Textual messages suggest that Kavanaugh wanted to refute the accuser's claim before it was made public

WASHINGTON – In the days leading up to a public allegation that Supreme Court candidate Brett Kavanaugh was exposing himself to a classmate, the judge and his team were communicating behind the scenes with friends to refute this claim.

Kerry Berchem, who was in Yale with Kavanaugh and her accuser, Deborah Ramirez, tried to send these messages to the FBI for her re-opened investigation on the subject, but says she has not yet been contacted by the bureau.

The texts between Berchem and Karen Yarasavage, two friends of Kavanaugh, suggest that the candidate personally spoke about Ramirez's story with her former classmates before the New Yorker article that made her allegations public. Yarasavage said in a message that Kavanaugh had asked him to stand in his defense. Two other messages show the communication between the Kavanaugh team and the former classmates before the story.

The texts also show that Kavanaugh and Ramirez were more socially connected than previously understood and that Ramirez was uncomfortable around Kavanaugh when they saw each other at a wedding, ten years after obtaining their degree. Berchem's efforts also show that some potential witnesses were unable to obtain important information for the FBI.

On Monday, a senior US official confirmed that the White House had authorized the FBI to broaden its initially limited investigation by questioning anyone deemed necessary, provided that the review was completed by the end of the week. The New York Times first reported the change in perimeter.

NBC News solicited comments from Berchem after obtaining a copy of a memo she had written about SMS. In a statement to NBC News, Berchem, a partner with the law firm Akin Gump, said, "I understand that President Trump and the US Senate have ordered an FBI investigation into some allegations of sexual misconduct by the government. candidate Brett Kavanaugh. I have no direct or indirect knowledge about any of the allegations against him. However, I get text messages from a mutual friend of Debbie and mine who raise issues related to the allegations. I have not made any conclusions as to what the texts might mean or not say but I think they deserve an investigation by the FBI and the Senate. "

On Sunday, Berchem sent an e-mail to FBI agent J.C. McDonough for his note. Having received no response, she returned the summary on Monday morning with screenshots of some texts that she said raise issues that need to be addressed. "I'm sure he's very busy and that he's expecting me to recontact him," Berchem said.

Berchem's note describing his correspondence with Yarasavage shows that there is a circle of Kavanaugh friends who may have relevant information and evidence relevant to the investigation and who may not be interviewed. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already begun a vote on Kavanaugh's appointment to the Senate for later this week.

Kavanaugh strongly denied Ramirez's allegation, as well as Christine Blasey Ford's accusations that he sexually assaulted her while in high school and by Julie Swetnick that Kavanaugh committed sexual misconduct at parties when she was a student at Georgetown Preparatory School in the 1980s.

Berchem, 51, a Yale graduate and Connecticut resident, contacted Senator Richard Blumenthal's office last week. Blumenthal, Democrat, sits on the Judiciary Committee.

"We heard Kerry late on Thursday and submitted his summary to the Judiciary Committee on Friday morning," a spokeswoman for Blumenthal said in a statement to NBC News. "After we were forced to go through several steps that delayed our progress, it became clear that the staff of the majority of committees had not forwarded this summary to the FBI and did not even intend to pass it on. . With our help, Kerry herself submitted her summary to the FBI.

George Hartmann, a spokesman for the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said that "Ms. Berchem's texts do not seem relevant or contradictory to the testimony of Judge Kavanaugh".

"This seems to be another ultimate effort to derail the candidacy with baseless allusions from Democrats who have already decided to vote no," Hartmann said.

Berchem's texts with Yarasavage highlight Kavanaugh's personal contact with his friends, including the fact that he got a copy of a small group of friends from Yale at a wedding in 1997 to be smiling alongside Ramirez 10 years after graduation. Kavanaugh was a boy of honor and Ramirez a bridesmaid at the wedding.

Berchem hired a lawyer on Sunday to help him put his information in good hands. She has twice sent her memo to the FBI and has not yet received a response, according to her lawyer, who requested anonymity. He pointed out two texts in particular

In a series of texts before the publication of the New Yorker's story, Yarasavage wrote that she had been in contact with "Brett's guy" and also with "Brett", who wanted her to refute Ramirez. According to Berchem, Yarasavage also told her friend that she had handed a copy of the photo of the wedding party to Kavanaugh, in a text: "I also had to send it to the team of Brett. "

Bob Bauer, former White House advisor to President Barack Obama, said, "It would be surprising and it would certainly be imprudent if Judge Kavanaugh directly contacted a person suspected of having information about such allegations. he was advised to let his legal and appointment team deal with the issues raised in press releases or otherwise, and to do so as appropriate. "

In addition, the texts show that Kavanaugh might need to be questioned about the delay that he had anticipated in the fact that Ramirez would broadcast allegations against him. Berchem says in his note that Kavanaugh "and / or" his friends "may have initiated an" anticipation story "as early as July to" conceal or discredit "Ramirez.

Kavanaugh swore before the Senate Judiciary Committee that the first time he had heard of Ramirez's allegation, it was in the September 23 article of The New Yorker.

Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, asked Kavanaugh the first time that he had heard of Ramirez's allegations. Kavanaugh replied, "In the history of the New Yorker."

A text of 24 September shows that Yarasavage specifies that she did not refute Ramirez's claims to the New Yorker. Republicans and Kavanaugh said his former classmates, who had made an anonymous statement to the New Yorker, had refuted Ramirez's request.

"I did not say I would have known. … I said she never told me, I never heard a word of what was going on and I have never seen it before. The media has assumed (that I was saying that she's lying), "said Yarasavage.

Yarasavage refused to speak to NBC News, as did other classmates named in Berchem's note who might have relevant information for the investigation.

Finally, Berchem is worried about what she saw at the 1997 wedding, in which Ramirez and Kavanaugh were at the party.

According to information provided by Berchem, Ramirez tried to avoid Kavanaugh at the wedding of their two friends, Yarasavage and Kevin Genda.

Ramirez, "is hanging on to me" at the wedding, Berchem wrote to Yarasavage in a text message on September 24th. "She has never approached them," a reference to Kavanaugh and his friends. Even in the group photo, Berchem writes, Ramirez was trying to stay away from Kavanaugh.