Yale graduates emailed about new Kavanaugh allegation in July, New Yorker's Jane Mayer says

On Sunday, Deborah Ramirez alleged in an interview with The New Yorker that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party while they were both students at Yale University. But rumors of the incident have swirled for months in Yale circles, New Yorker reporter Jane Mayer said Monday.

Ramirez's allegation came after Christine Ford told The Washington Post that Kavanaugh forcibly groped her in high school. Kavanaugh has denied both allegations.

The timing of the New Yorker's report has invited questions from critics who wondered why the news broke so close to the end of Kavanaugh's confirmation process. But the article's co-author, Jane Mayer, told NPR on Monday that a group of Yale graduates emailed about this alleged incident back in July, after Kavanaugh was nominated by President Trump but before any other sexual misconduct allegations had emerged.

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During the course of her reporting, Mayer read these emails, she told NPR. And speaking to the Today show on Monday, she explained, "The story broke overnight [Sunday], but it dates back 35 years." Ramirez didn't come to The New Yorker, Mayer said, but rather "the classmates at Yale were talking to each other about it, they were emailing about it ... and eventually word of it spread. It spread to the Senate. It spread to the media. And we [at The New Yorker] reached out to her."

A participant in that email exchange was one of the individuals mentioned in the New Yorker piece, Mayer said — a classmate who declined to be named but who said that he recalls hearing about the Ramirez incident at the time it happened. He was not actually at the party, but "independently recalled" many of the same details Ramirez provided, per The New Yorker.

Mayer and co-author Ronan Farrow noted that they were not able to confirm the alleged incident with any eyewitnesses. You can watch Mayer's Today appearance here.