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.
That's it for The Independent's coverage of the Kavanaugh confirmation process for the day.
Thanks for reading along with us — hope to see you tomorrow and on Saturday for some key votes and developments that will be coming our way as the Senate prepares to decide on the future of the US Supreme Court.
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