It’s judgment day

Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh faces accuser in Senate

US President Donald Trump says he’s open to “changing my mind” about Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh if testimony before the Senate by accuser Christine Blasey Ford is totally convincing.

Judge Kavanaugh and Dr Ford were set to testify overnight in a defining moment for the controversial nominee, who now faces accusations from four women.

Mr Trump launched a spirited defence of the judge, saying he felt it was pointless ordering an FBI investigation into the 30-year-old allegations of sexual misconduct.

“I think when you really look at it all, it’s not gonna change any of the Democrats’ minds. They are obstructionists ... And they know it is a big, fat con job.”

He went on to say he had himself been accused by “women who got paid a lot of money to make up stories about me. We caught them and the mainstream media refused to put it on television.”

Julie Swetnick became the third woman to accuse Judge Kavanaugh, when she alleged that during the 1980s he drugged women at parties who were then gang-raped.

Ms Swetnick says she knew Judge Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge during high school in 1981 and 1982 in suburban Maryland, during which time she alleges she saw them and their friend spike punch at house parties so that women who drank it could be “gangraped” by a “train” of boys.

A fourth woman has come forward to accuse Judge Kavanaugh, this time of physical assault in 1998. The anonymous source wrote to Republican Senator Cory Gardner that Judge Kavanaugh was drunk during the attack in Washington DC.

“When they left the bar (under the influence of alcohol) they were all shocked when Brett Kavanaugh, shoved her friend up against the wall very aggressively and sexually ... There were at least four witnesses,” she wrote.