EXCLUSIVE Key Republican Dials Back Effort to Protect Robert Mueller From Donald Trump

Source: The Daily Beast



Sen. Thom Tillis was one of the first Republicans to try to save the special counsel. Now he says his bill isn’t urgent, even after news Trump tried to fire Mueller.

BETSY WOODRUFF
01.26.18 2:28 PM ET

One of the first Senate Republicans to call for legislation protecting special counsel Robert Mueller has stopped actively pushing that effort, sources on Capitol Hill say.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican in his first term, made headlines over the summer when he signed on to legislation with Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) that would have shielded Mueller from being fired. But Tillis has largely abandoned the push to move that legislation forward while conceding that the bill doesn’t have the support to get through Congress. His office says he still supports the bill, but that the matter isn’t urgent since Trump says he doesn’t plan to fire Mueller.

“[T]he chatter that the administration is considering removing Special Counsel Mueller has completely come to a halt,” Tillis spokesperson Daniel Keylin said in an email to The Daily Beast. “In fact, the president and his administration have spoken favorably of Special Counsel Mueller’s professionalism and integrity, and recent reports indicate the investigation may soon come to an end.”

On Thursday night, The New York Times reported that Trump tried to fire the special counsel last summer. Keylin told The Daily Beast that despite the revelation, Tillis continues to trust that the president isn’t planning to fire Mueller, who is leading an investigation into potential coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russian government during the 2016 election.


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