President Trump on Friday ordered the FBI to reopen the investigation of Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh’s background, a stunning turnaround in an emotional battle over sexual assault allegations that has shaken the Senate and reverberated across the country. 
 
 The dramatic developments capped an extraordinary day on Capitol Hill, which began with a sense of momentum for Kavanaugh but then sharply changed when one of Trump’s fiercest Republican critics, Sen. Jeff Flake (Ariz.), who at first endorsed the nominee, emerged from a private meeting with Democrats to call for a renewed inquiry into misconduct allegations. 
 
 Flake’s move puts in doubt the fate of Kavanaugh, who has in recent days drawn strong support from Trump and other top Republicans, but now faces another week of scrutiny and must watch as senators in both parties endure mounting pressure from their ­respective bases to either rally to his side or block his confirmation. 
 
 Conservatives have demanded that Republicans confirm Trump’s second Supreme Court pick, a judge who could shift the high court to the right for a generation, or face political consequences in midterm elections in six weeks with the control of Congress at stake. 
 
 The delay once again thrusts the FBI, an increasing target of Trump’s ire, into the center of a politically charged controversy. 
 
 Flake, who at one point Friday was confronted by two women who tearfully and angrily urged him to consider the pain of sexual assault survivors, was soon joined by Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), and hailed by Democrats for forcing a one-week delay in the nomination process to allow for the federal inquiry. 
 
 “There’s lingering doubt out there among a lot of people that we haven’t taken every measure that we should to make sure that these allegations are dealt with,” Flake told reporters Friday after the Senate Judiciary Committee said it requested the White House call for an FBI probe. “That’s what this effort is about.” 
 
 [‘Look at me when I’m talk­ing to you!’: Crying protester confronts Flake in Capitol elevator] 
 
 The request for a supplemental FBI background check will almost certainly delay Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote beyond Tuesday, the tentative date eyed by Senate GOP leaders. But Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had no choice but to placate the small core of undecided senators whom Trump has little power to influence. 
 
 Late Friday, by voice vote, the Senate took an initial step to move ahead on the nomination. Barring no major revelations from the FBI, the Senate could vote on confirming Kavanaugh next weekend, days after the start of the high court’s session. 
 
 The FBI has already cleared Kavanaugh through six background checks for his previous public-service jobs, a point the nominee underscored in a statement Friday while adding, “I’ve done everything they have requested and will continue to cooperate.” 
 
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 [Kavanaugh takes partisan turn as he lashes out at ‘search and destroy’ Democrats] 
 
 Trump said the investigation “must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week.” The Judiciary Committee said the probe would cover “current credible allegations,” although committee spokesmen did not respond to a request to elaborate on what those accusations are. 
 
 The rapid-fire events Friday came a day after dramatic, searing testimony from Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault when both were in high school, and from the nominee, who denied the allegation in an emotional presentation. 
 
 Attorneys for Ford praised the decision to reopen the probe and added, “No artificial limits as to time or scope should be imposed on this investigation.” 
 
 The announcement followed a vote along party lines by the Judiciary Committee to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination — an 11-to-10 roll call that was left significantly in doubt amid a contentious yet odd debate as senators dashed into an anteroom behind the hearing space. 
 
 The committee fight already was tense, as several Democrats — including Sens. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Kamala D. Harris (Calif.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) — walked out in protest. Flake often appeared conflicted and pained as senators engaged in a contentious debate over the nomination. 
 
 After Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) implored Republicans to join Democrats in calling for an FBI probe, Flake walked over and gestured to Coons to join him in the anteroom. The two close friends, as well as Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), left — prompting immediate speculation about whether they were working on a deal to delay the vote. 
 
 The curiosity inside the Dirksen Senate Office Building hearing room grew as more and more senators shuffled in and out of the back room for the discussions, which Collins called into via phone. Besieged by colleagues, Flake and Coons even sought privacy for their conversations in one of the Senate’s old-fashioned phone booths. 
 
 The senators eventually returned, and Flake announced that he would still vote to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination, on the condition that a final vote would be delayed no more than a week to allow for an investigation. 
 
