Battle Against Charges Continues As Kavanaugh's Appointment Advances

WASHINGTON – Senate Speaker of the Judiciary, Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has closed his summary of allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, his aides have called a former Deborah roommate Ramirez, classmate to Yale, who accused Kavanaugh of being exposed to her.

Jen Klaus, the former roommate, told NBC News that staff members of the committee had called her at 4:30 pm. On Thursday, she put her phone on the speaker and asked about Ramirez's drinking habits, about the fact that a Yale student was known to have dropped his pants and party culture in Yale. She says that they suggested that the allegation was a case of false identity.

"It just made me feel like they were suggesting it might be (another classmate) who threw his penis in his face instead of Brett." Why would they ask me that? Said Klaus, who now resides in Brookline, Massachusetts.

In a statement to NBC News, the committee's press secretary, George Hartmann, said that "no mistaken suggestion of identity has been made." The committee has received many advice and asked Ms. Klaus for information that she could provide in one way or another ".

"To say otherwise would not only be inaccurate, it would challenge everyone's motives," added Hartmann.

The FBI's additional investigation into the charges against Kavanaugh included interviews with nine people. The results were sent to the White House and Senate on Thursday morning. Grassley's summary indicates that committee staff spoke to 35 people.

Kavanaugh firmly denied the charges and his confirmation seems to have taken place on Saturday after Sense. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Manchin, D -W.Va, announced that they would support it late Friday afternoon.

Two former Yale classmates claimed to have repeatedly attempted to share text messages by asking whether Kavanaugh had attempted to crush the New Yorker story that had made public Ramirez's accusations – and stated that the FBI had not responded to their calls and wrote on its web portal.

Text messages involve a potential witness of the incident and the wife of another potential witness.

The lyrics are a conversation between Kathy Charlton and a common friend of Kavanaugh who, NBC confirmed, was identified by the FBI by Ramirez as an eyewitness to the incident. NBC News has received no response to several attempts to obtain the so-called eyewitness for comment.

The story detailing Ramirez's charge was published in the New Yorker on September 23. Charlton told NBC News that in a telephone conversation three days earlier, the former comrade had told him that Kavanaugh had called him and told him not to say anything "bad" if the press was to call.

On September 21, according to the texts, this same person would then have sent a text to Charlton, accusing him of revealing their conversation to a journalist. "Hellllllooooo. Do not F ****** SAYS PEOPLE BRETT OBTAINED IN CONTACT WITH ME !!! I told you when it was in confidence !!! "

"From the contents and all the capital letters of the text (the so-called witness), it seemed that Brett was at stake in the event of public disclosure of Brett's fears of being exposed," Charlton writes in a statement. at the FBI shared with Grassley. office on October 4th.

Charlton is not the only former Kavanaugh classmate at Yale to have indicated that the candidate and his team were active in communicating with their social group prior to the publication of the New Yorker story. NBC News reported that a note to the FBI, written by Kerry Berchem, asked if Kavanaugh "and / or his friends" could have initiated an anticipatory tale "as early as July to" conceal or discredit "Ramirez.

The two women pointed out that they did not know the whole story and drew no conclusions, but were puzzled as to why they had never been interviewed by the FBI staff or the police. judicial authority.

Both say they have made numerous attempts to join the FBI. On Thursday evening, after Grassley had completed the investigation, Berchem sent his third email to Mike Davis, the chief advocate of the Senate Judiciary Committee, pleading for him. Similar to his responses to previous e-mails, Davis indicated that his information had been passed on to the investigative staff. Berchem shared the exchange with NBC News.

The press officer of the committee, Hartmann, said: "It would be a lie to say that the investigators of the committee did not interview Mrs. Berchem." The investigators of the committee discussed at length with Mrs. Berchem on October 3 The investigators of the Committee also examined in detail the information provided by Ms Berchem.

Berchem told NBC News that she had a telephone conversation with a staff member of the committee who had given a brief overview of her concerns but had not been interviewed.

Hartmann also stated that the committee had received correspondence from Charlton. "In her letter, Ms. Charlton asked the committee to review her exchange, what the committee did, and said that the committee should feel free to contact her in case of questions," Hartmann said. "After evaluating the information provided, the professional investigators of the committee did not consider it necessary to make a follow-up call."

The texts

The efforts of the two women continued even as Republicans like Grassley insist that the investigation into the charges against Kavanaugh is over.

Berchem sent to the FBI some of the 51 screenshots of text messages that she exchanged with her friend Karen Yarasavage, wife of Kevin Genda, another alum identified by Ramirez as an eyewitness, to explain why one would have to ask Kavanaugh and his friends they were planning story on Ramirez as early as July.

Ramirez identified FBI witnesses Dave Todd, Kevin Genda and Dave White as eyewitnesses in the room during the alleged incident, according to a source close to the investigation.

In July, while the Washington Post quietly investigated a woman accusing Kavanaugh of sexual sexual behavior while she was in high school, she received what she alleged was a failed text from Yarasavage.

The text suggests that Kavanaugh's closest friends, Yale, and those identified later by Ramirez as witnesses, were looking for an old wedding day photo of 1997 including themselves, as well as Ramirez and Kavanaugh, all smiling.

The July 16 text says that "Whitey," or Dave White, sent a photo of the 1997 wedding party to the Washington Post. Berchem is not friend with White and assumes that it was sent to him by mistake. The text comes 10 days after Dr. Ford sent an anonymous message to the Washington Post's confidential line, according to his testimony in the Senate.

"Why was the 1997 photo recovered and distributed to the Washington Post at that time? Debbie's allegations against Brett will not be made public until September 23, "Berchem writes in his memo.

The Post has not published its article identifying Dr. Christine Blasey Ford as the accuser before September.

In July, Yarasavage also started sending text messages to a former classmate who was neither close nor to Rick F. On July 16, Yarasavage wrote to Berchem to tell him that she had found a "box of pictures of the university. Rick (F) etc. "

"None of us knew him well at the university, does she really have pictures of him?" Asked Berchem in his memo.

On September 23, the day the New Yorker published Ramirez's story accusing Kavanaugh of revealing himself, Yarasavage returned to Rick F .: "I thought I heard (he) took out his unit once. Could she be so wrongly wrong?

The subject, Rick, had not been to Yale during the 1983-84 school year. "She concludes by seeming to insinuate that problems with her father could have a negative impact on Ms. Ramirez's memory," wrote Berchem.

On the same day, Yarasavage also wrote to Berchem that she was contacted by the "Brett guy" and that "Brett had asked me to make a statement" about the New York play.

"I think these 23 September texts raise factual questions, such as the content of the conversation between Judge Kavanaugh and the reason why (Yarasavage) seemed to encourage a false theory of" mistaken identity "involving someone else. One who was not in Yale at the time of the alleged incident – which could warrant further investigation by the FBI, "wrote Berchem. NBC News has received no response to contact attempts with Yarasavage.