To abide Flake’s demand, the White House would have to ask the FBI to reopen a background inquiry it considered closed. And in comments to reporters moments after the committee vote, Trump suggested he would do so. “Whatever they think is necessary is okay,” the president said. The Judiciary Committee announced later Friday afternoon that it was formally requesting that the administration instruct the FBI to conduct “a supplemental background investigation” into Kavanaugh.

“The supplemental FBI background investigation would be limited to current credible allegations against the nominee and must be completed no later than one week from today,” the committee said in a statement.

Read Adam Serwer on the confirmation of Trumpism

The developments played out in dramatic and confusing fashion during a rancorous Judiciary Committee meeting that took place just a day after the panel heard contradictory testimony from Ford and Kavanaugh. Flake was the deciding Republican vote, and after he released a statement announcing his support just before the meeting convened, the vote scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Eastern was seen as a formality. But soon afterward, survivors of sexual assault tearfully confronted him in a Senate elevator, and in the hour before the vote, he was seen conferring with a group of Democrats in an anteroom.

When the committee reconvened shortly after 1:30, Kavanaugh’s Republican backers sat grim-faced. Chairman Charles Grassley gave the floor to Flake, who explained that he would be voting to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination with the understanding that there would be an FBI inquiry “of limited time and scope” that would last up to one week before he would support the nomination on the floor. “I think that we ought to do what we can to make sure we do all due diligence with a nomination this important,” Flake said, adding that he had discussed his demand with Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, among others. Senate Republicans had planned to begin procedural votes to confirm Kavanaugh on Saturday with a final vote as early as Tuesday.

Democrats who had been clamoring for the FBI to investigate Ford’s allegations applauded Flake, but they were confused about what exactly he was committing to or if they were promising anything in return. “There’s not really an agreement here,” noted Senator Amy Klobuchar. The committee voted on Kavanaugh’s nomination but did not formally ratify the understanding Flake struck with Coons. When Grassley abruptly adjourned the meeting, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California asked him why there wasn’t a second vote. “This is all a gentleman's and gentlewoman's agreement,” the chairman explained to her privately, in comments caught by C-SPAN’s camera.

Whether the delay will scuttle Kavanaugh’s bid remains to be seen. Republicans had warned that an FBI inquiry would yield no more information about the long-ago night in question than the committee had been able to uncover. The witnesses investigators would presumably seek to interview include Mark Judge, Kavanaugh’s friend, who according to Ford was the only eyewitness to the attack. He has said in sworn statements to the committee that he does not recall the events she described and never saw Kavanaugh do the things she alleged. But he has not been interviewed yet and told the committee he did not want to speak in public.