Amy Schumer and Emily Ratajkowski detained alongside anti-Kavanaugh protesters
Crowds storm a government building in Washington in protest against the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh.
Friday 5 October 2018 11:02, UK
Comedian Amy Schumer has been detained during a protest against Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination.
Footage showed Schumer being lined up by police along with a number of other demonstrators in Washington who shouted and waved signs inside the atrium of the Hart Senate Office building on Thursday.
A video shared on social media shows the Hollywood star being herded into a group of other protesting women by a policeman who asks her: "Do you want to be arrested?"
She replies: "Yes."
A second video, apparently filmed by Schumer herself and sent to a woman who posted it online, sees the comedian say: "Hi Zola, I'm here with your mom.
"She loves you very much.
"I think we're going to get arrested - and we're so proud of you."
She was among thousands of anti-Kavanaugh protesters who rallied outside the Supreme Court and entered a Senate office building, holding signs such as "Believe Survivors" and "Kava-Nope."
Actress and model Emily Ratajkowski was also among the protesters and said on social media that she "was arrested protesting the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, a man who has been accused by multiple women of sexual assault".
She added: "Men who hurt women can no longer be placed in positions of power."
Police had shut down the Capitol Building in advance of the protest, prompting participants to gather in the Hart building instead, according to Women's March which reportedly organised the protest.
The protest came as the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, Chuck Grassley, said the FBI had found "no hint of misconduct" in its investigation into Mr Kavanaugh.
The nominee has been accused of sexual assault by professor Christine Blasey Ford.
She gave evidence in front of the committee that Mr Kavanaugh, then aged 17, sexually assaulted her when she was aged 15 in Maryland in 1982.
Two other women have accused him of sexual misconduct in separate incidents in the 1980s.
Mr Kavanaugh, 53, a judge on the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, denies any wrongdoing.
Schumer made a speech outside the building before the group stormed in. She told the crowd: "We're going to keep showing up and no matter how this goes they cannot keep us down.
"We will win. A vote for Kavanaugh is a vote saying women don't matter.
"Let's say it together: let's fight! Let's keep showing up!"
Earlier this week Donald Trump was criticised for imitating Dr Ford, who could not provide precise information about every aspect of the day of the assault, at a rally in Mississippi.
"What neighbourhood was it in? I don't know. Where's the house? I don't know. Upstairs, downstairs, where was it? I don't know. But I had one beer. That's the only thing I remember," Mr Trump mocked.
Schumer is believed to be a distant cousin of Senate minority leader Charles Schumer.
Meanwhile, Mr Kavanaugh has suggested he "might have been too emotional" during his senate testimony about accusations of sexual misconduct.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal ahead of Friday's procedural vote in the Senate on his nomination, Mr Kavanaugh acknowledged he said "a few things" he should not have.
"Going forward, you can count on me to be the same kind of judge and person I have been for my entire 28-year legal career: hardworking, even-keeled, open-minded, independent and dedicated to the Constitution and the public good," he wrote.