‘Brett’s Guy’: Text Messages, Wedding Photo Cast Doubt On Kavanaugh Account Of Ramirez Allegations

Another day, another Brett Kavanaugh bombshell.

On Monday, America learned the details surrounding a 1985 incident at a New Haven dive bar where, according to the account of Chad Ludington, a Yale classmate of Kavanaugh, Trump’s Supreme Court nominee instigated a “bloody”, beer-slinging brawl after mistaking some random patron for the lead singer of an English reggae band.

A police report seen (and published) by the New York Times indicates former NBA center (and staunch Kavanaugh supporter) Chris Dudley was involved in the melee.

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Kavanaugh And NBA’s Dudley Started Bloody Bar Fight Over Case Of Mistaken Reggae Identity: NYT

Needless to say, that doesn’t do much to support Kavanaugh’s contention that he never got blackout drunk, although to be fair, it does lend credence to the notion that Brett wasn’t prone to passing out, because after all, it’s hard to engage in Ivy League fisticuffs if one is asleep.

Fast forward less than 24 hours and there’s another decidedly sketchy story about  Kavanaugh making the rounds, this time courtesy of text messages obtained by NBC.

Two Sunday’s ago, The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow published a truly damning account of an episode that purportedly happened during a dorm room drinking party at Yale. You can read the details of that here, but suffice to say that according to Deborah Ramirez (pictured below), your next Supreme Court justice got drunk one night and literally slapped her in the face with his penis.

(Ramirez)

“Brett was laughing [and] I can still see his face, and his hips coming forward, like when you pull up your pants”, Ramirez recalled, adding that “somebody yelled down the hall, ‘Brett Kavanaugh just put his penis in Debbie’s face.’”

Well, according to NBC, Kavanaugh became aware of that story days before it was published and, in a panic, began text messaging old friends in an effort to get out ahead of it.

The texts in question are between Kerry Berchem and Karen Yarasavage, both Kavanaugh friends. Berchem was at Yale with Kavanaugh and the above-mentioned Deborah Ramirez. Here’s NBC:

The texts between Berchem and Karen Yarasavage suggest that the nominee was personally talking with former classmates about Ramirez’s story in advance of the New Yorker article that made her allegation public. In one message, Yarasavage said Kavanaugh asked her to go on the record in his defense. Two other messages show communication between Kavanaugh’s team and former classmates in advance of the story.

In one text, Yarasavage said she was in touch with “Brett’s guy,” and also with “Brett,” himself. According to the texts, she was asked to go on the record refuting Ramirez.

As NBC goes on to note, interviews with GOP staffers from the Senate Judiciary Committee suggest that Kavanaugh might have attempted to explain away communications between former classmates by putting the blame on Ramirez. Here’s a quote from the transcript which is embedded in full below:

[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.

Right. Of course if Kavanaugh was in fact the one “calling around”, it sounds like a panicked effort to see who remembers what on the way to covering up something that may or may not have happened.

The texts obtained by NBC support that latter assessment.

“The texts also demonstrate 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 10 years after they graduated”, NBC goes on to say, detailing the messages before asserting that “Berchem’s efforts also show that some potential witnesses have been unable to get important information to the FBI.”

And yes, you read that last bit correctly. Berchem has apparently made more than one attempt to turn these messages over to federal investigators to no avail. Here’s what she said in a statement to NBC:

 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. 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.

And it gets worse. Berchem was in touch with Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s office last week and Blumenthal then turned over her summary of the texts to the Judiciary Committee. Well, guess what? Republicans didn’t give it to the FBI. Here’s Blumenthal’s spokeswoman:

After we were made to jump through several hoops that delayed our moving forward, it became clear that the majority Committee staff had not turned this summary over to the FBI and, in fact, had no intention of turning it over to the FBI. With our assistance, Kerry submitted her summary to the FBI herself.

Hmmm. Does it sound to you like Republicans are actually interested in getting to the bottom of these allegations?

As far as the wedding mentioned above is concerned, there’s actually a picture of that. Here it is (Ramirez and Kavanaugh are circled):

(NBC)

Finally, NBC says that according to Berchem, Kavanaugh “and/or” his friends and associates, just might have been engaged in an effort to start spinning any potential allegations from Ramirez in July. If true, that would directly contradict Kavanaugh’s sworn testimony to the Senate.

This is all just further evidence to support the notion that Kavanaugh is misleading the American public and in all likelihood, lied to Congress last week.

You can draw your own conclusions, but with each passing day, this nomination looks more and more tenuous and if everything reported on Tuesday is accurate (or even some semblance of accurate), it also appears that some Senate Republicans are involved in a coverup.

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Full transcript of Kavanaugh staff interview on September 25

09.25.18 BMK Interview Transcript (Redacted).