Senate plans hearing for bills to protect Mueller

The Senate Judiciary Committee is planning hearings for legislation that would protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller from being fired by President Trump.

There are currently two sets of bipartisan bills aimed at protecting Mueller. The first bill is being introduced by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), and would only allow the most senior Justice Department official to fire Mueller. 

The second bill, introduced by Sen. Corey Booker (D-N.J.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), would protect Mueller from being fired unless the attorney general tells a three-judge panel that there was “misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest or other good cause,” according to CNN.

Tillis told CNN he was informed that the committee plans on to hold hearings on the legislation in the next two weeks, and that the committee’s Chairman, Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.), has not dismissed calling the bill up for a vote. 

The development is a sign that the committee would be willing to go against Trump if he called to remove Mueller. 

The Trump administration has expressed great displeasure if Mueller’s probe, often citing his staff’s ties to Democratic campaigns. The president also publicly warned Mueller not to probe his finances in an interview last July.

It has since been reported that Mueller is looking at Trump’s financial history as part of the probe into Russian election interference.

The Senate Judiciary Committee recently set its sights on the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., following reports of his 2016 meeting with a Russian attorney. 

The younger Trump met with Senate staffers for more than five hours last week, in which he said he accepted a meeting with a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton because he wanted to assess her “fitness” for office.