A mutual friend of Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Debbie Ramirez, the second woman to accuse him of sexual misconduct, says she has text messages that reveal the Supreme Court nominee was trying to discredit Ramirez even before her story first appeared in The New Yorker.
That friend, Kerry Berchem, has repeatedly reached out to the FBI but reportedly has not been allowed to file a report or be interviewed.
Ramirez has accused Kavanaugh of exposing his penis in her face. She says when she tried to escape she had no choice but to come into contact with it. In some jurisdictions what she described could be sexual assault.
Before The New Yorker’s article ran, Judge Kavanaugh “and his team were communicating behind the scenes with friends to refute the claim according to text messages obtained by NBC News,” the network’s Heidi Przybyla and Leigh Ann Caldwell report.
“Kerry Berchem, who was at Yale with both Kavanaugh and his accuser, Deborah Ramirez, has tried to get those messages to the FBI for its newly reopened investigation into the matter but says she has yet to be contacted by the bureau.”
The text messages, NBC News adds, reveal that Kavanaugh and Ramirez were much more socially connected than he has suggested.
On “Meet the Press” Monday evening Przybyla notes that Kavanaugh told the Judiciary Committee that he was not aware of the revelations that appeared in The New Yorker until the article ran. These text messages, Przybyla says, would appear to refute that claim.
Experts say that a Supreme Court nominee trying to “sway the information” would be “highly imprudent.”
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