President Trump has ordered the FBI to investigate Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a high school party in the early 1980s.
“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,” the president said in a statement Friday evening.
The president said earlier Friday that he would back any path forward that Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Senate Republicans chose with regard to Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination.
Kavanaugh made it past a critical step in the nomination process Friday afternoon after the Senate Judiciary Committee voted in favor of his nomination to the Supreme Court. The vote came roughly 24 hours after Kavanaugh defended himself against Ford’s allegations that he sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school.
The nominee got the thumbs up from the committee Friday afternoon, but the process almost immediately hit another snag after Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., called for no more than a weeklong delay so that the FBI can investigate Ford’s allegations.
“I think it would be proper to delay the floor vote up to but not more than one week in order to let the FBI do an investigation limited in time and scope [on] the current allegations that are there,” Flake said.
The president’s statement Friday evening makes it clear he is willing to accept Flake’s request and that he wants it to be a quick, expedited process.
Flake’s request for a delay had the potential to get support from a small group of his Republican and Democratic colleagues: Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. That potential was realized only hours later, after Murkowski and Collins said they both back Flake in support of an FBI investigation.
Kavanuagh has been adamant since Ford’s allegations surfaced that he did not sexually assault her, or anyone, while he was in high school. The nominee also claims he has never assaulted anyone in the face of three other allegations.
“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,” Kavanaugh said Friday evening in response to the president’s announcement.
