Brett Kavanaugh: Trump orders new FBI probe into Supreme Court pick following Senate request

Donald Trump has ordered the FBI to carry out a fresh investigation into his nominee for the Supreme Court, after Republicans were obliged to delay a full confirmation vote after being blind-sided by one of their own senators.

During a day of blurred and frequently confusing drama on Capitol Hill, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday voted 11-10 to approve Brett Kavanaugh for a confirmation vote in the full senate. But it did so, only after an 11th hour intervention from Jeff Flake, a senator from Arizona, who said his support in the later confirmation vote was dependent on the FBI being given a week to carry out an investigation into Mr Kavanaugh, the subject of sexual assault allegations from several women, all of which he denies.

“This country is being ripped apart here,” Mr Flake told the committee, after a vote scheduled for 1.30pm was delayed. “We ought to do what we can to make sure that we do all due diligence with a nomination this important.”

Mr Flake’s deeds sent senior Republicans scrambling to decide how best to proceed. The senate’s Republican chairman, Chuck Grassley, who has long said he did not see the need for an additional investigation into Mr Kavanaugh, said it was the decision of Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell on when to hold the confirmation vote.

Within a matter of hours, Mr Grassley issued a statement saying he would ask the White House to request the FBI carry out an additional background check. Shortly afterwards, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement from the president, which read: “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.”

Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who delivered powerful testimony on Thursday in which she outlined, calmly but with emotion, the incident allegedly involving Mr Kavanaugh, said she welcomed an FBI investigation into the allegations. But one of her lawyers, Debra Katz, sought to push back on efforts to limit the length of the probe or its scope.

“No artificial limits as to time or scope should be imposed on this investigation,” said Ms Katz.

Reuters said the prospect of a new investigation put the confirmation chances for Mr Kavanaugh, a conservative federal appeals court judge, in further jeopardy in a senate only narrowly controlled by Republicans.

While he has stridently denied the accusations against him, his own testimony on Thursday was combative and at times aggressive. Several Republican women in the senate have already expressed doubts about him.

The move to delay the vote by a week was immediately supported by two of those women, Susan Collins of Maine and and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who have been considered possible no votes in the senate because of Mr Kavanaugh’s perceived opposition to women’s reproductive rights.

“I support this sensible agreement,” said Ms Collins.

In a statement issued by the White House, Mr Kavanaugh said he would cooperate with the FBI.

“Throughout this process, I’ve been interviewed by the FBI, I’ve done a number of ‘background’ calls directly with the senate, and yesterday, I answered questions under oath about every topic the senators and their counsel asked me. I’ve done everything they have requested and will continue to cooperate,” he said

Earlier, Mr Trump said he will leave it to the Senate to determine when it will vote on his Supreme Court nominee. But he said he felt optimistic. “I’m sure it will all be very good,” he said at the White House, where he was meeting the president of Chile.

He said he believed Ms Ford’s testimony “was very compelling, and she looks like a very fine woman to me”. He added: “Brett’s testimony was, likewise, really something that I hadn’t seen before.”

Mr Flake may have been motivated to act by the words of two protesters who confronted him in a senate elevator after it was initially announced he would back Mr Kavanaugh.

“What you are doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit on the Supreme Court. This is not tolerable. You have children in your family. Think about them. I have two children,” shouted one of the women, Ana Maria Archila. “I cannot imagine that for the next 50 years they will have to have someone in the Supreme Court who has been accused of violating a young girl. What are you doing, sir?”

Before Mr Flake’s actions, committee Republicans voted down a Democratic motion seeking to subpoena Mark Judge, a friend of Mr Kavanaugh who Ms Ford said witnessed the 1982 alleged assault. Mr Judge had told the committee in a written statement he does not recall any such incident. He is likely to be central to any FBI probe.

In a letter sent to the committee, Mr Judge sent a signed letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday, saying he “categorically” denies sexual misconduct allegations made by Julie Swetnick.

In a sworn statement released on Wednesday, Ms Swetnick accused Mr Kavanaugh and Mr Judge of excessive drinking and helping to organise the gang-rape of women. Both men denied the claims. Mr Kavanaugh has also been accused of exposing himself during a drunken dormitory party at Yale University.

The Washington Post said Republicans said they still planned to move ahead with a procedural vote on Mr Kavanaugh’s nomination on Saturday but will postpone a final vote on his confirmation that they had hoped would take place on Tuesday.