President Donald Trump, ceding to a request from Senate Republican leaders facing an insurrection in their ranks, ordered the FBI on Friday to reopen a background investigation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, his nominee to the Supreme Court, and examine allegations of sexual assault against him.
The announcement plunged Kavanaugh’s nomination into new turmoil and will delay, by as much as a week, a final confirmation vote. It came only 24 hours after the judge and one of his accusers, Christine Blasey Ford, each gave emotional testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee that led many Republicans to think Kavanaugh’s confirmation was inevitable.
Trump and the Republican leaders had little choice but to ask Trump to order the FBI inquiry after Senator Jeff Flake (Republican-Arizona), said he would not vote to confirm him without an FBI investigation first.
Trump, who had hoped Kavanaugh would be sworn in by the time the Supreme Court opens its term Monday, said he was ordering the FBI to conduct what he called a “supplemental” investigation that he said “must be limited in scope and completed in less than a week.”
The FBI had already completed a background check on Kavanaugh, and it was unclear what the parameters of the new inquiry would be. But according to a person familiar with the matter, the allegations made by Deborah Ramirez, a former Yale classmate of Kavanaugh’s, will be investigated along with those made by Blasey.
The announcement plunged Kavanaugh’s nomination into new turmoil and will delay, by as much as a week, a final confirmation vote. It came only 24 hours after the judge and one of his accusers, Christine Blasey Ford, each gave emotional testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee that led many Republicans to think Kavanaugh’s confirmation was inevitable.
Trump and the Republican leaders had little choice but to ask Trump to order the FBI inquiry after Senator Jeff Flake (Republican-Arizona), said he would not vote to confirm him without an FBI investigation first.
Trump, who had hoped Kavanaugh would be sworn in by the time the Supreme Court opens its term Monday, said he was ordering the FBI to conduct what he called a “supplemental” investigation that he said “must be limited in scope and completed in less than a week.”
The FBI had already completed a background check on Kavanaugh, and it was unclear what the parameters of the new inquiry would be. But according to a person familiar with the matter, the allegations made by Deborah Ramirez, a former Yale classmate of Kavanaugh’s, will be investigated along with those made by Blasey.
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