Sessions urged to appoint another special counsel

Republican lawmakers are pushing Attorney General Jeff Sessions to appoint a second special counsel besides Robert Mueller, this one to investigate the FBI and the Justice Department for how they handled the 2016 election. Of particular interest is surveillance of a Trump campaign aide and the probe into then-candidate Hillary Clinton's email server.

"The FBI and the Department of Justice were corrupt, in my view, when it came to handling the email investigation of Clinton," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) argued on Fox News in support of a new counsel. "And the entire FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] warrant application process was abused."

Graham was referring to the allegation in the memo compiled by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) that the FBI acquired FISA permission to spy on Trump campaign aide Carter Page based significantly on the Steele dossier, whose creation was partially funded by a Clinton campaign lawyer, without telling the court the source of the information. The counter-memo released by House Democrats from the committee says the FISA court was properly informed of the dossier's political provenance.

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

Graham sent a letter to Sessions Thursday asking for an additional special counsel, and other House members including Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (Va.) and Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (S.C.) have made the same request.

A Justice Department inspector general investigation is already underway, but that has not satisfied President Trump and many of his allies.