Senator Lindsey Graham Moves to Restrict President Trump’s Power to Fire Special Counsel Mueller
Following days of increasingly negative tweets by President Trump expressing his displeasure with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, former Presidential candidate and Republican Senator from South Carolina Lindsey Graham put his proverbial foot down yesterday by declaring publicly,
“As a human being, I think he should show respect for Jeff Sessions as a person. Jeff Sessions was the most loyal supporter of Donald Trump. A rock-solid conservative. The reason I like him so much is I often disagree with him, but I’d never believe he was a man who lacks integrity or fair play. This effort to basically marginalize and humiliate the attorney general is not going over well in the Senate. I don’t think it’s going over well in the conservative world. If you believe Jeff Sessions should be fired, use the power you have and accept the consequences. I hope it stops. I’m 100% behind Jeff Sessions. The chairman of the Judiciary Committee sent a pretty chilling tweet yesterday. There will be no confirmation for a new attorney general in 2017. If Jeff Sessions is fired, there will be holy hell to pay.”
In spite of the former Alabama Senator’s early support of Donald Trump’s candidacy, President Trump has been very transparent in his recent disapproval of Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation.
Darren Samuelsohn of Politico writes:
Trump, his lawyers and his surrogates have for weeks been publicly discrediting Mueller’s effort, in particular several attorneys he’s brought onto the task force who have made campaign contributions to Democrats. The Republican president’s lawyer has also questioned the scope of the Mueller probe as it reportedly looks into Trump’s business dealings dating back to well before he ran for the presidency. By questioning Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the Russia probe, as well as other moves by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Trump has also sent signals he could be moving toward a much broader attempt to halt the Mueller probe.
Citing the need for “a check and balance”, Graham has joined with New Jersey Democrat Senator Cory Booker and others in efforts to draft legislation that would require judicial review of any attempt by President Trump or his staff to fire the Special Counsel tasked with investigating the Trump administration’s possible ties to Russia.
Graham warned that “Any effort to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency unless Mueller did something wrong.”