 Shortly afterward, Murkowski, Collins and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) said they supported his call for a limited FBI probe. Manchin said in a statement that “the American people have been pulled apart by this entire spectacle.” 
 
 “What I’m encouraged by is that in an anteroom, back-hall conversation — first with Sen. Flake and then with Sen. [Dianne] Feinstein and then with many other senators of both parties, there was broad agreement that this committee has been too divided and too partisan with this process,” Coons said. 
 
 Senate Republican leaders have yet to lock down the minimum 50 votes to confirm Kavanaugh. Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) announced late Thursday that he would oppose the nominee, and on Friday, Sen. Joe Donnelly (Ind.) — one of just three Democratic senators who supported now-Justice Neil M. Gorsuch in April 2017 — said he would reject Kavanaugh as well. 
 
 Collins and Murkowski have not declared a position on Kavanaugh’s nomination; neither has Manchin nor Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.). 
 
 [A look at where the 100 senators stand] 
 
 Trump told advisers in meetings Thursday and Friday that prolonging the vote doesn’t help Kavanaugh but that if an FBI check came up clean, he could use that as a cudgel to get more votes. But the biggest concern in the White House is that with more time, more women, more accusations and more stories could emerge. 
 
 “It’s not the FBI investigation that sparks the fear like it is just another week of this,” one White House official said. “How much longer is this sustainable?” 
 
 On Thursday, Trump was elated with Kavanaugh’s fiery testimony, in which he defended his character while furiously denying the allegations. Trump was “fired up” in a phone call with McConnell about Kavanaugh’s ultimate confirmation, according to two people familiar with the call, and said senators needed to take the vote. 
 
 It was a reversal from an earlier call with McConnell in which Trump was upset as Ford delivered her emotional testimony, according to the two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. 
 
 McConnell, as well as White House counsel Donald McGahn, has urged Trump to hold his fire and let the confirmation battle play out, advisers to both men said. Both Trump and McGahn had told others that they did not want an FBI investigation, two senior officials said — but that it was inevitable once it became clear that Kavanaugh could not be confirmed without one. 
 
 McGahn and informal Trump judicial adviser Leonard Leo — rather than the president — have been calling senators. McGahn has told others that he has good relationships with Collins and Murkowski. 
 
 Trump is telling advisers that he wants to stick by Kavanaugh. But he also says that “Republicans have been played like a fool,” according to a senior White House official. Still, one official involved in the confirmation process said that while Trump has expressed some frustration with the timing, he generally believes that McGahn and McConnell have the Supreme Court and other judicial nomination fights figured out. 
 
 Mark Judge, a friend and high school classmate of Kavanaugh’s, is likely to be a prominent figure in any inquiry by the FBI. Ford claims he was present when Kavanaugh allegedly attacked her. Another Kavanaugh accuser alleges that Judge and Kavanaugh sought on multiple occasions in high school to drug inebriated girls for nonconsensual sex with multiple boys — an accusation Kavanaugh has strongly denied. 
 
 “If the FBI or any law enforcement agency requests Mr. Judge’s cooperation, he will answer any and all questions posed to him,” Judge’s lawyer Barbara Van Gelder said. 
 
 Judge met with his lawyer Friday morning in Washington, after returning from Bethany Beach, Del. The Washington Post found him there Monday, where his lawyer said he had fled to try to avoid an avalanche of media requests and criticism. 
 
 Judge told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday that he either does not recall or flatly rejects the allegations about his and Kavanaugh’s behavior in high school. 
 
 “All I can say is that next week, this will be over,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said. “I really believe, I believe he will be on the court.” 
 
 Carol D. Leonnig, Sean Sullivan, Mike DeBonis, Paul Kane, Robert Barnes and Elise Viebeck contributed to this report. 
 
 Read more at PowerPost ||||| Christine Blasey Ford is sworn in before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hear from Supreme Court nominee Brett... (Associated Press) 
 
 Christine Blasey Ford is sworn in before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hear from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who says he sexually assaulted her. (Michael Reynolds/Pool... (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh faced a crucial vote Friday as a Senate panel decides whether to move his nomination on to the full Senate a day after he adamantly denied sexually assaulting Christine Blasey Ford, who insisted she's "100 percent" certain he did. 
 
