In warning shot, senators push bill to protect Mueller
WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee fired a political warning shot at the White House on Thursday, advancing on a bipartisan vote long-stalled legislation to allow special counsels such as Robert Mueller to appeal their firing to a panel of judges and possibly be reinstated.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the Senate majority leader, has stated unequivocally that he will not bring the bill to the Senate floor for a vote. But with four Republicans, including the committee’s chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, joining Democrats to vote in favor it, the measure sent a clear message to President Donald Trump that there would be serious consequences to firing the special counsel.
Even senators who voted against the legislation warned Trump against trying to dismiss Mueller. Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the longest-serving Senate Republican, said that “firing Mueller would cause a firestorm and bring the administration’s agenda to a halt. It could even result in impeachment.”
Trump seemingly offered fresh reason for their concern earlier Thursday. In a telephone interview with “Fox & Friends,” Trump again aired his frustration with the Justice Department and with Mueller’s team, which he dismissed as being filled with partisan Democrats. He said he had been trying not to interfere in matters before the Justice Department.
But, Trump warned, “at some point I won’t.”
Democrats have been clamoring for the Senate to move the legislation for weeks, as Trump has escalated his attacks on the special counsel investigation and contemplated removing key figures overseeing it. They claimed Thursday’s vote as a modest, if mostly symbolic, victory.
Republicans who support the measure have been careful to present it as a necessary and appropriate check on the authority of the presidency itself, whoever is in office.
“It’s not about Mr. Mueller,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of the bill’s authors. “It’s not about Trump. It’s about the rule of law.”
The bill, called the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act, would codify into law the existing Justice Department regulation that says a special counsel may be fired only by the attorney general and only for good cause.
It would create a 10-day window within which a special counsel could petition a panel of judges to determine if the firing was for good cause. If it were judged not to have been, the counsel would be reinstated. The bill would ensure that the special counsel’s staff and investigative materials would be preserved in the interim.
The senators also voted to include an amendment by Grassley that would require special counsels to produce to the attorney general and to Congress a report at the end of their investigation or in the event that they are fired. Such a report would include significant findings of the case, as well as information about decisions to file charges or not to file charges, among other details. Currently, special counsels like Mueller are required to make a report to the attorney general, but that information will not necessarily be shared with Congress or the public.