Flake: I’m not backing down on judges

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For the second time in two weeks, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, called off a planned meeting to advance more than two dozen Trump administration nominees because the panel would not have enough votes to favorably report them to the Senate floor.

Republicans hold a one-seat majority on the panel, but Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said he won’t support any judicial nominations until GOP leaders allow a vote on legislation that would prevent President Trump from firing special counsel Robert Mueller, who is probing an alleged connection between the Trump 2016 campaign and Russians.

Flake is not backing down, he told the Washington Examiner, and plans to oppose the judges until either his retirement at the end of the year or until the Senate votes on the Mueller resolution.

“Until we have a vote, and I hope we have a vote, as soon as we have a vote then we can move forward on judges,” Flake told the Washington Examiner. “Until then, I’ll hold to my position.”

Grassley postponed Thursday’s scheduled meeting to advance the nominees. He told the Washington Examiner earlier that he would postpone any votes on nominees “’til Flake can vote for them.”

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