“Bipartisan senators unveil compromise special counsel bill amid hopes to break political logjam” reads the headline in today’s Washington Post.
A bipartisan quartet of senators released long-awaited compromise legislation Wednesday to prevent the undue firing of special counsels like Robert S. Mueller III, as the bill’s authors claimed Republican leaders were warming to the idea of letting the measure come to a vote.
Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.), Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) announced they had completed legislation that would delay any order to fire a special counsel by 10 days, giving that counsel a window to appeal the decision to a panel of three federal judges.
The bill further stipulates that during the 10-day period, no documents or materials related to the counsel’s investigation could be destroyed or staffing changes made.
The release of the bill is an important moment for lawmakers who have struggled to agree upon a middle ground between two separate special counsel protection bills they filed last summer in the wake of President Trump hints that he might replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Its fate now rests largely in the hands of Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who must decide whether he will put the bill through the formal congressional vetting process.
The Hill reported:
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said Tuesday “it would be suicide” if President Trump ordered the firing of special counsel Robert Mueller.
“I have confidence in Mueller, the president ought to have confidence in Mueller, and I think, to answer your question, it would be suicide for the president to want to talk about firing Mueller,” Grassley said on Fox Business Network. “The less the president said on this whole thing the better off he would be, the stronger his presidency would be,” Grassley continued, adding that he believes the probe into possible collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia in the 2016 presidential election is a “dead end.”
It remains to be seen whether the fact that Trump is behaving like a man who is as guilty as hell and is trying to obstruct justice to cover his own ass by firing Mueller will lead Grassley to assure that he doesn’t get away with this subversion of the American justice system. Hopefully Trump’s negative behavior is leading Grassley to feel “more positive” about allowing the compromise bill to move towards a House floor vote.
But in recent days, Grassley has been sounding “more positive” about marking up the bill, which would move it a step closer toward a possible floor vote, the senators said.
“I saw him yesterday ... and said I am hearing through our staff that you are more open to a markup soon for this bill,” Coons said in an interview Wednesday. “And he said, yes, I am seriously considering it.”
The change of heart coincides with a new tirade from President Trump, who excoriated the FBI over its recent raid of his lawyer Michael Cohen’s home and office. Trump also said that “many people” were advising him to fire Mueller. Washington Post
In reading his Wikipedia profile one thing stood out which leads me to be optimistic that he’ll make the just decision.
Grassley was ranked as the 5th most bipartisan member of the U.S. Senate during the 114th United States Congress (and the third most bipartisan member of the U.S. Senate from the American Midwest after Indiana Senator Joe Donnelly and Ohio Senator Rob Portman) in the Bipartisan Index created by The Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy that ranks members of the United States Congress by their degree of bipartisanship (by measuring the frequency each member's bills attract co-sponsors from the opposite party and each member's co-sponsorship of bills by members of the opposite party).
If the Senate passed this bill it would, of course, need to go to the House. With the latest polls showing that 70% of Americans want Mueller to continue his investigation, Republican members there hopefully would vote for the bill and there would be a veto-proof majority.