Gee, maybe your hopes are about to be dashed Mr Trump.... Sen. Flake opts for fair play

Trump Agrees to Open ‘Limited’ F.B.I. Investigation Into Accusations Against Kavanaugh

 Senator Jeff Flake has asked for a one-week delay before the full Senate holds a vote to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh so that the F.B.I. could investigate allegations against him of sexual assault.

President Trump, ceding to a request from Senate Republican leaders facing an insurrection in their ranks, ordered the F.B.I. on Friday to reopen a background investigation of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, his nominee to the Supreme Court, and examine the allegations of sexual assault that have been made against him.

The announcement plunged Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination into new turmoil after a tumultuous week on Capitol Hill, and will delay, by as much as a week, a final confirmation vote. It came only 24 hours after the judge and one of his accusers, Christine Blasey Ford, each gave emotional testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee that led many Republicans to think Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation was inevitable.

Republican leaders had little choice but to ask Mr. Trump to order the F.B.I. inquiry after Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, first announced he was supporting Judge Kavanaugh, and then, in a stunning reversal, said he would not vote to confirm him without an F.B.I. investigation first. With a handful of allies in a closely divided Senate, Mr. Flake, a conservative but an outspoken critic of the president, could determine the future of the Kavanaugh nomination, and that gave him leverage over Senate Republicans as well as the president.

“We ought to do what we can to make sure we do all due diligence with a nomination this important,” Mr. Flake told his colleagues on the Judiciary Committee after extracting a promise from Republican leaders to delay the final vote on the nomination until after the F.B.I. investigation. “This country is being ripped apart here.”

Mr. Trump, who had hoped Judge Kavanaugh would be sworn in by the time the Supreme Court opens its next term on Monday, said he was ordering the F.B.I. to conduct what he called a “supplemental” investigation that he said “must be limited in scope and completed in less than a week,” as the Republican Senate leadership had asked for.

The F.B.I. has already completed a background check on Mr. Kavanaugh, and it is unclear what the parameters of the new inquiry would be. But according to a person familiar with the matter, the allegations made by Deborah Ramirez, a former Yale classmate of Judge Kavanaugh’s, will be investigated along with those made by Dr. Blasey.

Judge Kavanaugh said in a statement on Friday that he would continue to cooperate with investigators to clear his name. Debra S. Katz, a lawyer for Dr. Blasey, said her client welcomed the development but not the “artificial limits” imposed by senators. Mark Judge, a friend of Judge Kavanaugh’s identified by Dr. Blasey and another accuser at the scene of the episodes, said through a lawyer that he would cooperate with investigators.

The delay cast a cloud over what Republicans expected to be a triumphant day, but they still had reason to be optimistic: Despite adamant Democratic opposition, they were able to muscle the

nomination through the Judiciary Committee with an 11-to-10 vote and send it to the full Senate with a favorable recommendation.

 



 

Mr. Flake had already announced his intention to vote in favor of Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation on Friday morning when, on his way to the committee meeting room, he was confronted by protesters who tearfully told him that they had been sexually assaulted. Then, after the committee chairman, Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, set a 1:30 p.m. vote, he began to waver, and retreated into an anteroom with colleagues of both parties.

After nearly an hour of hushed conversations, as well as calls to law enforcement officials and other undecided Republicans, Mr. Flake emerged to ask for an investigation that would be “limited in time and scope to the current allegations that are there,” siding with Democrats who have repeatedly requested an inquiry.

With that stipulation, the committee quickly voted along party lines to recommend to the full Senate that Judge Kavanaugh be confirmed.