No extra counsel for probe into FBI
UNITED STATES: In a concession to conservatives clamouring for new investigations into Hillary Clinton’s emails and the Justice Department’s actions in the Russia investigation, Attorney General Jeff Sessions yesterday named a federal prosecutor from Utah to head the review.
But he once again stopped short of naming a second special counsel, a move that many Republicans have been demanding for months. The latest move is unlikely to quieten the rising tide of anger on the right, a campaign fuelled by the bitter Twitter messages of President Donald Trump.
In a letter to the leaders of House and Senate committees, Sessions said he had named John W Huber, the US attorney for Utah, to lead the inquiry into the department’s handling of the probe into Clinton and the secret surveillance of Carter Page, a former Trump campaign aide.
Huber, a veteran prosecutor who once headed the national security section for the Justice Department, has been working on the case since November. Sessions said Huber would recommend whether to reopen or launch any new criminal investigations, and whether second special counsel was warranted.
Sessions’ letter was immediately criticised by Democrats as a political stunt meant to soothe Trump and to distract attention from the investigation into the Trump campaign’s dealings with Russia, led by special counsel Robert Mueller.
The calls for a second counsel investigation have intensified as Republicans have begun to attack the FBI’s handling of the early days of the Russia investigation. The House Intelligence Committee has criticised the department for how it obtained a secret warrant to use spying tools on Page, under scrutiny for his ties to Russians. Republicans have questioned the department’s use of material in a dossier compiled by a former British intelligence agent doing research funded by Democrats.
Sessions, in his letter yesterday, repeated that a special counsel is supposed to be appointed only under ‘‘extraordinary circumstances.’’
The department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, announced on Thursday that he would begin a review of the allegations regarding the Page warrant; he is nearing completion on an investigation of the department’s actions during the Clinton inquiry. Trump was dissatisfied with that decision, calling for Sessions to put prosecutors on the case.–