Dianne Feinstein

California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Wednesday she “absolutely” supports reopening an investigation into allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. 

Kavanaugh was confirmed to the high court earlier this month following a heated battle over allegations that he sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford when they were in high school. House Democrats have said they might launch investigations into Kavanaugh should they take control of the chamber next month. 

Even with senators having left the Capitol, the battle over the pace of judicial nominations is not slowing down.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, led panel Democrats in protesting the scheduling of nomination hearings for federal judgeships while the Senate is holding only pro forma sessions.

A California man has been charged with threatening to kill Sen. Dianne Feinstein amid the pitched partisan battle over the confirmation process of new associate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged Craig Steven Shaver, 47, of Lancaster, California, with a felony count of attempted criminal threats and possession of a firearm by a felon.

Life after the Brett Kavanaugh fight got off to a subdued start Thursday for the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Gone was the energetic buzz of news media, protesters and police officers that filled the hallway outside the committee’s hearing room in prior weeks. Inside the room, the senators spoke only in muted tones that contrasted sharply with the passionate speeches just two weeks earlier during a committee vote on the Supreme Court pick.

OPINION — The Brett Kavanaugh confirmation saga is over, but the worry I hear most around the Senate is that the damage done to the institution during his nomination battle may be permanent.

How does the institution go on after a mess like that? How do colleagues, especially on the Judiciary Committee, work together after the accusations, attacks and name-calling that went on? How can they fix a Senate that looks so broken right now?

The confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court on Saturday might close one of the Senate’s most bitter and divisive chapters, but the resulting discord is bound to reverberate for years at the high court, in the halls of Congress and at the ballot box.

The 50-48 vote gives President Donald Trump his second Supreme Court appointment in as many years and solidifies the court’s conservative tilt for decades. The confirmation battle at first raged over the court’s ideological balance, then turned to questions of temperament, truthfulness and how the Senate handled allegations of sexual misconduct in the “Me Too” era.

Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed Thursday on one thing about the FBI’s one-week supplemental background investigation into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh — there wasn’t much new information there.

For Republican members of the Judiciary Committee such as Sens. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the set of interviews done over the past week did not add any corroboration to allegations Kavanaugh sexually assaulted women decades ago.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein and groups focused on domestic violence and sexual assault on Wednesday said Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans could be in violation of the federal rape shield law portion of the Violence Against Women Act.

On Tuesday, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee released a letter from Dennis Ketterer, a former weatherman for WJLA Channel 7 in Washington and one-time Democratic candidate for Congress, regarding the recent allegations made by Julie Swetnick against Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

The White House on Wednesday turned up the heat on vulnerable red-state Democrats, with a senior adviser to President Donald Trump warning them against being “complicit” in a scheme to “destroy” Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to Trump, sharply criticized Senate Judiciary ranking member Dianne Feinstein for an “unpardonable sin” to have kept a letter from Christine Blasey Ford with accusations against the nominee to herself.

Sen. Jeff Flake called President Donald Trump’s comments at a Mississippi campaign rally mocking a woman who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault “appalling.”

Christine Blasey Ford testified last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a pool party when they were in high school. Kavanaugh denied the claims in follow-up testimony of his own.