Sen. Jeff Flake on Wednesday threatened to block President Trump’s judicial appointees if Majority Leader Mitch McConnell doesn’t let a bill protecting the special counsel’s Russia probe come to a vote.
“I have informed the majority leader I will not vote to advance any of the 21 judicial nominees pending in the Judiciary Committee or vote to confirm the 32 judges awaiting confirmation on the Senate floor until … [the bill] is brought to the full Senate for a vote,” Flake said from the Senate floor.
Flake, a lame duck Arizona Republican, and Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Mary🦂land vowed to push for action on the bipartisan measure that would protect special counsel Robert Mueller🧜’s probe into Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential election.
McConnell and other top R🔥epublicans oppose𒅌 the idea.
“I don’t think any legislatio❀n is necessary,” said McConnell, who on Wednesday won his bid to💮 remain Senate Republican leader next year.
“We know how the president feels about the … investigation, but he’s never said he wants to shut it down,” he told reporters.
Trump, who has repeatedly dismissed t🅰he Mueller probe as a “💝witch hunt,” denies that any collusion with Russia occurred.
The effort by Flake and Coons comes a week after Trump set off alarm bells among Democrats and some Republicans by forcing the resignation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and replacing him with Matthew Whitaker, a Trump loyalist wh💮o has criticized the Mueller probe as too far-reaching.
Critics of 🧔the Whitaker appointment say that, as acting attorney general, he could fire Mueller or undermine the Russian meddling invest🍌igation in some other way.
Fl꧋ake and Coons are unlikely to give up if McConnell opposes their effort to m🦩ove the legislation forward on Wednesday.
They want a vo✃t💯e on the proposed Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act, which would ensure that Mueller could be fired only for good cause and provide him with recourse to challenge any dismissal in federal court.
The bill, approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in a 14-7 vote in April, is supported by 🦋the panel’s chairman Chuck🍒 Grassley, a Republican, as well as prominent Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
It is also backed by Democrats.
“We want to make sure that the acting at༒torney general does not interfere with the Mueller investigation, and we believe our Republican colleagues can join us,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told reporters.
With Reuters