Only three in 10 Americans believe US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh did not commit sexual assault, according to a new poll.
Three women came forward and made a number of allegations against Mr Kavanaugh, who has been nominated to the country’s top court by Donald Trump.
Following testimonies at the Senate Judiciary Committee from Mr Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused him of sexual assault, a total of 42 per cent of US voters said they believed the allegations, 31 per cent said they did not and 27 per cent said they "don't know" what to believe.
The responses were divided largely along partisan lines – about two-thirds of Democrats said they believed the allegations and nearly two-thirds of Republicans said they did not.
The findings follow an emotionally charged week in Washington, during which Mr Kavanaugh's once-certain confirmation was jeopardised after allegations of assault and exposing himself in public in the 1980s.
Mr Kavanaugh, a conservative federal appeals court judge, has denied all the allegations and the FBI has now launched an investigation into the claims.
One of the women accusing Mr Kavanaugh of misconduct, Dr Ford, told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that when they were teenagers in 1982, Mr Kavanaugh and a friend pushed her into a room and that he held her down and tried to take off her clothes.
Dr Ford said she feared that she would be raped and accidentally killed.
Mr Kavanaugh told the committee that he believed the allegations were part of an orchestrated political campaign from Democrats who do not want him confirmed.
He said he did not know any of the women who have accused him of wrongdoing and he produced calendars from the time that he claimed exonerated him.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was conducted after the allegations were publicised, also found that 41 per cent of adults opposed Mr Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court.
When it came to the allegations of sexual misconduct, the poll found that Americans who are younger, more educated and single were more likely to believe the allegations than those who are older, less educated and married.
