On Friday, during a flurry of developments in the Kavanaugh saga, President Trump ordered the FBI to open a “supplemental investigation” into his SCOTUS nominee.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders shared the following statement from the president:
I’ve ordered the FBI to conduct a supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaugh’s file. As the Senate has requested, this update must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week.
President Trump’s actions come on the heels of Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) voting Kavanaugh out of committee on the condition that the FBI conduct a limited-scope investigation into the allegations made against the nominee prior to a final confirmation vote.
Flake stated:
I think it would be proper to delay the floor vote for up to but not more than one week in order to let the FBI do an investigation, limited in time and scope to the current allegations that are there, limited in time to no more than one week. And I will vote to advance the bill to the floor with that understanding.
According to CNBC, several other senators stand with Flake, including Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Susan Collins (R-ME), Joe Manchin (D-WV), and Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND).
The Senate Judiciary Committee acquiesced to Republican requests, releasing a statement that reads: “The Senate Judiciary Committee will request that the administration instruct the FBI to conduct a supplemental FBI background investigation with respect to the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court. The supplemental FBI background investigation would be limited to current credible allegations against the nominee and must be completed no later than one week from today.”