FBI clears Kavanaugh as Senate prepares to vote
President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee is expected to be confirmed this weekend after the most divisive battle for a generation, with key Republican senators welcoming an FBI investigation that found no support for sexual misconduct allegations.
Jeff Flake, who prolonged the acrimonious confirmation process by insisting on a week-long FBI inquiry into the claims against Brett Kavanaugh, said that the investigators had found no additional corroborating information.
Amid an outcry from the Democrats that the FBI was restricted by the White House, another wavering Republican senator, Susan Collins of Maine, said: ‘‘It appears to be a very thorough investigation.’’
Senators will vote today on a procedural motion to hold the full confirmation vote tomorrow.
Kavanaugh, 53, will succeed if Flake and Collins, two of three undecided Republicans, back him. Protesters against Kavanaugh occupied Collins’s office yesterday.
The Republicans have only a 51-49 advantage in the Senate but a tied vote would be sufficient to confirm Kavanaugh, a conservative appeals court judge who worked on the impeachment of President Clinton.
His appointment would tip the balance of the nine-member Supreme Court to the right.
One Democratic senator also remained undecided yesterday.
Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, is fighting to retain his seat in a state that voted for Trump in 2016. Another Democratic waverer, Heidi Heitkamp, of North Dakota, said she would vote against the judge.
Americans were transfixed by the competing public testimonies of Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, a university professor who saidthat she was ‘‘100 per cent’’ sure he was the teenage boy who held her down on a bed in 1982, covered her mouth and tried to take her clothes off. He angrily denied her claims and those of two other women, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick.
The FBI interviewed Ramirez, who claimed that Kavanaugh thrust his genitals into her face at a Yale university party in the early Eighties, but not Swetnick, who said she had seen Kavanaugh at parties where girls were gang-raped.
The FBI report was not made public but a single copy, running to more than 1000 pages, was made available to senators to consult in hour-long shifts.
‘‘There’s nothing in [the FBI report] that we didn’t already know,’’ Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, said. ‘‘This investigation found no hint of misconduct.’’
The Democrats accused the White House of limiting the scope of the FBI investigation.
‘‘The most notable part of this report is what’s not in it,’’ Dianne Feinstein, the senior Democrat on the judiciary committee, said.
‘‘The FBI did not interview Brett Kavanaugh nor Dr Blasey Ford ... [the report] looks to be the product of an incomplete investigation that was limited perhaps by the White House.’’ She added: ‘‘Democrats agreed that the investigation’s scope should be limited. We did not agree that the White House should tie the FBI’s hands.’’
Chuck Schumer, leader of the Senate Democrats, said: ‘‘We had many fears that this was a very limited process that would constrain the FBI from getting all the facts. Those fears have been realised.’’
Lawyers for Dr Ford said that she was profoundly disappointed not to be interviewed by the FBI. A lawyer for Ms Ramirez said the FBI failed to follow up a list of 20 people she said could attest to Kavanaugh’s general behaviour.
Raj Shah, a White House spokesman, said the FBI had contacted ten people and ‘‘comprehensively’’ interviewed nine of them.
‘‘The Senate set the scope on what they’re interested in. Any background investigation has to have some form of limiting scope,’’ he said. ‘‘In these matters it was set by the White House but we defer to the Senate requests.’’
Trump said on Twitter that the investigation was the seventh by the FBI into Kavanaugh’s background in the course of his career.
‘‘If we made it 100, it would still not be good enough for the Obstructionist Democrats,’’ he said. He pointed to polls suggesting that the controversy was boosting Republican support in next month’s midterm elections.
‘‘The harsh and unfair treatment of Judge Brett Kavanaugh is having an incredible upward impact on voters. The PEOPLE get it far better than the politicians. Most importantly, this great life cannot be ruined by mean & despicable Democrats and totally uncorroborated allegations!’’ he tweeted.
Flake called for the FBI inquiry last Friday as the price of agreeing to send Kavanaugh’s nomination from the judiciary committee to a vote of the full Senate.
The Arizona senator had earlier been cornered in a lift and berated for ten minutes by two women who said they were victims of sexual assault.
Mitch McConnell, the leader of Republican senators, urged his colleagues to support Kavanaugh.
‘‘Is that what the Senate is to become known for? A nomination comes up here and we destroy your reputation?’’ he said.
‘‘For goodness sake, this is the United States of America: nobody is supposed to be guilty until proven innocent in this country. Brett Kavanaugh is stunningly and totally qualified for this job.’’
He defended Kavanaugh’s aggressive rejection of the allegations against him, which led more than 1,500 law professors to sign a letter declaring he ‘‘displayed a lack of judicial temperament that would be disqualifying for any court, and certainly for elevation to the highest court of this land’’. – The Times
‘‘There’s nothing in [the FBI report] that we didn’t already know. This investigation found no hint of misconduct.’’
Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate judiciary committee