Text Messages Between Brett Kavanaugh and His Classmates Suggest Cover up Attempt

Washington-
In the days leading up to a public allegation that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh exposed himself to a college classmate, the judge and his team were communicating behind the scenes with friends to refute the claim, according to text messages obtained by NBC News.

Kerry Berchem, who was at Yale with both Kavanaugh and his accuser, Deborah Ramirez, has tried to get those messages to the FBI for its newly reopened investigation into the matter but says she has yet to be contacted by the bureau.

The texts between Berchem and Karen Yarasavage, both friends of Kavanaugh, 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.

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. Berchem's efforts also show that some potential witnesses have been unable to get important information to the FBI. 

On Monday, a senior U.S. official confirmed that the White House has authorized the FBI to expand its initially limited investigation by interviewing anyone it deems necessary as long as the review is finished by the end of the week. The New York Times first reported the change in scope. NBC News reached out to Berchem for comment after obtaining a copy of a memo she wrote about the text messages. 

In a statement to NBC News, Berchem, a partner in the law firm Akin Gump, said: “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. “

On Sunday, Berchem emailed FBI agent J.C. McDonough her memo. After getting no response, she resent the summary on Monday morning along with screenshots of certain texts that she thinks raise questions that should be investigated. “I’m sure he’s really busy and expect that he’ll get back to me,” said Berchem.

Berchem’s memo outlining her correspondence with Yarasavage shows there’s a circle of Kavanaugh friends who may have pertinent information and evidence relevant to the inquiry who may not be interviewed. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already set in motion a vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination on the Senate floor for later this week.

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

Berchem, 51, a graduate of Yale and a Connecticut resident, reached out to Sen. Richard Blumenthal's office last week. Blumenthal, a Democrat, sits on the Judiciary Committee.

“We heard from Kerry late on Thursday and submitted her summary to the Judiciary Committee early Friday,” a spokeswoman for Blumenthal said in a statement to NBC News. “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.”

Adam Lanza's Motive: He Feared Being Institutionalized

Mother was about to have him committed

The mother of the Sandy Hook shooter, Nancy Lanza, was in the process of having her son committed to a psychiatric facility when he went on the mass shooting spree, a lifelong family associate told Fox News. A senior law enforcement official also confirmed that 20-year-old Lanza's anger over his mother's plan is being investigated as a possible motive for the Newtown shooting.
"From what I've been told, Adam was aware of her petitioning the court for conservatorship and (her) plans to have him committed," said Joshua Flashman, 25, who grew up not far from where the shooting took place. "Adam was apparently very upset about this. He thought she just wanted to send him away. From what I understand, he was really, really angry. I think this could have been it, what set him off." It's unclear whether Adam's mother, Nancy Lanza, was really filing the paperwork, because court officials say that such records are sealed. But she would have gone through a longer process to get legal rights to commit an adult to a hospital or psych ward against his will.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Still Giving Out Big Bonus Checks

 

 

The Obama administration’s efforts to fix the housing crisis may have fallen well short of helping millions of distressed mortgage holders, but they have led to seven-figure paydays for some top executives at troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, the government regulator for Fannie and Freddie, approved $12.79 million in bonus pay after 10 executives from the two government-sponsored corporations last year met modest performance targets tied to modifying mortgages in jeopardy of foreclosure.

The executives got the bonuses about two years after the federally backed mortgage giants received nearly $170 billion in taxpayer bailouts — and despite pledges by FHFA, the office tasked with keeping them solvent, that it would adjust the level of CEO-level pay after critics slammed huge compensation packages paid out to former Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines and others.

Securities and Exchange Commission documents show that Ed Haldeman, who announced last week that he is stepping down as Freddie Mac’s CEO, received a base salary of $900,000 last year yet took home an additional $2.3 million in bonus pay. Records show other Fannie and Freddie executives got similar Wall Street-style compensation packages; Fannie Mae CEO Michael Williams, for example, got $2.37 million in performance bonuses.
Including Haldeman, the top five officers at Freddie banked a combined $6.46 million in performance pay alone last year, though a second bonus installment for 2010 has yet to be reported to the SEC, according to agency records. Williams and others at Fannie pocketed $6.33 million in incentives for what SEC records describe as meeting the primary goal of providing “liquidity, stability and affordability” to the national market.
“Freddie Mac has done a considerable amount on behalf of the American taxpayers to support the housing finance market since entering into conservatorship,” Freddie spokesman Michael Cosgrove, told POLITICO on Monday. “We’re providing mortgage funding and continuous liquidity to the market. Together with Fannie Mae, we’ve funded the large majority of the nation’s residential loans. We’re insisting on responsible lending.”
A Fannie Mae spokesman said it is currently in a “quiet period” in advance of its third-quarter earnings report and declined to comment.
Most analysts believe the financial implosion of 2008 was fueled in part by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s zeal in promoting homeownership and their backing of risky loans. And critics say that the mortgage giants’ deep backlog of repossessed homes, and their struggle through government receivership, is a staggering weight on a weak economy and puts even more downward pressure on home values.
“Fannie and Freddie executives are being paid millions to manage losses,” Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), a longtime critic of the administration’s programs to rescue the housing market, told POLITICO. “By these same standards, I should be the starting forward for the Lakers. It’s completely absurd.”
“It is outrageous that senior executives at Fannie and Freddie are receiving multimillion-dollar compensation packages when they now rely on funding from U.S. taxpayers, many of whom face foreclosure or whose homes are underwater,” Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, who has led House Democrats in efforts to ease Fannie and Freddie’s restrictions on restructuring loans or lowering payments for mortgage holders who owe more than their homes are worth, wrote in an email.
Compensation at Fannie and Freddie is, in fact, 40 percent below pre-government takeover levels, according to the FHFA, though those pay packages before receivership involved stock awards, while the current payments are exclusively cash. But compensation at both corporations, in particular Fannie Mae, has been a contentious issue since long before the 2008 financial meltdown, thanks to executives like Daniel Mudd, who earned $12.2 million in base pay and bonuses while heading Fannie, and Richard Syron, Freddie’s CEO, who pocketed $19.8 million in total compensation the year before the organization went into receivership.

