Christie, Cotton, Santorum reject special prosecutor for alleged Russian election meddling

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), and former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum all said in interviews Sunday that calls for a special prosecutor to investigate alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election are premature. The possibility of such an appointment was raised Friday by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who argued it is inappropriate for the investigation to be performed by someone, like new Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who is a political appointee.

"The Justice Department over the course of time has shown itself, with the professionals that are there, to have the ability to investigate these type of things," Christie said in a conversation with CNN's Jake Tapper. "When a special prosecutor gets involved, the thing gets completely out of control."

"I think that's way, way getting ahead of ourselves here," Cotton said while talking with Chuck Todd on NBC. "There's no allegations of any crime occurring, there's not even an indication that there's criminal investigations underway by the FBI as opposed to counterintelligence investigations, which the FBI conducts all the time."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"The rush to a special prosecutor is always a dangerous thing," Santorum said in a different segment of Tapper's show, contending that appointing a special prosecutor would usurp congressional power. Watch comments from all three below. Bonnie Kristian