Brett Kavanaugh Tried To Refute Yale Accuser’s Claim Before It Became Public, Text Messages Show

Before news broke that Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh was being accused of sexual harassment by Yale college classmate Deborah Ramirez during a freshman college party, Kavanaugh’s legal team was communicating with friends to refute the allegations, according to NBC News.

Kerry Berchem, a classmate of both Kavanaugh and Ramirez has reportedly been trying to get those messages into the hands of the FBI, who are in the middle of a week-long investigation into Kavanaugh’s past.

Berchem reached out to FBI agent J.C. McDonough with a memo detailing the texts she received.

She got no response, so she sent the summary again on Monday morning along with screenshots of the texts that she found relevant.

“I’m sure he’s really busy and expect that he’ll get back to me,” said Berchem.

Berchem has since said she has been contacted by the FBI and was interviewed as part of the assault probe, according to CBS.

Ramirez’ attorney John Clune told CBS that his client would be “willing” to testify to her allegations as well.

The texts, which were between Berchem and Karen Yarasavage, another friend of Kavanaugh’s, indicate that Kavanaugh himself was personally contacting former classmates about Ramirez’s accusations before they broke in the New Yorker.

Yarasavage even said that Kavanaugh had even asked if she would go on the record to defend him publically.

Two other messages show Kavanaugh and his team attempting to reach out for support prior to the story going public.

The texts also reveal that Kavanaugh and Ramirez’s circles of friends appear to be heavily linked, so much so that Ramirez said she was uncomfortable when she and Kavanaugh saw one another at a wedding ten years after they’d graduated.

In a statement Berchem gave to NBC News, she said, “I understand that President Trump and the U.S. Senate have ordered an FBI investigation into certain allegations of sexual misconduct by the nominee Brett Kavanaugh. I have no direct or indirect knowledge about any of the allegations against him. However, I am in receipt of text messages from a mutual friend of both Debbie and mine that raise questions related to the allegations. I have not drawn any conclusions as to what the texts may mean or may not mean but I do believe they merit investigation by the FBI and the Senate.”

Kavanaugh has repeatedly denied the allegations of all the women accusing him.

Despite the growing mountain of evidence against Kavanaugh, Senate Republicans have shown no signs that their support for him is wavering.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is already planning a vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination on the Senate floor for later this week after the FBI’s investigation concludes.

George Hartmann, a spokesman for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, gave his opinion on Berchem’s text messages.

“the texts from Ms. Berchem do not appear relevant or contradictory to Judge Kavanaugh’s testimony.”

“This appears to be another last-ditch effort to derail the nomination with baseless innuendo by Democrats who have already decided to vote no,” Hartmann said.