A bill meant to protect special counsel Robert Mueller from being fired was blocked in the Senate on Wednesday.
According to The Associated Press, Republican Senator Jeff Flake asked for consent to bring the legislation, which has stalled after being passed in the Judiciary Committee in April to the Senate floor for a vote.
However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked his request.
Under the Senate’s rules, a senator can come to the Senate floor and ask for consent to get a vote or pass a bill. Any one senator can block their request.
McConnell didn’t explain his move from the floor but it came hours after he told reporters that he believed that Mueller should be able to finish his investigation and that he didn’t believe the special counsel was in danger of being fired.
“There’s been no indication … that Mueller investigation will not be allowed to finish and it should be allowed to finish. We know how the President feels about the Mueller investigation but he’s never said he wants to shut it down,” McConnell told reporters during a press conference.
After McConnell’s objection, Flake poked at President Donald Trump‘s rhetoric on the Mueller probe.
“With the firing of the attorney general … the President now has this investigation in his sights and we all know it,” Flake said from the Senate floor.
He added that Trump had accused Mueller of a witch hunt “without basis or fact.”
“How such an investigation can be the cause of controversy is beyond me. …[And] presidents do not get to determine what gets investigated and what and who does not,” Flake said.
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