US Senate to receive FBI report on Kavanaugh within hours

The US Senate is expected to receive an FBI report on allegations of sexual misconduct against President Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, in the next few hours. The report was neared completion late on Wednesday.

Its conclusions will not be made public, but Senators will be able to review the report on Thursday. Republicans and Democrats remain bitterly divided on whether to approve Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court judge.

The judge Kavanaugh has vehemently denied all allegations against him.

Last week, Christine Blasey Ford, a college Professor from California testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that Kavanaugh and another man had assaulted her when they were teenagers in the 1980s.

Another woman, Deborah Ramirez, has accused Judge Kavanaugh of exposing himself to her during a drinking game when they were students at Yale University in the 1980s.

After Prof Ford's testimony the Senate panel approved Judge Kavanaugh's nomination but asked for the FBI to conduct further inquiry before the full Senate votes on his appointment to America's apex court.

Senators are not meant to reveal what the FBI report says, but it remains to be seen whether that secrecy will hold.

The report will be in paper format only and no copies will be made. It will be held in a secure room in the basement of the Capitol building, known as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or "Skif", agency reported.

Committee chairman Chuck Grassley will see it at 08:00 local time (12:00 GMT) and ranking Democrat Diane Feinstein will see it at 09:00. After that, the Republican committee members will see it at 10:00 and the Democrats at 11:00.

However, lawyers for his first accuser, Prof Ford, said that she had not been contacted by the agency.

Democrats have raised concerns that the investigation has been too narrow in scope, and that key witnesses have been omitted.