More Gay Characters On Network TV

The number of gay and bisexual characters on scripted broadcast network TV has risen slightly this season to 23 out of a total of nearly 600 roles, according to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
The 15th annual "Where We Are on TV" report released Wednesday found that 3.9 percent of actors appearing regularly on prime-time network drama and comedy series in the 2010-11 season will portray gay, lesbian or bisexual characters.
That's up from 3 percent in the 2009-10 season. The increase in 2008-09 was 2.6 percent.
Only six of the 23 gay and lesbian characters this season are nonwhite, GLAAD found

Using information provided by ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and CW, the group reviewed 84 scripted series announced to air this season.
The only original programming announced by the gay-focused cable networks here! and Logo is unscripted, alternative programming, so they were not part of this year's character count, GLAAD said.
While the number of broadcast drama series featuring regular or recurring gay characters is unchanged from last year, the number of comedy series has increased from 8 to 11, including new comedies "Running Wilde" (Fox), "Hellcats" (CW), "(Bleep) My Dad Says" (CBS), and midseason show "Happy Endings" (ABC).
ABC led the networks in gay representation, with 7.2 percent or 11 regular characters out of a total of 152, followed by Fox with five out of 100 (5 percent).
On mainstream cable channels, the number of regular characters rebounded to 35 after a two-year decline.
HBO features the greatest number of gay and bisexual characters, with 10 regular and recurring characters.
The HBO drama "True Blood" is the most inclusive series on television, featuring six characters, the group found.
The overall increase in gay characters "not only reflects the shift in American culture towards greater awareness and understanding of our community, but also a new industry standard that a growing number of creators and networks are adopting," GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios said in a statement.
He pointed to such programs as ABC's "Modern Family" and Fox's "Glee" as indicators that "mainstream audiences embrace gay characters and want to see well-crafted stories about our lives."

Sarah Palin's One Night Stand Comes Back To Haunt Her

By Julius Kane

I know the Republican Party has been screwing minorities for years, but Sarah Palin? Say it isn’t so!  According to a new book, novelist Joe McGinniss claims the former half governor of Alaska (she quit halfway through her term) had “a fetish for black guys for a while.” McGinniss names former N.B.A. star Glen Rice (who’s black), as the object of Palin’s affection. This allegedly occurred while she was involved with her current husband Todd. The book also alleges drug use, abuse of office and racism.

No stranger to controversy McGinniss’s novels has covered an assorted range of high profile people including Richard Nixon. This will of course add to the books credibility; however some critics are already questioning the writer’s motives. The New York Times is calling some of his allegations “petty.” But petty doesn’t mean they’re untrue.

Last year further allegations of racism were leveled against Sarah Palin when daughter Bristol got into a relationship with Kyle Massey, the black guy from the Disney Channel’s ‘That’s So Raven.’ The former vice presidential candidate went ballistic; refusing to have her daughter dating a black man. Little did we know young Bristol Palin was only following in her mother’s footsteps.

                                                                                                                

Sarah Palin’s bigoted views and intellectual laziness may be adorable to her multitudes of devoted followers, however sleeping with the enemy, no matter how long ago, could be the one unforgivable sin Tea Party loyalists cannot overlook. I mean, someone’s bound to call her a groupie; shattering the safe, soccer mom image Republicans have spent years cultivating.

 Some things can’t be simply chalked up to youthful indiscretion. And before you know it more people start popping up like a jack- in- the- box hurling accusations. Believe it or not, this book has the potential to squash Palin’s 2012 Presidential bid. Reporters are guaranteed to ask her multitudes of questions and digging up skeletons she herself forgot were hidden. In hindsight we shouldn’t be too surprised. If you think about it Sarah Palin wouldn’t be the first racist to sneak out to the slave quarters when the master’s back was turned. And she sure as hell won’t be the last.

Follow Julius Kane at: Theunexpurgatedtruth.blogspot.com, facebook.com/juliuskane and twitter.com/juliuskane