Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) suggested legislation could be passed to protect FBI special counsel Robert Mueller from being fired without cause.
Collins said, “First I think it’s important to note that the president cannot directly fire Mr. Mueller. The only person who can fire Mr. Mueller is the deputy attorney general, he’s the person who appointed Mr. Mueller and last year at a hearing I questioned him at length on this issue, and he was adamant that he would never give in to any White House pressure to remove Mr. Mueller. I think what happened here is the president had a bad idea. He talked with his counsel who explained to an angry and frustrated president why it was a bad idea and that was several months ago and the White House counsel is still on the job and Mr. Mueller is still aggressively investigating and that’s as it should be.”
She added, “It probably wouldn’t hurt for us to pass one of those bills and I give Senator Tillis and Senator Coons great credit for coming up with the bipartisan bill and Senator Lindsay Graham and Booker have a different approach. There are some Constitutional issues with those bills but it would certainly not hurt to put that extra safeguard in place given the latest stories, but again, I have faith in the deputy attorney general that he’s going to do what he told me he would do.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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