Flake to block advancing judges if Senate doesn’t vote to protect Mueller

PHOENIX — Outgoing U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake vowed to block the effort to advance potential judges if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refuses to bring a bill to the floor that would protect special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

During a floor speech on Wednesday, Flake said he would not vote to advance any of the 21 judicial nominees pending in the Judicial Committee or vote to confirm any of the 32 judges awaiting confirmation on the Senate floor until McConnell brings the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act to a vote.

The bipartisan legislation would give any special counsel a 10-day window to seek expedited judicial review of a firing and put into law existing Justice Department regulations that a special counsel can only be fired for good cause. It was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in April.

Flake and Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware attempted to bring it for a vote on the Senate floor Wednesday, but McConnell quickly shut it down.

Flake and Coons are urging their leadership to hold a vote now that President Donald Trump has pushed out Attorney General Jeff Sessions and replaced him with someone who is critical of Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Coons said during a Senate floor speech that the bill would at least get 60 votes. Several other Republicans have said they would vote for the bill, including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, Maine Sen. Susan Collins and the legislation’s GOP co-sponsors, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis.

McConnell has refused to hold a vote on the legislation, saying it’s unnecessary because Mueller won’t be fired.

“We know how the president feels about the Mueller investigation, but he’s never said he wants to shut it down,” McConnell said Wednesday.

“I’ve never heard anybody (at the White House) say they want to shut it down. I think it’s in no danger, so I don’t think any legislation is necessary.”

The move by Flake and Coons comes more than a year after Graham and Tillis originally introduced the legislation with Democrats and it underscores the deep concerns many lawmakers have long had over Trump’s comments about the investigation.

Trump has repeatedly called the probe a “hoax” and leveled personal criticism at the former FBI director. Trump appointed Matt Whitaker, a loyalist who has previously criticized Mueller’s investigation, as acting attorney general after Sessions’ resignation last week.

Whitaker is now overseeing the probe, which is looking at Trump’s 2016 campaign and its ties to Russia. The investigation had previously been overseen by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who told Congress that he saw no reason to fire Mueller.

Sessions had recused himself from overseeing Mueller because he worked on Trump’s campaign, a decision that infuriated Trump.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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