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Georgetown Prep alumni back up Kavanaugh's testimony on 'devil's triangle'

Four alumni from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's high school said in letters to Congress on Thursday that a disputed term in Kavanaugh's high school yearbook referred to a drinking game, as Kavanaugh told the Senate Judiciary Committee, and not to sexual activity.

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By
Ariane de Vogue
and
Eli Watkins, CNN
(CNN) — Four alumni from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's high school said in letters to Congress on Thursday that a disputed term in Kavanaugh's high school yearbook referred to a drinking game, as Kavanaugh told the Senate Judiciary Committee, and not to sexual activity.

The 1983 yearbook for Georgetown Prep has drawn scrutiny during Kavanaugh's confirmation process, with attention paid in part to the phrase "devil's triangle." The phrase has sexual connotations, but in last week's nationally televised hearing, Kavanaugh said "devil's triangle" was a drinking game akin to "quarters."

Kavanaugh acknowledged the yearbook in his testimony, calling it a "disaster" inspired by movies like "Animal House."

Kavanaugh's conduct in high school and college, as well as his credibility, have taken on scrutiny as he faces accusations of sexual assault and misconduct, which he has denied. The FBI competed a days-long review into allegations against Kavanaugh and submitted its review to the Senate on Thursday.

Some, including Kavanaugh's former college roommate, have disputed Kavanaugh's claims about phrases like "devil's triangle." Both a former football team manager and a man who overlapped with Kavanaugh at Georgetown Prep told The New York Times that they did not accept Kavanaugh's account either.

In the letters submitted Thursday, however, former Georgetown Prep students said Kavanaugh's description of "devil's triangle" was correct.

One letter addressed to Iowa GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley and California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein -- respectively, the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee -- came from a group of four that identified themselves as classmates of Kavanaugh from Georgetown Prep.

"'Devil's Triangle' was a drinking game we came up with in high school," they wrote. "It was a variation on the game 'Quarters.'"

The four, DeLancey Davis, Bernard McCarthy, Jr., Paul Murray and Matthew Quinn, said while they did not remember where the name came from, none of them used it in the yearbook "to refer to any kind of sexual activity."

"To us, it was just a game with glasses in the shape of a triangle," they wrote. "If the phrase 'Devil's Triangle' had any sexual meaning in the early 1980s, we did not know it."

Greg Aceto and Bill Van Pelt, IV, wrote to Grassley and Feinstein as well. They said in their first year at Boston College they lived with Quinn.

"Matthew taught us a drinking game called 'Devil's Triangle' that he had played with his friends in high school," they wrote. "We did not understand 'Devil's Triangle' to have any sexual meaning. It was simply a game that used cups or glasses of beer placed in the shape of a triangle."

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