Former President George W. Bush and wife Laura say they have known Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh for decades, and they are standing behind him after claims of sexual assault threw his confirmation proceedings into turmoil. 

"Laura and I have known and respected Brett Kavanaugh for decades, and we stand by our comments the night Judge Kavanaugh was nominated," Bush said in a statement to Politico on Tuesday about the federal judge, who had served as a top aide in the Bush White House.  

When Kavanaugh was nominated, Bush referred to him as a "fine husband, father, and friend – and a man of the highest integrity. He will make a superb Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States."

Bush appointed Kavanaugh to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit after his nomination was stalled in 2003. Before that, the judge worked for Bush as an associated counsel and then staff secretary. He also met his wife Ashley, who was working as Bush's personal secretary, while working for the administration.  

However, Christine Blasey Ford stepped forward Sunday through The Washington Post story to identify herself as the person who had written a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., claiming Kavanaugh had attacked her at a party when they were teenagers in the 1980s. Kavanaugh denies the accusations.  

Feinstein, however, said Tuesday she could not verify everything Ford, a California research psychologist and professor, has said is true.  

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