 Meanwhile, there were signs the remarkable testimony before the panel — in which Kavanaugh angrily declared his innocence and Ford calmly recounting the moment in which she says he attacked her — had registered negatively with two organizations whose support Kavanaugh had earlier received. 
 
 The American Bar Association urged the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate to delay the vote until the FBI could do a full background check on the assault claims — something President Donald Trump has refused to order. 
 
 White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed that Friday, telling reporters that Kavanaugh has already "been through six separate background investigations by the FBI." 
 
 Late Thursday, the magazine of the Jesuit religious order in the United States withdrew its endorsement of Kavanaugh, saying the nomination was no longer in the interests of the country and "should be withdrawn." 
 
 "If Senate Republicans proceed with his nomination, they will be prioritizing policy aims over a woman's report of an assault," the America magazine editors wrote. "Were he to be confirmed without this allegation being firmly disproved, it would hang over his future decisions on the Supreme Court for decades and further divide the country." 
 
 The magazine's reversal is significant given Kavanaugh has repeatedly cited his Roman Catholic faith and his years as a student at the Jesuit-run Georgetown Prep school in Maryland. 
 
 The White House said it was engaging with wavering Republican senators, but provided few details, as Trump publicly stood by his nominee. 
 
 "His testimony was powerful, honest and riveting," he tweeted late Thursday. "The Senate must vote!" 
 
 Thursday's testimony appears to have only sharpened the partisan divide over Trump's nominee. Republicans praised Ford's bravery in coming forward, but many of them said her account won't affect their support for Kavanaugh. 
 
 The Senate Judiciary Committee, where the initial vote on Kavanaugh will be held, is narrowly split with an 11-10 Republican majority. Democrats are expected to oppose the nominee. But even if the panel deadlocks on whether to recommend the judge for confirmation, the full Senate could start taking procedural votes Saturday on Kavanaugh, setting up a final vote as soon as Tuesday. 
 
 "We're going to move forward," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as he exited a private late night strategy session with Republican senators. "The committee is going to vote." 
 
 Of the 11 Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, only the vote of GOP Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona remains in doubt. The retiring senator, who has stayed quiet in recent days, told reporters late Thursday, "this isn't easy." 
 
 Flake said the marathon hearing left him "with as much doubt as certainty." He said, "We just do the best we can." 
 
 At the daylong session Thursday, Ford and Kavanaugh both said the event and the public controversy that has erupted 36 years later had altered their lives forever and for the worse — perhaps the only thing they agreed on during a long day of testimony that was a study in contrasts of tone as well as substance. 
 
 Coming forward publicly for the first time, Ford, a California psychology professor, quietly told the nation and the Senate Judiciary Committee her long-held secret of the alleged assault in locked room at a gathering of friends when she was just 15. The memory — and Kavanaugh's laughter during the act — was "locked" in her brain, she said: "100 percent." Hours later, Kavanaugh angrily denied it, alternating a loud, defiant tone with near tears as he addressed the Senate Judiciary Committee. 
 
 "You have replaced 'advice and consent' with 'search and destroy," he said, referring to the Constitution's charge to senators' duties in confirming high officials. 
 
 Repeatedly Democrats asked Kavanaugh to call for an FBI investigation into the claims. He did not. 
 
 "I welcome whatever the committee wants to do," he said. 
 
 Republicans are reluctant for several reasons, including the likelihood that further investigations could push a vote past the November elections that may switch Senate control back to the Democrats and make consideration of any Trump nominee more difficult. 
 
 Across more than 10 hours, the senators heard from only the two witnesses. Ford delivered her testimony with steady, deliberate certitude. She admitted gaps in her memory as she choked back tears and said she "believed he was going to rape me." Kavanaugh entered the hearing room fuming and ready to fight, as he angrily denied the charges from Ford and other women accusing him of misconduct, barked back at senators and dismissed some questions with a flippant "whatever." 
 
