The FBI may wrap up its investigation into misconduct accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as early as Wednesday, Fox News reported, citing a source close to the matter.
This would potentially clear the way for a final Senate vote on his confirmation within days.
This follows a dramatic Senate hearing last week in which university professor Christine Blasey Ford detailed a sexual assault she says was carried out by Kavanaugh and his friend, Mark Judge, at a high school party in 1982.
A defiant Kavanaugh came out with guns blazing, insisting the assault never happened, accusing Democrats of destroying his reputation and condemning his confirmation battle as a "national disgrace."
the White House gave the FBI a deadline of Friday to provide the results of a week-long inquiry into the
allegations - all of which Kavanaugh has vehemently denied.
The FBI has already interviewed Judge, who has denied any memory of such an incident, as well as at least three other people with information about the allegations made by Ford and a second accuser, Deborah Ramirez.
Ramirez claims Kavanaugh exposed himself to her when they both attended Yale University.
Ford's lawyers said on Tuesday she had offered her full cooperation with the FBI in its investigation but had received no reply.
"It is inconceivable that the FBI could conduct a thorough investigation of Dr. Ford's allegations without interviewing her, Judge Kavanaugh, or the witnesses we have identified in our letters to you," the lawyers said in their letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray.
A person familiar with the matter said the FBI questioned Deborah Ramirez for more than two hours on Sunday and that she provided the FBI with a list of more than 20 possible witnesses.
Richard Oh, a classmate of Ramirez and Kavanaugh at Yale, told Reuters he contacted the FBI's Denver field office twice at the weekend hoping to provide information he believed would support Ramirez's account.
Oh said it was unclear if the person he spoke with at the FBI passed on his statement to agents working on the case.
"I didn't get the sense that this person even knew what the Kavanaugh case was about," said Oh, an emergency room doctor in California.
"I was hoping to hear back from them for follow-up questions. I still haven't heard from them."
(With Reuters)
