WASHINGTON _ Leading Democrats called Sunday for the Senate to put a hold on Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court after a woman who has accused him of sexually assaulting her when they were in high school publicly identified herself.
The accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, a psychologist and professor at Palo Alto University in California, identified herself in a Washington Post interview published Sunday _ four days before the Senate Judiciary Committee was to vote on whether to endorse Kavanaugh's lifetime appointment to the nation's highest court, which would in turn set the stage for a vote by the full Senate.
Kavanaugh has denied the allegations, which initially came to public light last week.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee; and other Democratic senators quickly called for that vote to be set aside and for the FBI to investigate the allegations.
The developments threw into disarray the nomination of Kavanaugh, whose confirmation could put President Donald Trump's stamp on Supreme Court for a generation, after the ascension of Justice Neil M. Gorsuch last year.
"From the outset, I have believed these allegations were extremely serious and bear heavily on Judge Kavanaugh's character," Feinstein said in a statement. "I support Mrs. Ford's decision to share her story, and now that she has, it is in the hands of the FBI to conduct an investigation. This should happen before the Senate moves forward on this nominee."
Schumer, too, called on the committee chairman, Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, to put off the vote.
"Sen. Grassley must postpone the vote until, at a very minimum, these serious and credible allegations are thoroughly investigated. For too long, when woman have made serious allegations of abuse, they have been ignored. That cannot happen in this case," Schumer said. "Judge Kavanaugh's credibility has already been seriously questioned ... and now his credibility is even more suspect. To railroad a vote now would be an insult to the women of America and the integrity of the Supreme Court."
But Republicans on the Judiciary Committee indicated no intention of delaying the vote based on the allegations.
Taylor Foy, a spokesman for Grassley, said Sunday that it was "disturbing that these uncorroborated allegations from more than 35 years ago" would be put forward with the vote only days away.
"It raises a lot of questions about Democrats' tactics and motives," Foy said.
