Michael Avenatti, speaking in Austin, said he hopes the FBI will interview his client, Julie Swetnick, who claims U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and his friend, Mark Judge, ran parties in high school where the punch was spiked to make women easier sexual prey.

Michael Avenatti, legal scourge of President Donald Trump and, he hopes, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, was a great get for the Texas Tribune Festival, a man in the white-hot center of the action, reacting in real time on stage at Stateside at the Paramount Theater Friday afternoon as journalist John Heilemann interjected alerts from his cell phone Twitter feed.

No sooner had they sat down than Heilemann informed the hyped-up audience, that U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who appears destined to be the anguished Hamlet of the Kavanaugh confirmation drama, had agreed to vote for Kavanaugh in Friday's party-line Senate Judiciary Committee vote in exchange for a one-week delay in the final vote by the full Senate to give the FBI a chance to investigate allegations of sexual improprieties by Kavanaugh.

On Thursday, Christine Blasey Ford, who Trump described Friday as "very compelling," testified before the Judiciary Committee that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her in high school, a charge that Kavanaugh had furiously denied in an emotional appearance right after Ford's that had appeared to energize Republican efforts to quickly ratify his nomination.

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"Up until about an hour ago, I thought we had a faint pulse to get to the bottom of allegations before this man is on the Supreme Court for life," Avenatti said. "That pulse just became a lot stronger."

His pulse further quickened with incremental bursts from Heilemann that U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, had allied with Flake on the matter and that Trump had blessed the Senate taking a little more time.

Avenatti hopes this will open the door to the FBI interviewing, and the Senate Judiciary Committee eventually hearing from his client, Julie Swetnick. Swetnick claims Kavanaugh and his friend, Mark Judge, ran parties in high school where the punch was spiked to make women easier sexual prey, including gang rape. U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz of Texas, both Republican members of the Judiciary Committee, have described the charges as so sordid and self-discrediting that even Democrats on the Judiciary Committee steered clear of them at Wednesday's hearing, focusing on Ford's claims against Kavanaugh.

U.S. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, noted acidly on Friday that Swetnick had debuted her charges on Heilemann's Showtime documentary series, "The Circus."

But Avenatti, whose representation of Stormy Daniels led Trump fixer Michael Cohen to flip on his longtime boss, said he has confidence in Swetnick, who he said will become a more public figure in the next 72 hours along with a number of corroborating witnesses.

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When Heilemann reported breaking news that Judge, the man who both Ford and Swetnick portray as Kavanaugh's partner-in-crime, had agreed to be interviewed by the FBI, Avenatti said he had the makings of another Michael Cohen.

If Judge, who has denied the claims against him and Kavanaugh, but refused to testify before the Judiciary Committee, gets grilled by the FBI, Avenatti said, "Brett Kavanaugh will never be on the Supreme Court."

Avenatti said that he is considering running for president but only if it appears likely that Trump is going to be his rival because he has the "skill set" for a "match-up ... with this dumpster fire of a president."

But, when Heilemann asked for a show of applause for an Avenatti presidential candidacy, there were only a smattering of claps.

Avenatti also promised state Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, he would make good on a promise to come to Texas the same day in October that Trump holds a re-election rally for Cruz at the biggest stadium he can find in Texas, and hold a counter-rally at the next biggest stadium in the same city.