Earlier this week, Republican Senator Jeff Flake held a press conference.

Thank you for being here.

We've just asked for unanimous consent on the floor of the Senate to bring the Special Counsel

Independence and Integrity Act to the floor.

This was legislation that passed the Judiciary Committee on April 26th.

He was trying to revive a bill that the Senate first considered back in the spring.

It would protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller from political interference.

So this is a legislation that would have codified Justice Department rules saying that you can only fire the special counsel for good cause.

Dahlia Lithwick covers the courts for Slate.

She was watching this moment, closely.

It was voted on in committee last April,

and then it's just been sort of moldering on the shelf since then.

But when the president fired his attorney general last week and replaced him with a hardline loyalist,

many Washington insiders started to worry about Mueller's

future. So here's Flake saying comes forward with Chris Coons and says, damn it, no, now we're going to vote on this.

And Mitch McConnell's like, I don't think we need it. I trust Trump. He's not going to fire Mueller.

And this moment, Dahlia thinks of it as a kind of conservative gut check.

For some, what happened to the Justice Department last week crossed a line?

Others didn't think so.

So what's interesting is the folks for whom it was a red line who have just negotiated that away. And then in tandem with that,

people like Senator Jeff Flake, who seemingly say, no, actually, this remains a red line. And in fact,

the firing of sessions is not beyond a red line. It's a flashing red light. Like this means, you know, Trump has Mueller and his crosshairs. And so for me, what's interesting is that split.

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