WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the woman who has accused him of sexually assaulting her decades ago will be called to testify publicly before the Senate on Monday in a hearing that puts the fate of his nomination at stake.
Many Republicans, including President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, maintained their support for Kavanaugh as they scrambled to protect his nomination after the allegations by Christine Blasey Ford, who told The Washington Post that Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed on her back, groped her and put his hand over her mouth at a house party in the early 1980s.
But by the end of the day, Senate Republicans had delayed a committee vote planned for Thursday and abandoned tentative plans for the matter to be handled in a closed session amid growing calls by members of both parties for Kavanaugh and Ford to testify publicly under oath.
The White House said in a statement that Kavanaugh "looks forward to a hearing where he can clear his name of this false allegation" and stands poised to testify as soon as the Senate is ready to hear him.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said his panel would hold a hearing Monday with both of them. Republican aides spoke by phone Monday with Kavanaugh and tried to reach Ford, Grassley said, but Democrats refused to participate in that process.
Democrats were insisting that the FBI handle the matter by reopening Kavanaugh's background investigation, rather than leaving it to committee staff members to make calls.
"To provide ample transparency, we will hold a public hearing Monday to give these recent allegations a full airing," Grassley said in a written statement.
No. 2 Senate Republican leader John Cornyn of Texas said Senate Republicans used a closed meeting Monday to agree to the public hearing.
Some Democrats raised questions about whether Grassley's plan was sufficient.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement Monday night that she was disappointed the FBI and White House "are failing to take even the most basic steps to investigate this matter" and that the process was being rushed. She said President George H.W. Bush had asked the FBI to investigate Anita Hill's allegations against Clarence Thomas when he was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1991.
Another Democrat on the panel, Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, said that staging the hearing without an FBI investigation would make it a "sham."
The Justice Department said in a statement late Monday that the accusation against Kavanaugh "does not involve any potential federal crime." It said the FBI had forwarded to the White House a letter, evidently from Ford, describing alleged misconduct by Kavanaugh in the 1980s.
The White House hasn't asked the FBI to investigate the accusation, a request required for the bureau to take further action, according to two people familiar with the matter.
FBI background investigations are conducted under specific procedures and through requests from government agencies -- which in Kavanaugh's case would be from the White House, said the two people, who asked not to be identified discussing the sensitive matter.
Trump earlier Monday defended Kavanaugh, praising him as "one of the finest people" but signaling that he supports a hearing on the allegations.
"If it takes a little delay, it'll take a little delay," Trump said of the confirmation process. "It will, I'm sure, work out very well."
Trump's comments marked his first public response since the allegations came out. The president himself has faced accusations of affairs and unwanted advances -- and he drew criticism when his taped comments about groping women emerged shortly before he was elected in 2016.
An attorney for Ford said Monday that she is willing to testify about the allegations before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Debra Katz shared her client's willingness to testify during a round of television interviews on Monday morning.
"She's willing to do whatever it takes to get her story forth," Katz said on NBC's Today show when asked whether her client would speak publicly about Trump's Supreme Court nominee.
Kavanaugh later issued another denial of the allegations, saying he was willing to talk to the committee in any way it "deems appropriate."
"I have never done anything like what the accuser describes -- to her or to anyone," he said in a statement. "Because this never happened, I had no idea who was making this accusation until she identified herself yesterday."
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Underscoring the uncertainty Kavanaugh faces, several senators issued statements Monday calling for a thorough review of the allegations by Ford, a professor in California.
Much attention was focused on potential defections by Republicans, whose narrow Senate majority affords them little margin for error. They control the Judiciary Committee with an 11-10 advantage and have a Senate majority of 51-49.
Before the announcement of a hearing, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, tweeted that "Professor Ford and Judge Kavanaugh should both testify under oath before the Judiciary Committee."
Three red-state Democrats, Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, also called for slowing the process.
Heitkamp said it "takes courage for any woman to speak up about sexual assault, and we need to respect Prof. Ford by listening to her and hearing her story."
Manchin, meanwhile, said Ford "deserves to be heard" and that Kavanaugh "deserves a chance to clear his name" during a hearing.
The White House indicated earlier Monday that it was continuing to stand by Kavanaugh but that it expected Ford would offer testimony to the Judiciary Committee.
"This woman should not be insulted, and she should not be ignored," White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said during an interview on Fox News Channel's Fox & Friends.
During an appearance on ABC's The View, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said he finds Ford "extremely credible" and believes other senators will, too. He said any testimony should happen after a thorough FBI investigation.
On Monday morning, Democrats had stepped up calls for a delay in the committee vote on Kavanaugh, which had been set for Thursday.
During a television interview, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Ford needs to be heard but argued that it would be "too fast" for her to appear on Capitol Hill this week.
In a letter sent later, all 10 Democrats on the Judiciary Committee urged Grassley to postpone Thursday's scheduled vote.
Sens. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Bob Corker of Tennessee, Republicans who are retiring at the end of this term, joined Democrats in urging a delay in the vote until the committee hears from Ford. Flake told Politico that he was "not comfortable voting yes" on Kavanaugh's nomination until he learned more about Ford's account.
In an article published Sunday, Ford told The Washington Post that one summer in the early 1980s, Kavanaugh and a friend -- both "stumbling drunk," Ford alleges -- corralled her in a bedroom during a gathering of teenagers at a house in Montgomery County, Md.
While his friend watched, she said, Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed on her back and groped her over her clothes, grinding his body against hers and clumsily attempting to pull off her one-piece bathing suit and the clothing she wore over it. When she tried to scream, she said, he put his hand over her mouth.
During the NBC interview, Katz characterized Kavanaugh's actions as "attempted rape," adding that her client feels "that if it were not for the severe intoxication of Brett Kavanaugh, she would have been raped."
Information for this article was contributed by John Wagner, Seung Min Kim, Felicia Sonmez, Robert Costa, Sean Sullivan and Gabriel Pogrung of The Washington Post; by Alan Fram, Lisa Mascaro, Catherine Lucey, Mary Clare Jalonick, Darlene Superville and Zeke Miller of The Associated Press; by Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Julie Hirschfeld Davis of The New York Times; and by Chris Strohm and Shannon Pettypiece of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 09/18/2018