Ryan assured Trump won't fire special counsel; Senate eyes bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Wednesday he has been assured President Donald Trump does not intend to fire a special counsel investigating Russian election meddling, while a Senate panel prepared to take up a bill that would ensure he cannot.

Trump’s simmering anger at Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose federal probe includes looking into possible collusion with Russia by Trump’s presidential campaign, erupted again this week after an FBI raid on Monday targeted the president’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen.

Lawmakers, including senior members of Trump’s own Republican Party, have expressed concern after the president suggested he might remove Mueller when news of the FBI searches in New York emerged. The searches followed a referral by the special counsel.

“I have no reason to believe that that’s going to happen,” Ryan said at a news conference. “I have assurances that it’s not, because I’ve been talking to people in the White House about it.”

On Wednesday, four senators introduce a bill that would protect the office of the special counsel, merging two different proposals. The proposed legislation would add the weight of law to current Justice Department regulations that govern the office of special counsel.

The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Charles Grassley, said this week it would be “suicide” for the president to try to fire Mueller. He wants the panel to vote on the bill as soon as Thursday, but said it could get pushed back to next week, CNN reported.

However, it was unclear if the proposal would garner the votes needed in the Republican-controlled Congress. Senator John Thune, a junior member of the Senate leadership, said he did not think it could muster the needed 60 votes to clear procedural floor votes in the Senate.

Reports have circulated for months that Trump is also considering firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein took over responsibility for the Russia probe and appointed Mueller last May after Sessions, who was a Trump adviser during the 2016 campaign, recused himself.

Trump did not answer reporters’ shouted questions about the Russia probe during a bill signing on Wednesday. Earlier, he kept up his assault on Mueller in a Twitter message, blaming what he called the “bad blood” between Russia and the United States on the special counsel’s investigation.

“I think they (Rosenstein and Mueller) should be allowed to do their jobs,” Ryan told reporters at the news conference, where he announced his retirement. “We have a rule of law in this country and that’s a principle we all uphold.”

Referring to removing Mueller, Republican Senator Bob Corker said on Tuesday it would be a “massive mistake for the president to do that,” adding he had told the president as much.

“I think there would be a significant revolt in the Senate,” he told Reuters.

UNLIKELY TRUMP WOULD SIGN

However, it was not clear the bill to protect the special counsel would get through Congress. The Republican leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, said this week Mueller should be allowed to continue his work but such legislation was not needed. McConnell’s spokesman declined to comment on Wednesday.

The Senate’s No. 2 Republican, John Cornyn, said he did not think such legislation was necessary.

“And the biggest question I would have, is if it did pass, would the president sign it? I think it’s unlikely that he would,” Cornyn told Reuters.

The proposed legislation would allow the special counsel to be fired only “for good cause” by a senior Justice Department official, with a reason given in writing; provide recourse if the special counsel was fired without good cause; and preserve the staffing and materials of a pending investigation.

Meanwhile, White House lawyers Ty Cobb and Donald McGahn have been trying to dissuade Trump from taking action against Mueller, two U.S. officials said on Tuesday. Cobb and McGahn have told Trump that firing the special counsel would leave the president vulnerable to charges of obstruction of justice, and have said that he must have “good cause” to order Rosenstein to oust Mueller, the officials said.

Russia has denied U.S. intelligence agencies’ findings that it meddled in the 2016 campaign to try to tilt the vote in Trump’s favor. Trump has denied any collusion by his campaign and has long viewed the Mueller probe as a witch hunt.