US President Donald Trump ordered a new FBI investigation into
sexual assault allegations against his Supreme Court pick Friday, as the
Senate delayed a vote on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to make way for
the probe.
After a dramatic day-long
hearing at which a university professor accused Kavanaugh of pinning her
down and assaulting her at a party in the 1980s, the Senate Judiciary
Committee earlier Friday approved his nomination in a preliminary vote
along party lines.
But committee
chair Chuck Grassley then bowed to intense pressure from inside and
outside Congress and announced he was asking Trump to order the new
background review that "must be completed no later than one week from
today."
Trump, who repeatedly blasted Democratic opposition to Kavanaugh as a political "con-job," agreed.
"I've
ordered the FBI to conduct a supplemental investigation to update Judge
Kavanaugh's file. As the Senate has requested, this update must be
limited in scope and completed in less than one week," the president
said in a statement.
Trump's order
and the decision to put off a final vote came after a key Republican
senator, Jeff Flake, threatened to break ranks with his party because of
the clouds hanging over Kavanaugh's head.
At
least three women have now accused the 53-year-old conservative judge
of sexual misconduct while drunk, as a high school and later a
university student.
Democrats have
repeatedly demanded those charges be assessed by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation to determine if he is suitable for the lifetime high court
appointment.
Flake's stunning
11th-hour move played out on national television amid heated partisan
debate and raucous protests in the halls of the Capitol, where one woman
cornered the Arizona senator in an elevator demanding he oppose
Kavanaugh, citing her own experience with sexual assault.
"This country's being ripped apart," said Flake. "And we have to ensure that we do due diligence here."
His move earned the endorsement of another Republican seen as wavering on the nomination, Lisa Murkowski.
With the Republicans holding a narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate, that placed pressure on Trump to order the FBI probe.
Republicans see Kavanaugh as pivotal to their gaining control of the nine-member Supreme Court bench.
Trump
nominated him to replace Anthony Kennedy, who for years was a swing
vote between four conservative and four liberal justices.
Some
conservatives hope Kavanaugh's appointment could lead to a reversal of
the court's protection for women's abortion rights and for "affirmative
action" programs supporting minorities in schools and jobs.
With
the stakes so high, the Judiciary Committee's preliminary vote took
place amid extraordinary tension. Kavanaugh's supporters and opponents
squared off furiously in hearing rooms and protestors crowded the
hallways of Congress chanting "November is coming!" -- a reference to
the upcoming midterm elections.
"Don't
look away from me! Look at me and tell me that it doesn't matter what
happened to me, that you'll let people like that go to the highest court
in the land," one weeping woman berated Flake as he made his way to the
committee room.
The panel vote split
along strict party lines with the 11 Republican members backing
Kavanaugh and all 10 Democrats opposing him.
The
vote came a day after 51-year-old university professor Christine Blasey
Ford described over four hours how she says Kavanaugh assaulted her 36
years ago and how it traumatized her for decades after.
Blasey
Ford said she was "100 percent" certain that a drunken Kavanaugh, along
with his friend Mark Judge, were the ones that attacked her at a high
school party in suburban Maryland in 1982.
After
Blasey Ford's testimony, Kavanaugh hit back furiously, categorically
denying the assault took place and accusing Democrats of destroying his
reputation for political reasons.
"This
whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political
hit fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the
2016 election," he said. "This is a circus."
The
new FBI probe will likely include interviewing accusers and witnesses
that the committee had refused to hear. The other person named by Blasey
Ford as having taken part in her attack, Kavanaugh's school friend
Judge, said Friday he was willing to be interviewed by the FBI.
Kavanaugh meanwhile issued a statement saying he had done "everything" requested of him and would "continue to cooperate."
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