Senator Lindsey Graham promises a hearing to probe claims two senior officials discussed invoking a rare constitutional move.
An investigation may take place into claims senior officials discussed whether Donald Trump could be removed from office.
Former acting director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe, made the claim during an interview with CBS News.
Mr McCabe, who was later sacked, described a conversation in which Rod Rosenstein, the current deputy attorney general, had raised the idea of invoking the US Constitution’s 25th Amendment.
Section 4 of the amendment says that in the event a president is incapacitated or unwilling to discharge his duties, the vice president and a „majority“ of cabinet members can declare the president incapable.
Mr Rosenstein has consistently denied discussing the 25th amendment.
Senator Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the US Senate Judiciary Committee, said that, if true, the discussion amounted to an attempt at a „coup“.
„There’s an allegation by the acting FBI director at the time that the deputy attorney general was basically trying to do an administrative coup,“ he told CBS’s Face The Nation.
„[To] take the president down to the 25th amendment process. The deputy attorney general denies it. I promise your viewers the following, that we will have a hearing about who’s telling the truth.
