Senator Chris Coons made a blunt remark to President Donald Trump, saying that sacking special counsel Robert Mueller would mean crossing a line and spark bipartisan pushback in the Senate, the Hill reports.
“I think if the president should fire Robert Mueller abruptly, that would be crossing a big line, and I think you would be seeing strong bipartisan action from the Senate which might include our reinstating him or our hiring him to continue to conduct that investigation on behalf of Congress,” Coons said on ABC’s This Week.
Senator Coon and Senator Thom Tillis introduced bipartisan legislation called the Special Counsel Integrity Act which allows special counsels to object a possible firing in court.
Senators Cory Booker and Lindsay Graham are also creating legislation that allows them to block the president from firing Mueller.
Trump has repeatedly slammed the special counsel throughout the probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, accusing Mueller of having conflicts of interest.
The federal probe includes scrutiny of Trump administration officials who met with Russians during the presidential campaign in 2016.
In a statement for the New York Times, Trump said he had done nothing wrong and “a special counsel should never have been appointed in this case.”
The president’s attorney Jay Sekulow has publicly stated that Trump could fire the special counsel if he saw fit.
“The president has authority to take action,” Sekulow told ABC News. “Whether he would do it is ultimately a decision the president makes.”
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