WASHINGTON: US Senators prepared on Thursday to review the results of the new FBI probe into the background of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh ahead of a final confirmation vote perhaps as early as Saturday.
The White House reviewed new interviews conducted by the FBI in its investigation of sexual assault allegations against the man President Donald Trump wants to secure a conservative majority on the court for the coming decades.
It sent the material to the Senate in the middle of the night and said it found nothing in them to corroborate the allegations against Kavanaugh.
“With this additional information, the White House is fully confident the Senate will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court,” White House spokesperson Raj Shah said in a statement.
Even before Senators saw the new FBI material, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell moved to end debate on Kavanaugh’s nomination, setting up a Friday procedural vote and a final vote as early as the following day.
“There will be plenty of time for members to review and be briefed on the supplemental material before a Friday cloture vote,” he said.
Senators will review the new material in a secure room in the Senate, or can choose to be briefed on it.
Christine Blasey Ford, a university professor in California, testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a house party in the early 1980s while they were in high school.
Kavanaugh vehemently denied the allegation and further sexual misconduct claims against him from two other women. One of them, Deborah Ramirez, has alleged that he showed her his genitals during a party in college.
