Brett Kavanaugh: Republican senators demand delay in vote on Trump Supreme Court pick after sexual assault claims
Calls for postponement comes after accuser goes public for first time - while president's allies insist the accusations are part of a conspiracy
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Your support makes all the difference.Republican heavyweights have joined Democrats in demanding a delay to Donald Trump’s controversial US Supreme Court nomination, Brett Kavanaugh, after a woman who has accused the judge of sexual assault went public.
Senators Jeff Flake and Bob Corker both said a vote should wait until senators had heard from Christine Blasey Ford – who claims Mr Kavanaugh attacked her when they were both teenagers.
“I’ve made it clear that I'm not comfortable moving ahead if we have not heard her side of the story or explored this further," said Mr Flake.
A third senator, Lisa Murkowski, said a postponement was “something they might need to consider”.
If appointed, Judge Kavanaugh would shift the Supreme Court to the right, and give Mr Trump an ally of considerable power.
The senators voiced their concerns hours after Ms Ford – a research psychologist with Palo Alto University in California – identified herself as the woman at the centre of explosive claims.
The 51-year-old told her story to the Washington Post after first making the accusations in a confidential letter to Democratic representative Anna Eshoo and senator Dianne Feinstein in July.
She said she was going public now after her story became widely known and reporters had started to identify her as the author.
She claims the judge and another teen, Mark Judge, pinned her to a bed, restrained her and tried to remove her bathing suit while at a house party in the summer of 1982. She was just 15. Judge Kavanaugh and Mr Judge would have been 17.
The mother-of-two said she thought the pair might kill her at the time. “I think it derailed me substantially for four or five years,” she said, adding she struggled to establish healthy relationships with men in the aftermath. “I was very ill-equipped to forge those kinds of relationships.”
Both men deny the allegations, while top Trump allies have gone as far to dismiss the claims as a Democrat conspiracy designed to torpedo the administration.
A senior White House official is said to have told the Daily Beast proceedings remained “full steam ahead” in favour of Judge Kavanaugh.
Ally Ralph Reed, founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, meanwhile, labelled the allegations “transparently a desperate, last-minute attempt by Senate Democrats to delay the confirmation of one of the most eminently qualified Supreme Court nominees in modern history.”
In the US, commentators have noted how the episode recalls another confirmation battle more than 25 years ago, when Clarence Thomas faced sexual harassment allegations during his own Supreme Court hearings.
The big question appears to be if, this time, things will turn out differently: Mr Thomas prevailed and was appointed to the court.
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