WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said Tuesday that there is no need for FBI involvement in the scandal threatening to derail his pick for a coveted place on the US Supreme Court, reports AFP.

“I don’t think the FBI should be involved because they don’t want to be involved,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

Conservative judge Brett Kavanaugh appeared set to sail through Senate confirmation for the vacancy on the nation’s top court until a California professor publicly accused him of having sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers almost four decades ago. Trump repeated earlier statements that he is in favor of allowing both the accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, and Kavanaugh to speak before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The dueling testimony had been expected to take place Monday in a piece of blockbuster Washington theater, putting both Trump’s bid to tilt the Supreme Court to the right and political momentum ahead of November midterm congressional elections into play. However, Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Republican-dominated judiciary committee, said Tuesday that Ford’s presence was not confirmed.