Leaked Messages Show Kavanaugh Tried to Refute Accuser's Claim Before it Went Public

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's claims are falling apart under renewed scrutiny amid an FBI investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations against him.

NBC News reports that text messages between Kavanaugh's friends contradict his claim to the Senate Judiciary Committee about a former college classmate who accused him of exposing himself to her.

Last month, former Yale classmate Deborah Ramirez alleged that Kavanaugh exposed his penis to her during a college party in the 1980s. During a hearing before the Judiciary Committee, Kavanaugh claimed that he had never heard of the allegations until they were reported in the press.

But according to NBC News, the leaked text messages show that Kavanaugh contacted his old friends to refute the claim months before it became public.

The texts between Kerry Berchem and Karen Yarasavage, both friends of Kavanaugh, suggest that the judge personally contacted his college classmates about Ramirez's story well before The New Yorker published her claims.

In one text, Yarasavage revealed that Kavanaugh asked her to refute Ramirez's claim on the record.

According to NBC, two other messages show “communication between Kavanaugh's team and former classmates in advance of the story.”

But speaking to the Judiciary Committee last week, Kavanaugh claimed it was Ramirez who was “calling around to classmates trying to see if they remembered it.”

Kavanaugh told the Senate panel that it “strikes me as, you know, what is going on here? When someone is calling around to try to refresh other people? Is that what’s going on? What’s going on with that? That doesn’t sound — that doesn’t sound — good to me. It doesn’t sound fair. It doesn’t sound proper. It sounds like an orchestrated hit to take me out.”

Berchem told NBC News that she sent a memo to the FBI but has not heard back.

“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,” she said in a statement to the network. “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."

Another woman who wants to speak to the FBI but has not gotten a response is Elizabeth Rasor, a former girlfriend of Kavanaugh's high school friend Mark Judge. Judge is alleged to have been in the room when Kavanaugh attempted to rape Christine Blasey Ford, according to her testimony to the Judiciary Committee.

An attorney for Rasor told The New Yorker that her client “has repeatedly made clear to the Senate Judiciary Committee and to the F.B.I. that she would like the opportunity to speak to them” but “received no substantive response.”

“She feels a sense of civic duty to tell what she knows,” added the attorney, Roberta Kaplan. “But the only response we’ve gotten are e-mails saying that our e-mails have been ‘received.’”

She added that an FBI official suggested she try calling an 800-number tip line.

Rasor came forward after hearing Judge's denials about the allegation to offer a sworn statement to the FBI “challenging Judge’s credibility,” The New Yorker reports.

Rasor said that “under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t reveal information that was told in confidence,” but, she added, “I can’t stand by and watch him lie.”

Rasor said that Judge told her about an incident involving him and other boys taking turns having sex with a drunk woman, but added she had no knowledge if Kavanaugh participated.

An anonymous male classmate who also came forward to corroborate Ramirez's claims told The New Yorker that he too has been unable to reach the FBI.

The classmate said he was “one-hundred-percent certain” he heard an account of the alleged incident a day or two after it happened.

“I thought it was going to be an investigation,” the classmate said, “but instead it seems it’s just an alibi for Republicans to vote for Kavanaugh.”

Another male classmate, Charles Ludington, also came forward to refute Kavanaugh's claims about his college drinking.

Ludington wrote that Kavanaugh often became “belligerent and aggressive” after excessive drinking.

“I can unequivocally say that in denying the possibility that he ever blacked out from drinking, and in downplaying the degree and frequency of his drinking, Brett has not told the truth,” Ludington wrote. “I felt it was my civic duty to tell of my experience while drinking with Brett, and I offer this statement to the press. I have no desire to speak further publicly, and nothing more to say to the press at this time. I will however, take my information to the F.B.I.”

Kavanaugh has vehemently denied all of the allegations against him.

The FBI investigation into the matters is expected to wrap up by Friday due to a time-limit imposed by President Donald Trump's White House.

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