FBI to investigate Kavanaugh’s background
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, under intense pressure from moderates in his own party over his Supreme Court nominee, on Friday ordered an FBI investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against Brett Kavanaugh at the request of Senate Republicans, a move that will delay the contentious confirmation process by a week.
The key player in a day of dramatic and unexpected developments was Senator Jeff Flake, a moderate Republican retiring from the Senate in January who provided the decisive vote to approve Kavanaugh’s nomination in the Judiciary Committee and send the matter to the full Senate.
But Flake, after urgent consultations with colleagues including Democratic Senator Chris Coons, cast the vote only after asking the Republican-led panel to request that the Trump administration pursue an FBI probe lasting up to seven days of the explosive allegations against Kavanaugh.
Trump, who had previously rebuffed Democratic demands for an FBI probe, granted the request, ordering the “supplemental investigation” to be “limited in scope and completed in less than one week.”
“Just started, tonight, our 7th FBI investigation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
He will someday be recognized as a truly great Justice of The United States Supreme Court!,” Trump said in a Twitter post late on Friday.
Flake’s move came a day after an extraordinary hearing in which university professor Christine Blasey Ford detailed her sexual assault allegation against Kavanaugh. Flake’s action also came only hours after two protesters who said they were sexual assault survivors cornered him in an elevator and castigated him for announcing he would vote for Kavanaugh in the committee.
“That’s what you’re telling all women in America - that they don’t matter, they should just keep it to themselves,” one of the protesters shouted at Flake, a frequent Trump critic who looked shaken by the encounter. —
Just started, tonight, our 7th FBI investigation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. He will someday be recognised as a truly great Justice of The United States Supreme Court.
Donald Trump,
US President