U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said late Friday afternoon that she supports a weeklong delay for a Senate confirmation vote on the nomination of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Collins, who has not said how she will vote on the nomination, sent a tweet indicating her support for the delay after pressure increased during the day over whether she will vote to confirm Kavanaugh. Her statement came after several other senators who were seen as potential opponents of the nomination had voiced support for a delay.

Collins spoke with fellow Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona before he announced the plan to move Kavanaugh’s nomination forward from the Senate Judiciary Committee to the full Senate, and then delay the vote for a week to allow the FBI to reopen its background investigation of Kavanaugh, Annie Clark, Collins’ spokeswoman, said.

Kavanaugh has been accused of sexually assaulting a teenager when he and the girl were private school students in suburban Maryland early in the 1980s.

Collins also met Friday afternoon with Flake, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, in the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to iron out details of the plan, Clark said. After that meeting, the Judiciary Committee formally requested that President Trump ask the FBI to look into the allegations against Kavanaugh.

Earlier in the day, Collins met in her office with several Maine women who were survivors of sexual assaults.

Trump announced later Friday that he had ordered the FBI to conduct the probe.

The reopened background investigation would look into allegations that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl while he was in high school.

Kavanaugh and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. The committee voted Friday to advance the Kavanaugh nomination to the full Senate, but Flake said he would seek the delay to reopen the investigation into the allegation.

Shortly after 4 p.m. Friday, Collins sent a tweet containing a release from the Judiciary Committee on the decision to ask the White House to agree to order the FBI to reopen the investigation into Kavanaugh, as long as it is completed within a week.

Collins tweeted, “I support this sensible agreement” and added she was “pleased to hear Mark Judge has indicated he would cooperate with the investigators.”

According to Ford, Judge was in the room when Kavanaugh allegedly assaulted her. Judge, a friend of Kavanaugh’s, has said, through letters from his lawyer, that he doesn’t remember the incident.

Mainers trying to weigh in on the matter by calling Collins’ state offices or by reaching her via her U.S. Senate website were frustrated late Thursday and early Friday by busy signals and a broken link on Collins’ contact page online. The site was operational again by midmorning.

“Our official Senate website was temporarily unavailable for a short time this morning. It is now back up and running,” Clark said in a text message to the Portland Press Herald. “We have had a heavy call volume to our six offices in Maine and to our D.C office over the past three weeks. We encourage any Mainers who receive a busy signal to please try again.”

Collins was attending meetings at her office in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Friday, including the session at noon with five sexual assault survivors from Maine.

The Center for Popular Democracy Action said those survivors urged Collins to vote against Kavanaugh’s nomination, according to a news release from the group, a Washington, D.C. and New York City-based nonprofit whose website says it advocates “for communities of color, and immigrants on issues of economic and racial justice.”

Catherine Perreault of Portland was among the women who met with Collins. Originally from Madawaska, Perreault said Collins was engaged and listening closely to the contingent of Maine women, although Collins gave no indication of how she might vote on Kavanaugh. In all, Perreault said, there were between 20 to 25 women from Maine who traveled to Washington to talk with senators or their staff members about Kavanaugh.

“We found her to be very compassionate and she truly listened to us,” Perrault said. “She expressed empathy for each of our stories. We really felt that we were being heard.”

Perreault, who said she was a victim of harassment and minor assault, said she and the others were impressed Collins made time to meet with them and were hopeful she would vote against confirming Kavanaugh. “I came to D.C. to represent every friend I have who was never believed, who is not strong enough to speak out themselves,” Perreault said.

“(Collins) fills some pretty big shoes of people who came before her in the Senate,” Perreault said. “And the sense we have is she can make a tremendous difference here, she could do something very bold and heroic and we need to see her do that.”

In Portland, dozens of protesters flocked to Collins’ offices at midday and were attempting to stage a sit-in as they met with staff and urged Collins to oppose Kavanaugh’s nomination. Portland police were called to the scene, but there were no immediate reports of any arrests.

About 40 protesters also gathered at her office in the Edmund S. Muskie Federal Building on Sewall Street in Augusta to voice their concern about or support for Kavanaugh. Mark Winter, Collins’ Augusta office representative, said he met with constituents two at a time.

“When I get a group of people who come in and we’re not ready, I want to give everybody a fair opportunity … to have a conversation with a staffer a few at a time,” Winter said.

He declined to comment on the split of the views of people he met with, but he said he heard from people in support of Kavanaugh’s confirmation. He expects some frenzied days leading up to the vote and immediately after it.

“Until the vote on the floor happens, it’s going to be busy, busy, busy,” he said.

It appeared that Collins, along with a few other senators, had been assigned Capitol Police security details. Collins was seen leaving her offices Friday in a police car, according to photos on Twitter.

A moderate Republican, Collins, is one of a few key holdouts in a pending vote on Kavanaugh, after Flake announced Friday that he would vote to confirm the judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Collins, 65, is two-thirds of the way through her fourth consecutive six-year term in the Senate and would be up for re-election in 2020.

Collins and Murkowski have not said how they will vote.

In a Senate narrowly controlled by Republicans, 51-49, together Collins and Murkowski could block Kavanaugh’s confirmation, although Collins has never voted against any nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, including voting to approve appointees by Republican and Democratic presidents.

Also Friday, Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Indiana, said he would vote against Kavanaugh’s appointment. Donnelly is among only three Senate Democrats who voted to confirm Trump nominee Justice Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Press Herald Staff Writer Edward D. Murphy and Kennebec Journal Staff Writer Sam Shepherd contributed to this report.

More than 100 protesters walk across Middle Street in Portland outside U.S. Sen. Susan Collins’ office Friday to hold a moment of silence for survivors who have come forward to recount their sex assaults. The protesters went in groups to leave comments with Collins’ staff about U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who is accused of sexual assault on a high school classmate. (Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald)