NOMINEE: NEW CHARGE IS FROM THE ‘TWILIGHT ZONE’

before deciding whether she would support the nomination, but her office and Kavanaugh’s handlers could not arrange a time, she said.

Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada, the only member of the GOP seeking re-election this fall in a state Hillary Clinton won in 2016, did not say whether the hearing today could prompt him to vote against Kavanaugh. Heller has expressed support for Kavanaugh’s nomination in the past.

“The Judiciary Committee has already been in contact with Ms. Ramirez’s attorneys and they have asked if she will provide evidence to committee investigators,” Heller said in a statement Monday. “As I’ve said before, all senators, regardless of party, should work with (Senate Judiciary) Chairman (Chuck) Grassley in good faith.”

Trump continues to support his nominee and has expressed skepticism about the accusations. Kavanaugh has said the accusations were false.

“This is a smear, plain and simple,” Kavanaugh said in a statement released Sunday by the White House. “I look forward to testifying on Thursday about the truth, and defending my good name — and the reputation for character and integrity I have spent a lifetime building — against these last-minute allegations.”

The latest allegation was levied Wednesday by Swetnick, 55, who like Kavanaugh, 53, grew up in the Washington suburbs. In a statement posted on Twitter by her lawyer, Swetnick said she observed the future Supreme Court nominee at parties in the 1980s where women were verbally abused, inappropriately touched and “gang raped.”

She said she witnessed Kavanaugh participating in some of the misconduct, including lining up outside a bedroom where “numerous boys” were “waiting for their ‘turn’ with a girl inside the room.” Swetnick said she was raped at one of the parties and she believed she had been drugged.

None of Swetnick’s claims could be independently corroborated by The New York Times or The Associated Press, and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, declined to make her available for an interview.

In a statement Wednesday, Kavanaugh said: “This is ridiculous and from the Twilight Zone. I don’t know who this is and this never happened.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee said Wednesday it was reviewing the new allegations after Avenatti provided a statement from Swetnick to the committee.

Trump said on Twitter that Avenatti was a “third rate lawyer who is good at making false accusations” and suggested he “is just looking for attention.”

The New York Times News Service and Associated Press contributed to this report.