 "You may defeat me in the final vote, but you'll never get me to quit, never," he said. 
 
 Trump nominated the conservative jurist in what was supposed to be an election year capstone to the GOP agenda, locking in the court's majority for years to come. Instead the nomination that Republicans were rushing for a vote now hangs precariously after one of the most emotionally charged hearings Capitol Hill has ever seen. Coming amid a national reckoning over sexual misconduct at the top of powerful institutions, it exposed continued divisions over justice, fairness and who should be believed. And coming weeks before elections, it ensured that debate would play into the fight for control of Congress. 
 
 Wearing a blue suit as Anita Hill did more two decades ago when she testified about sexual misconduct by Clarence Thomas, Ford, a psychology professor, described what she says was a harrowing assault in the summer of 1982: How an inebriated Kavanaugh and another teen, Mark Judge, locked her in a room at a house party as Kavanaugh was grinding and groping her. She said he put his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams. 
 
 "I believed he was going to rape me," she testified, referring to Kavanaugh. 
 
 Judge has said he does not recall the incident and he reiterated that point in a letter to the committee released late Thursday. 
 
 When the committee's top Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, asked how she could be sure that Kavanaugh was the attacker, Ford said, "The same way I'm sure I'm talking to you right now." Later, she told Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., that her certainty was "100 percent." 
 
 Asked by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., for her strongest memory of the alleged incident, Ford, said it was the two boys' laughter. 
 
 "Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter," said Ford, who is a research psychologist, "the uproarious laughter between the two." 
 
 An angry Kavanaugh, who testified after Ford, declared: "My family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed." 
 
 He lashed out over the time it took the committee to convene the hearing after Ford's allegations emerged, singling out the Democrats for "unleashing" forces against him. 
 
 "This confirmation process has become a national disgrace," he said. He mocked Ford's allegations — and several others since — that have accused him of sexual impropriety. He scolded the senators saying their advice-and-consent role had become "search and destroy." 
 
 Even if senators turn vote down his confirmation, he said, "you'll never get me to quit." 
 
 Kavanaugh, who has two daughters, said one of his girls said they should "pray for the woman" making the allegations against him, referring to Ford. "That's a lot of wisdom from a 10-year-old," he said chocking up. "We mean no ill will." 
 
 The judge repeatedly refused to answer senators' questions about the hard-party atmosphere that has been described from his peer group at Georgetown Prep and Yale, treating them dismissively. 
 
 "Sometimes I had too many beers," he acknowledged. "I liked beer. I still like beer. But I never drank beer to the point of blacking out, and I never sexually assaulted anyone. " 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Mary Clare Jalonick, Juliet Linderman, Padmananda Rama, Matthew Daly, Julie Pace and AP photographers J. Scott Applewhite and Carolyn Kaster contributed to this report. ||||| Judge Brett Kavanaugh picked up a key Republican vote shortly after a full GOP conference meeting immediately following Thursday’s hearing, one day before a key committee vote. Kavanaugh Confirmation GOP barrels toward Kavanaugh vote with key Republicans undecided The Senate Judiciary Committee is moving toward a Friday vote, and GOP leaders are planning to keep the chamber in session on Saturday. 
 
 Senate Republicans are racing to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, betting that the Supreme Court nominee was persuasive enough in his denial that he sexually assaulted a high school acquaintance to counter the powerful testimony of his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford. 
 
 The Senate Judiciary Committee is planning to vote on Friday to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination to the full Senate floor. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) then plans a Saturday procedural vote to formally move to the nomination, with a potential confirmation vote as early as Tuesday. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 Publicly, Republicans do not have the votes yet to confirm Kavanaugh, but GOP leaders seem confident they can push him through with brute force. Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) wouldn’t say whether undecided Republicans would back Kavanaugh. They received a burst of momentum on Friday morning, when Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), one of the key swing votes, announced he would back Kavanaugh. 
 
 “We’re still talking through all those issues, and I’m optimistic we’ll get to confirmation,” Cornyn said as he left the Capitol. 
 
