Kevin Daley and Andrew Kerr are reporters for the Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Kevin on Twitter. Follow Andrew on Twitter.
