Relief for Brett Kavanaugh as FBI finds no hint of misconduct

A new FBI investigation into Brett Kavanaugh found nothing to corroborate sexual assault allegations against the US Supreme Court nominee, a top Republican senator said Thursday.

"This investigation found no hint of misconduct," Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement. "There's nothing in it that we didn't already know." The FBI, at the request of a key Republican senator, was given a week to look into allegations by a university professor that Kavanaugh attempted to rape her when they were teenagers decades ago.

Grassley said it was time to proceed to a vote by the full Senate on President Donald Trump's nominee to sit on the nation's highest court.

"I'll be voting to confirm Judge Kavanaugh," he said.