House Democrats have voted to use their new House majority to protect special counsel Robert Mueller and get to the bottom of why Attorney General Jeff Sessions was fired.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi held a Thursday call with Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, D-Md., to talk about next steps after Sessions’ sudden firing.
A Cummings aide told the Washington Examiner that the call focused “on the constitutionally perilous moment triggered by the firing of Attorney General Sessions and the unconstitutional appointment of Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker.” Cummings’ office said Democrats are also looking to push for language protecting Mueller in a spending bill that will have to be finished in the next few weeks.
Democrats, who were already preparing to launch a series of investigations against Trump, later indicated they would pursue this new line of inquiry.
“President Trump and Matt Whitaker are on notice: They have put a dark cloud over anything DOJ does with this appointment — an appointment which may well be challenged in court. The rule of law cannot be undermined,” Nadler said in a Friday afternoon tweet.
[Read: New acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker now overseeing Mueller investigation: 6 things to know]
Democrats also said they would press to make sure Mueller is free to complete his investigation without any interference from Whitaker, who will now oversee the Mueller investigation. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., said Sessions’ ouster is “a blatantly transparent attempt by the president to derail the Mueller investigation.”
“The new Democratic majority in the House is not going to stand by idly while our institutions are under attack, and we will not be dissuaded from investigation by the President’s threats. We are Article I of the Constitution and have a duty to act as a check to the President and provide oversight. I take those responsibilities extremely seriously,” Himes said in a statement to the Washington Examiner on Thursday.
Mueller is emerging from his midterm quiet period by plunging right into a handful of key court hearings and sentencing deadlines for cooperating witnesses. Democrats worry about Whitaker’s past comments of questioning the special counsel’s authority and proposing ways to curb his actions.
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter Thursday afternoon to Republicans who still control the panel demanding “emergency hearings concerning the forced firing, passing bipartisan legislation protecting the special counsel and joining in requesting.”
In the letter, Schiff, Nadler, and Cummings were also joined by Sen. Dianne Feinstein — the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee — in asking for the preservation of “all relevant materials related to the firing.”
Late Thursday night, Schiff said on CNN that the “first move” Democrats make is to make sure Mueller does not get fired, and that all materials related to the investigation are preserved.
“But if the President effectively undermines the rule of law and causes the special counsel to be fired or an abrupt or partisan end to this investigation, then it will fall on Congress to find out the facts itself, to get those facts from the Justice Department, to continue our own investigation so that we can tell the country exactly what happened,” Schiff said.
Hours before Sessions’ firing, Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., said in a statement to the Washington Examiner on Wednesday that in addition to the House Intelligence Committee’s renewed focus on the Russia investigation that a GOP majority ended earlier this year, Democrats “also continue our shared efforts to protect special counsel Mueller’s search for answers, without fear of an unjust removal spurred purely by partisan motivations.”
House Democrats also demanded that Whitaker stay out of Mueller’s investigation.
Trump said Friday to reporters outside the White House that he has not talked to Whitaker about Mueller and called a question about if he wants Whitaker to “reign in Mueller” a “stupid question.”
Trump’s allies say that there is nothing to be worried about.
“I don’t think this is the sea change people are making it out to be,” Jay Sekulow, the president’s personal attorney, said Thursday afternoon on his radio show. “If somebody would know, it might be me. Our day-to-day work hasn’t changed on this.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on a radio station in Kentucky that “I don’t think there’s any chance that the Mueller investigation will not be allowed to finish” in light of Sessions’ departure.
When asked by text message if Trump will use Whitaker to squeeze Mueller or if it’s a “freak out over nothing,” a source familiar with Trump’s thinking said, “the latter.”
Even so, some Republican lawmakers will be pushing for a vote on legislation to shield Mueller. Sens. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Chris Coons, D-Del., plan to ask for a floor vote on bipartisan legislation that cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee in April, but has seen no floor action by McConnell.
Flake tweeted that “it is more important than ever to protect the Special Counsel.” There is parallel legislation stalled in the House.
