Flake says no corroborating info on Kavanaugh claims found in FBI report

PHOENIX — U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) told CNN on Thursday that there was “no additional corroborating information” in the FBI report on the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

NEW: GOP Sens. Susan Collins and Jeff Flake have each weighed in on the FBI supplemental inquiry into Brett Kavanaugh. Collins told reporters the investigation was "thorough," and Flake said he has not seen additional corroboration of the allegations against Kavanaugh.

— NPR Politics (@nprpolitics) October 4, 2018

Flake, who pushed for an initial delay of a Senate vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation after being confronted by two women in an elevator, also said the investigation had been comprehensive.

He did not say what his vote would be, but did reiterate that he planned to vote yes before the FBI investigation.

Meanwhile, members of the national organization UltraViolet Action and local groups held midday rally on Thursday outside Flake’s Phoenix office to support the women who have accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault. Four women were arrested for trespassing during the demonstration.

A loud and clear message to @JeffFlake as we wait for his staff to talk with us. #StopKanavaugh #BelieveSurvivors #BeAHeroFlake pic.twitter.com/o6Om9D7Bw4

— NAPAWF (@NAPAWF) October 4, 2018

Thirty-three Arizona women who described themselves as survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence on Wednesday sent an open letter asking Flake to publicly commit to rejecting Kavanaugh’s nomination to the high court.

They say if he doesn’t, he will send a “devastating message to millions of survivors that what happened to us doesn’t matter.”

Senate Republican leaders and President Donald Trump moved to delay the vote on Sept. 28 to allow time for an investigation by the FBI into sexual misconduct allegations.

The investigation, Trump said, “must be limited in scope” and “completed in less than one week.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has already started a process that will produce a crucial test vote in his polarized chamber Friday on Kavanaugh’s fate.

Should Republicans get the majority of votes they need, that would set up a decisive roll call on his confirmation, likely over the weekend.

But top Democrats fired back after getting their own briefing.

The Judiciary panel’s top Democrat, Dianne Feinstein of California, complained Thursday that agents had not interviewed Kavanaugh or Christine Blasey Ford, who has testified that he sexually attacked her in a locked bedroom during a high school gathering in 1982.

Feinstein also said attorneys for Deborah Ramirez, who’s claimed Kavanaugh exposed himself to her when both were Yale freshmen, had no indication the FBI had reached out to people she’d offered for corroboration.

Three women have accused him of sexual misconduct in separate incidents in the 1980s. Kavanaugh, 53, now a judge on the powerful District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, has denied the claims.

Ford, now a California psychology professor, has testified that when the drunken Kavanaugh attacked her, she believed he was trying to rape her.

The FBI interviewed several people, including three who Ford has said attended a 1982 high school gathering in suburban Maryland where she says Kavanaugh’s attack occurred, plus another Kavanaugh friend. The agency has also spoken to a second woman, Deborah Ramirez, who has claimed Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a Yale party when both were freshmen.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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