TheStatehouseFile.com 

INDIANAPOLIS – U.S. Sen. Todd Young, R-Indiana, said Friday he believes Dr. Christine Blasey Ford suffered “some trauma” and was the victim of misconduct.

But, Young added, “that misconduct was something Judge (Brett) Kavanaugh was in no way responsible for.”

Young spoke to reporters by conference call Friday morning. He reaffirmed that he will vote to move Kavanaugh’s nomination forward and will vote to confirm the judge to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Young said he supported Kavanaugh’s nomination because the judge is a constitutional originalist. The senator cited the 300 opinions Kavanaugh issued from the bench and said the legal reasoning in a dozen of them had been adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Young said he was glad the Federal Bureau of Investigation did a supplementary investigation into Ford’s allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they both were teenagers.

“Those are very serious allegations and they needed to be investigated,” Young said.

But he said the FBI’s investigation didn’t provide corroboration of Ford’s charges. Democrats and other critics have charged that the investigation, which was limited to interviewing nine people and didn’t include either Ford or Kavanaugh, was not thorough.

“It was thorough enough for me,” Young said of the FBI report.

The senator also bemoaned the partisan nature of the confirmation battle.

“I’m not proud of what has occurred in the United States Senate,” Young said.

“The search for truth became a search-and-destroy mission.”

Less than hour after the telephone press conference, the Senate voted, 51-49, on partisan lines to close debate on Kavanaugh nomination. The vote for confirmation could come as early as Saturday.

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