Before the New Yorker published a story claiming that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh had exposed himself to Deborah Ramirez during a party at Yale University, Kavanaugh and his staff reportedly sent text messages to friends who attended the party asking for support and looking for them to publicly deny the allegations.
According to Ramirez’s story in The New Yorker, at a dorm-room party during the 1983-84 school year, Kavanaugh reportedly took his penis out at a party and shoved it in her face, causing her to touch it before she pushed him away.
According to text messages given to NBC News, Kerry Berchem and Karen Yarasavage exchanged text messages regarding the allegations and at one point, Yarasavage notes that Kavanaugh asked her to publicly deny the allegations.
Other text messages appear to show that Kavanaugh’s staff had reached out to other classmates before the story was published.
Yarasavage said in one message that she’d corresponded with “Brett’s guy.” Yarasavage also claimed that she sent a copy of a photo from a wedding attended by Kavanaugh and Ramirez “to Brett’s team.”
Berchem, a lawyer told NBC News that the messages were sent to her but that she has no knowledge of the allegations being made against Kavanaugh.
“I am in receipt of text messages from a mutual friend of both Debbie and mine that raise questions related to the allegations,” Berchem said in a statement to NBC News. “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.”
Berchem also noted that she has attempted to share both the messages and any information she has with the FBI but hadn’t heard back as of Monday morning.
“Berchem says in her memo that Kavanaugh “and/or” his friends “may have initiated an anticipatory narrative” as early as July to “conceal or discredit” Ramirez,” according to NBC News.
If the text exchange proves to be true then this could cause another issue about honesty surrounding Kavanaugh’s testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. During the hearing Kavanuagh claimed that the first time he heard about Ramirez’s was after the New Yorker story was published.
Kavanaugh has adamantly denied all allegations and claims that all information against him is just an orchestrated hit to “take him out”.