GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham wants another special counsel investigation

Now that one special counsel investigation has wrapped up, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) wants another.

Graham, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Monday said Attorney General William Barr should appoint a new special counsel to investigate allegations of the FBI and the Department of Justice "playing politics" in 2016. This would include looking into the FBI's obtaining of a FISA warrant to surveil former Trump aide Carter Paige, which included references to allegations from British spy Christopher Steele's unconfirmed dossier on the Trump campaign's alleged Russia collusion. This was not the entire basis for obtaining the warrant, however, explains NBC News.

"The FISA warrant issued against Carter Page based on a dossier prepared by Christopher Steele is at a minimum disturbing," Graham said, per ABC. "Whether or not it's illegal, I don't yet know, so I'm going to get answers to this."

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 said he would "like to find somebody like a Mr. Mueller" that could look into this FISA warrant among other concerns raised by conservatives in recent years. Mueller "thoroughly investigated the Trump campaign," but "you cannot say that about the other side of the story," he argued. Graham also said he wants this special counsel to investigate the FBI's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. He was headed to speak with Barr shortly after this press conference.

Trump himself suggested on Sunday more investigations should take place, saying, "hopefully, somebody's going to be looking at the other side."

The Judiciary Committee will also examine these issues, Graham said on Monday after previously hinting at this by tweeting at Former FBI Director James Comey, "See you soon." Brendan Morrow