 Flake was agonizing over the decision, he said, and seemed to be vacillating on where would land, viewing both Kavanaugh and Ford as credible on Thursday. But he ultimately decided that without corroboration of the assault allegation, he could vote against Kavanaugh. 
 
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 “I left the hearing yesterday with as much doubt as certainty," Flake said in a statement. "What I do know is that our system of justice affords a presumption of innocence to the accused, absent corroborating evidence." 
 
 Kavanaugh also picked up a key Republican vote shortly after a full GOP conference meeting immediately following Kavanaugh’s hearing, as Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) announced he would support the nominee. Corker and Flake were key to applying the brakes to Kavanaugh’s confirmation in order to hear out Ford. 
 
 But Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) remain undecided. Those two moderate Republicans, along with Flake and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), met privately before the Republican meeting to discuss the nomination. Manchin said no one in the room gave anything away on how they will come down. 
 
 Then, in the full GOP conference meeting, Murkowski, Collins and Flake offered their colleagues no signal of where they would land, according to an attendee. Rachel Mitchell, a lawyer who was retained by the Senate GOP to question Ford, broke down her analysis of the testimony to Republicans, but did not advise them how to vote. She told them that as a prosecutor she would not charge Kavanaugh or even pursue a search warrant, according to a person briefed on the meeting. 
 
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 Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) would not say how he would vote as he left the meeting. Sasse, one of the most vocal Trump critics in the Senate, said Mitchell gave Republicans in the room a “30-ish minute” presentation during which she laid out “facts that were established and not established.” 
 
 Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) received three standing ovations from Republicans for how he conducted the hearing. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who skewered Democrats for what he called a “despicable” attempt to derail Kavanaugh’s nomination, also received applause from the GOP, said Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.). 
 
 "There was an awful lot of exchange back and forth but it wasn't always positive,” Roberts said of the Republican gathering. 
 
 In addition to Manchin, Democratic Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota are viewed as potential votes for Kavanaugh. All are up for reelection in red states. Senators and aides expect that Donnelly, Manchin, Murkowski and Collins will all vote the same way, though which way that is remains unclear. 
 
 Democrats believe Heitkamp could vote no. But her opponent in her Senate race, Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), said he expects her to support the nominee despite Ford’s allegations. 
 
 Grassley declined to forecast how he thinks the critical Judiciary Committee meeting will go on Friday. “We’re meeting at 9:30 a.m., that’s all I can tell you,” he said. “There will be a debate starting at 9:30.” 
 
 His panel has 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats; only Flake's vote is in play. McConnell can bring Kavanaugh's nomination to the Senate floor regardless of whether he receives a favorable committee vote. 
 
 After the committee acts, McConnell is expected to move to a procedural vote on Saturday. If that's successful, another procedural vote would occur on Monday, and a final vote on Tuesday. 
 
 Kavanaugh needs at least 50 votes to be confirmed; Vice President Mike Pence would vote if the chamber is evenly split. If all Democrats vote against Kavanaugh, it would take two Republicans voting "no" to block his confirmation. 
 
 Rachael Bade, Sarah Ferris and Marianne Levine contributed to this report.
– After Thursday's high drama, the Senate Judiciary Committee looks poised to advance Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination to the full Senate. The vote is scheduled for 1:30pm Eastern, reports NPR. Going into the day, the main suspense had been whether Republican Jeff Flake of Arizona would side with Democrats in voting against Kavanaugh, but he announced his support for President Trump's pick before the panel convened, reports the Washington Post. “I wish that I could express the confidence that some of my colleagues have conveyed about what either did or did not happen in the early 1980s," said Flake in a statement. “What I do know is that our system of justice affords a presumption of innocence to the accused, absent corroborating evidence." Several Democrats walked out of the panel's meeting Friday morning, reports the AP, though top Democrat Dianne Feinstein was among those who stayed. Assuming the committee OKs Kavanaugh's nomination later in the afternoon, it would move on to the full Senate, with a final vote possible as early as Tuesday, reports the AP. Kavanaugh's prospects there remain uncertain, with key moderate Republicans such as Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski undecided, notes Politico. Another senator to watch is Democrat Joe Manchin, up for re-election in red-state West Virginia.