Texts suggest Kavanaugh asked friend to defend him before New Yorker published accuser's story

Text messages obtained by NBC News suggest Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh spoke with at least one Yale classmate about Deborah Ramirez before The New Yorker published an article that included her accusation that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party when they were college freshmen.

The texts are between Kerry Berchem and Karen Yarasavage, college friends of Kavanaugh and Ramirez. One of the messages from Yarasavage states that Kavanaugh asked her to go on the record refuting Ramirez's allegation, NBC News reports. She said she spoke to both "Brett" and "Brett's guy," and Berchem said Yarasavage also told her she sent a photo from her 1997 wedding to Kavanaugh's team; the photo shows Ramirez, who was a bridesmaid, and Kavanaugh, a groomsman.

In additional texts obtained by NBC News, Yarasavage said she did not refute Ramirez's claim, but did not have any knowledge of the incident, and Berchem wrote that Ramirez steered clear of Kavanaugh during the wedding and "clung to me." Berchem told NBC News she has been trying to get these text messages to the FBI, as part of their investigation into Kavanaugh, but no one has contacted her yet.

During his Senate Judiciary Committee testimony last week, Kavanaugh declared under oath that the first time he heard of Ramirez's accusation was when The New Yorker published the account on Sept. 23. A spokesman for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said "the texts from Ms. Berchem do not appear relevant or contradictory to Judge Kavanaugh's testimony."