Maine’s U.S. Sen. Susan Collins late Friday afternoon said she supports a plan for 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 out a tweet indicating her support for the delay after increasing pressure 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 already voiced support for a delay.

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

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

The reopened background investigation would look into allegations that Kavanaugh committed sexual assault on a 15-year-old girl while he was in high school.

Kavanaugh and the alleged victim, Christine Blasey Ford, both testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday. The committee voted Friday to advance the Kavanaugh nomination to the full Senate, but Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake said he would seek the delay to reopen the investigation into the allegations.

Shortly after 4 p.m. Friday, Collins sent out a tweet containing a release on from the Judiciary Committee on the decision to ask the White House agree to order the FBI to reopen in the investigation into Kavanaugh, as long as it is completed within a week. Collins tweeted, “I support this sensible agreement” and then added another comment saying she was “pleased to hear Mark Judge has indicated he would cooperate with the investigators.”

According to Ford, Judge was in the room where Kavanaugh allegedly assaulted her. Through letters from his lawyer, Judge has said 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 web site 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 mid-morning.

“Our official Senate website was temporarily unavailable for a short time this morning. It is now back up and running,” Annie Clark, a spokeswoman for Collins in Washington, 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 offices in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Friday, including a 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 press release from the group, a Washington, D.C. and New York City-based non-profit that says on its web site that 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 she 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,” said Perrault. “She expressed empathy for each of our stories. We really felt that we were being heard.”

Perreault, who said she was a victim of harrassment and minor assault, said she and the others were impressed Collins made time to meet with them face-to-face 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.

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

A moderate Republican, Collins, is one of a few key holdouts in a pending vote on Kavanaugh, after Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, announced Friday he would vote to confirm the controversial appointment of Kavanaugh by President Donald Trump. Collins, 65, is two-thirds of the way through her fourth consecutive six-year term in the U.S. Senate and would be up for reelection in 2020.

Both Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, have not said how they will vote as both Kavanaugh and Ford presented conflicting statements before Senate’s Judiciary Committee on Thursday in an unusual continuation of Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing.

But later Flake – after being confronted by two women who identified themselves as sexual assault survivors and who were organized by the same group as the women from Maine – called for a one-week delay and an FBI investigation into the allegations by Ford before any final confirmation vote in the Senate on Kavanaugh.

Flake also agreed to sign on to a letter to Trump urging him to order an FBI investigation into the allegation that Kavanaugh assaulted Ford, placed his hand over her mouth and attempted to remove her clothing during a party in Maryland in 1982, when both Ford and Kavanaugh were in high school.

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 to the court by both Republican and Democratic presidents previously.

Also on Friday, U.S. 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 appointee Justice Neil Gorsuch.