Donald Trump defends Brett Kavanaugh ahead of Senate's vote, calls him a 'fine man and great intellect'

US president Donald Trump has strongly defended his Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who is facing sexual assault allegations levelled by his high school classmate, Blasey Ford.

“Wow, such enthusiasm and energy for Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Look at the Energy, look at the Polls. Something very big is happening. He is a fine man and great intellect. The country is with him all the way!,” Trump tweeted Thursday.

The US president’s tweet came ahead of Friday’s procedural vote in the Senate and a final floor vote the following day.  If Kavanaugh clears Friday’s procedural hurdle, that would set up a final confirmation vote as early as Saturday.

Trump had ordered a time-bound FBI investigation in the case, the report of which is due on Thursday . Members will be permitted to view the report in a secure room in the US Capitol and be briefed by staff, but the expectation is they will not be provided copies of the document.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced, “There’ll be plenty of time for members to review and be briefed on the supplemental material before a Friday cloture vote.”

Meanwhile, Democrats and a few Republicans had raised concerns over the amount of freedom granted to US federal investigative agency to conduct a lightning-fast probe in a decades old high-level case.

However, Kavanaugh has enjoyed backing from president, irrespective of the findings of the FBI report, which several senators have demanded should be made public.

Trump said Kavanaugh has been treated horribly. “Even if you were going to bring up some of the subjects that were brought up, they didn’t have to treat him so viciously and so violently as they’ve treated him,” he said.

The FBI, he said, should do what they have to do to get to the answer. “At the same time, just so we all understand, this is our seventh investigation of a man who has really… ….you look at his life until this happened, what change he’s gone through, what his family’s gone through,” he said.

“The trauma for a man that’s never had any accusation, he’s never had a bad statement about him. He was number one in his class at Yale, he was number one in his law school at Yale, and then what he’s gone through over the last three weeks is incredible,” he said.

Trump said he wants FBI to do a very comprehensive investigation, whatever that means according to the senators and the Republicans and the Republican majority. “I want them to do that. I want it to be comprehensive. I actually think it’s a good thing for Kavanaugh. I think it’s actually a good thing. Not a bad thing, I think it’s a good thing,” he said.

The president said the charges of sexual assault against Kavanaugh were made 36 years ago. “I mean, a charge made — was said to have occurred 36 years ago, and nothing happened since then. And look, I feel badly for all parties. I feel badly for everybody. I feel badly for our country. This is so bad for our country,” he said.

“I watched those senators on the Democrat side, and I thought it was a disgrace. And partially because I know them. I know them too well. And you know what? They are not angels,” Trump said hinting that there were a lot of skeletons against the Democratic senators who are opposing Kavanaugh.

Earlier, the US president was under fire for mocking Ford’s testimony.

Imitating Ford’s testimony, Trump, who was himself accused during the 2016 presidential race of sexual misconduct with numerous women, said: “What neighbourhood was it in? I don’t know. Where’s the house? I don’t know. Upstairs, downstairs, where was it? I don’t know. But I had one beer. That’s the only thing I remember.”

“And a man’s life is in tatters,” Trump added.

Trump nominated Kavanaugh to replace Anthony Kennedy, who had been a swing vote on a court now divided between four conservative and four liberal justices.

During four hours of emotionally intense testimony, Ford said she was “100 percent” certain that Kavanaugh was the person who assaulted her at a high school party in suburban Maryland in 1982. She said a drunken Kavanaugh and a friend of his, Mark Judge, pushed her into a bedroom, that Kavanaugh pinned her down and muffled her cries as he tried to pull off her clothes.

A defiant Kavanaugh came out with guns blazing on Thursday, insisting the assault never happened, accusing Democrats of destroying his reputation and condemning his confirmation battle as a “national disgrace”. “I categorically and unequivocally deny the allegation by Ford,” Kavanaugh said, his voice shaking with anger as he fought back tears.

With inputs from agencies