Senator Says There Needs To Be Legislation To Protect Special Counsel Mueller

Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal said on Wednesday that there needs to be some sort of legislative measure to protect special counsel Robert Mueller, who’s currently leading the investigation into whether Russia interfered with the 2016 election and if the Trump campaign colluded with the foreign power to sway voters. Blumenthal introduced a bill with this goal in August.

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“What is needed, very bluntly, is protection for the special counsel, because what we see more and more of is the threats and intimidation from the White House that has to be stopped through legislation I’ve offered,” he said in a CNN interview. “It’s bipartisan legislation.”

When asked to elaborate on what he meant by “intimidation,” Blumenthal pointed to President Trump’s recent attacks on Mueller’s investigation painting it as biased and run by a team who’s out to get him.

“The president of the United States has called this investigation a witch [hunt] and a hoax,” Blumenthal said. “He has attacked the special counsel as recently as last Sunday. He attacked the FBI, and these words are very much like what we’re accustomed to hearing from a criminal defendant with something to hide.”

The probe into Trump’s possible involvement with the Russian government’s attempts to get him in office has significantly intensified over the past week after his former national security advisor Michael Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI about his communication with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Trump proceeded to make things worse for himself by firing off a tweet saying he’d fired Flynn because of his lies, therefore admitting he’d obstructed justice by subsequently asking former FBI direct Jim Comey to let the investigation on Flynn go.

In the past few days, Trump has attempted to discredit Mueller as biased and attacked the FBI, but more and more evidence continues to mount against people in his inner circle of lying about his campaign’s contact with Russia.