Brett Kavanaugh investigation: Senator Susan Collins returns to review FBI report as protests rage against Supreme Court nominee
Trump administration 'confident' Senate will back nominee — but some swing vote senators have yet to tell what they plan on doing
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Your support makes all the difference.Senators are reviewing the FBI’s latest background check on Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, in a secret Capitol Hill location.
They are expected to vote on Friday on whether to move forward swiftly on Mr Kavanaugh’s nomination to a likely confirmation vote at the weekend.
White House spokesman Raj Shah said senators “have been given ample time to review this seventh background investigation” into Mr Kavanaugh, who denies accusations of sexual misconduct when he was in high school and college. The White House was “confident the Senate will vote to confirm” the judge, he added.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley tweeted early Thursday that he had received the FBI file. He and his colleagues began reviewing the documents on Thursday morning.
Republicans agreed to ask the FBI for an additional background check on Mr Kavanaugh after his first accuser, Dr Christine Blasey Ford, testified last week that he had sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers. Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, voted to move the nomination to the full Senate but had asked that the FBI investigation be conducted.
Dr Ford’s attorneys have said she was not contacted for an interview. But the FBI spoke to a second woman, Deborah Ramirez, who claims Mr Kavanaugh exposed himself to her when they were in college. Mr Kavanaugh says that accusation is false.
Mr Schumer has now railed upon the access senators have to the FBI investigation documents.
He said that one document was available to all senators, which he said hobbled their ability to consider the investigation.
Both Ms Feinstein and Mr Schumer appeared very angry with the results of the FBI investigation, and said that it was incomplete.
They noted — based upon media reports — that potential witnesses were not interviewed.
They left without taking questions from the media.
Meanwhile on the Senate floor, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is speaking in favour of Mr Kavanaugh.
He has noted that Mr Kavanaugh has a long history of excellence as a judge — a statement that generally has not been contradicted. Mr Kavanaugh's nomination is not in danger because of his judicial credentials, though, as it has been endangered by allegations of sexual misconduct that Mr Kavanaugh has denied.
Mr McConnell is questioning how the national dialogue about Mr Kavanaugh has switched from his judicial credentials to his conduct in high school and in college.
He has not specifically named the allegations — which are of sexual misconduct and assault — but did focus on reports that Mr Kavanaugh was once involved in a bar fight.
Mr McConnell, unlike the Democrats, appears satisfied with the FBI investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct levied against Mr Kavanaugh.
He notes that the FBI has investigated Mr Kavanaugh seven times now.
He said that the allegations against Mr Kavanaugh have not been corroborated.
Democrats, earlier, noted that the most recent investigation — which was completed in less than one week — was limited in scope and was not thorough enough to speak to many potential witnesses who have been identified in media reports.
Mr McConnell has called the allegations against Mr Kavanaugh "wild" and "ridiculous" in his speech on the Senate floor.
He notes that Mr Kavanaugh has denied the allegations of sexual misconduct under penalty of law.
Mr McConnell is painting the issue as one of due process, parroting a line used by President Donald Trump this week that the United States is a country where people are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
It should be noted that Mr Kavanaugh has not been charged with a crime, and that he is being considered for a lifetime appointment to the most powerful court in the US — not standing before a jury facing prosecution.
"For goodness sakes this is the United States of America. Nobody is supposed to be guilty until proven innocent in this country," Mr McConnell said.
"The Senate should not set a fundamentally un-American precedent here," he said.
Senator Susan Collins — a key Republican vote — has said that the FBI investigation appears to have been thorough.
She said that she plans on reading it thoroughly going forward, according to CNN reporter Jeremy Herb.
Mr McConnell has said that the process of confirming Mr Kavanaugh has been ruled by "anger", and suggested that accusers are trying to intimidate the Senate.
"We owe it to the American people not to be intimidated by these tactics," Mr McConnell said on the Senate floor. "It's the Senate who is on trial here, Mr President, what kind of image are we going to convey to the public?"
"They're trying to intimidate the Senate into defeating a good man. Are we going to allow this to happen in this country?" he continued.
Mr McConnell has once again praised Mr Kavanaugh, saying that his judicial chops more than qualify him to be confirmed to the Supreme Court.
He said earlier today that allegations against him are not possible to prove, and said that the FBI investigation that has concluded was thorough.
Democrats have criticised the investigation, saying that the investigation was too limited and that investigators did not interview all potential witnesses.
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