By Michael D. Shear, Nicholas Fandos and Michael S. Schmidt, Sept. 28, 2018<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2014 Surrounded by his colleagues in a cramped corridor behind the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Jeff Flake was in agony, getting pounded on all sides.<\/p>\n
He had already released a statement that he would vote \u201cyes\u201d in the committee and advance Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh\u2019s nomination to the Supreme Court to the full Senate floor. But two angry and tearful women had confronted him soon afterward in a Senate elevator, accusing him of telling girls that \u201cassault doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, as the committee was on the verge of approving the nomination, Mr. Flake, Republican of Arizona, was having second thoughts, according to a half-dozen lawmakers and Senate staff aides who witnessed the scene. Why not accept Democratic demands for a one-week delay in the confirmation vote, he asked his fellow senators, and reopen an F.B.I. background investigation into sexual misconduct accusations against Judge Kavanaugh?<\/p>\n
Republicans crowded around him, alarmed. Senators Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas implored him not to waver. This is just a delaying tactic, they said, and would only lead to more allegations that they believed to be false, hurting the judge\u2019s family.<\/p>\n
Democrats were on the other side, coaxing him to put off the vote. Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, a longtime friend, broke in: This is a mess, he said, and to lift the cloud over Judge Kavanaugh, an investigation was necessary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
But what could really be done in a week? There was a scramble to call Christopher Wray, the F.B.I. director, who could not be reached. The second choice was Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general.<\/p>\n
Mr. Coons and Mr. Flake squeezed into an oversize phone booth \u2014 a few still exist on Capitol Hill \u2014 to make the call. They needed privacy rather than a landline, so held a cellphone on speaker between them. Mr. Rosenstein told them the F.B.I. could complete a background check in a week, although it was unlikely to unearth much more than was already known.<\/p>\n
Minutes later, Mr. Flake, a pained expression on his face, returned to the committee room and made the announcement ensuring that the F.B.I. investigation would go forward \u2014 and once again upending Washington.<\/p>\n
The drama began 24 hours earlier, right after Christine Blasey Ford told the committee that she was sexually assaulted by Judge Kavanaugh when she was 15 years old. President Trump, aides said, believed she was persuasive and informed the aides that he believed the judge\u2019s confirmation was in jeopardy. Maybe, he said, the F.B.I. should spend a week to investigate the accusations as Democrats were demanding.<\/p>\n
Some of the aides pushed back on Mr. Trump, including the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, who saw the investigation as a delay tactic cooked up by the Democrats to give them more time to dig up dirt on Judge Kavanaugh.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Mr. Trump heeded the advice, and in a rare moment of political restraint, his Twitter feed stayed quiet.<\/p>\n
The strategy worked.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
That afternoon Judge Kavanaugh delivered a fiery and emotional defense of his own character, prompting what looked by Thursday night to be unstoppable political momentum toward his confirmation to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
Mr. Trump, who just hours earlier had appeared defeated to his aides, triumphantly tweeted after Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and the chairman of the judiciary committee, gaveled the hearing to a close.<\/p>\n
\u201cDemocrats\u2019 search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist,\u201d Mr. Trump wrote<\/a>. \u201cThe Senate must vote!\u201d<\/p>\n The president\u2019s Republican allies on Capitol Hill were determined and confident. After a meeting of Republican senators late Thursday, Mr. Grassley scheduled a 9:30 a.m. hearing for Friday. Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, began talking about a final vote early next week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n