A HIGH-STAKES row has quickly broken out over a confidential FBI report about allegations that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually abused women three decades ago.

Republicans have claimed investigators found “no hint of misconduct”, while Democrats accused the White House of slapping crippling constraints on the probe.

The verbal battling commenced as the conservative jurist’s prospects for winning Senate confirmation to the Supreme Court remained at the mercy of five wavering senators, with an initial, critical vote looming today.

It followed the FBI’s early-morning release of its investigation, which President Donald Trump reluctantly ordered under pressure from a handful of wavering Republican senators.

“There’s nothing in it that we didn’t already know,” Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley claimed.

The Republican said he based his view on a briefing from committee aides and added: “This investigation found no hint of misconduct.”

Top Democrats hit back after getting their own briefing.

The judiciary panel’s top Democrat Dianne Feinstein said it appeared that the White House had “blocked the FBI from doing its job”.