Sessions says no second special counsel for probe into FBI, at least for now

WASHINGTON — In a concession to conservatives clamoring for new investigations into Hillary Clinton’s emails and the Justice Department’s actions in the Russia investigation, Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday named a federal prosecutor from Utah to head the review.

But he once again stopped short of naming a second special counsel, a move many Republicans have been demanding for months. The latest move is unlikely to quiet the rising tide of anger on the right, a campaign fueled 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 U.S. attorney for Utah, to lead the inquiry of 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 a second special counsel was warranted.

“We understand that the department is not above criticism and it can never be that the department conceals errors where they occur,” Sessions wrote.

Sessions’ letter was immediately criticized 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 S. Mueller III.

“He’s throwing meat out there to appease the president,” Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from California, told CNN.

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 criticized the department for how it obtained a secret warrant to use spying tools on Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser 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 Thursday, repeated that a special counsel is supposed to be appointed only under “extraordinary circumstances.”