US President Donald Trump's nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, looks headed for a lifetime job on the US Supreme Court after two crucial senators said sexual misconduct accusations against the judge would not prevent them from voting to confirm him.
If Kavanaugh is approved in a final Senate vote, likely on Saturday, Trump will have achieved a victory in his drive to consolidate conservative dominance of the nation's highest court and move the American judiciary rightward.
Two key senators, Republican Susan Collins and Democrat Joe Manchin, both seen as swing votes, said they would support Kavanaugh, after weeks of debate about sexual violence and the nominee's character and temperament that gripped the nation.
A sharply partisan battle over the nomination became an intense personal and political drama when university professor Christine Blasey Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were high school students in Maryland in 1982.
Collins, explaining her decision to back Kavanaugh, said Ford's accusations against him "fail to meet the more-likely-than-not standard."
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As protesters in a Capitol Hill hallway shouted, "Shame! Shame! Shame!", Manchin told reporters an FBI investigation, which did not find corroborating evidence of Ford's accusations, was thorough.
"I believe Dr. Ford. Something happened to Dr. Ford. I don't believe the facts show that it was Brett Kavanaugh, but I believe something happened," he said.
Two other women also made accusations of sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh in the 1980s. He denied those accusations, as well as Ford's, in angry testimony to a Senate committee.
If confirmed, Kavanaugh would tip the court's balance to a 5-4 conservative majority in possible legal battles ahead over contentious issues such as abortion rights, immigration, and Trump's attempt to ban transgender people from the military.
Republicans hold a 51-49 majority in the US Senate, and with the two key senators choosing to vote in favour of Kavanaugh, the confirmation looked locked-in late on Friday.
In theory, Kavanaugh could be confirmed, sworn in and sitting on the mahogany bench in the traditional black justice's robe by Tuesday, when the court is next in session.
White House officials have said Kavanaugh would be sworn in swiftly.
The Kavanaugh fight has riveted Americans just weeks before the November 6 elections in which Democrats are trying to take control of Congress from the Republicans.
Several recent polls show that Republican enthusiasm about voting, which had lagged behind Democrats, jumped after a contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week.
But Democrats say women angered at the Kavanaugh accusations will turn out in large numbers to vote out Republicans.
Trump, himself accused by numerous women during the 2016 presidential election of sexual misconduct, tweeted his approval of the Senate vote on Friday, saying, "Very proud of the US Senate for voting 'YES' to advance the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh!"
The FBI sent Congress documents detailing additional interviews about Kavanaugh that the agency conducted at the request of some Republican and Democratic senators.
