Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee have called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to appoint a second special counsel to look at the investigation of Hillary Clinton‘s emails, and people connected to it.
In a letter released Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and other Republicans on the committee said that the directive given to Special Counsel Robert Mueller to investigate Russian interference in the U.S. election is “narrow in scope” and that “concerns arising out of the 2016 presidential election and its aftermath are not being investigated.”
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“We are writing to you to request assistance in restoring public confidence in our nation’s justice system and its investigators, specifically the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),” the letter began.
Comey announced in the final days of the election campaign that he was re-opening his investigation into Clinton’s email practices.
He testified before the Senate intelligence committee last month that Lynch told him to refer to the issue as a “matter,” and not as an “investigation,” an instruction that “concerned” him.
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Republican committee members also want a special counsel to look into decisions made by the FBI and the Justice Department relating to an investigation into Clinton’s emails, “including the immunity deals given to potential co-conspirators.”
Bryan Pagliano, a State Department technology official, co-operated with the FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s emails under an immunity deal.
The call for a second special counsel was outlined in a letter that was written to Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
It came after U.S. President Donald Trump issued a series of tweets on Wednesady asking why Sessions hadn’t replaced Andrew McCabe, the acting FBI director who he claimed was friends with Comey and “was in charge of Clinton investigation but got big dollars ($700,000) for his wife’s political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives.”
Those tweets came one day after Trump said he regretted choosing Sessions to lead the Justice Department, and wouldn’t say whether he’d fire him.
“We will see what happens,” Trump said. “Time will tell. Time will tell.”
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The call for a second special counsel also came as members of the Senate Judiciary Committee began work on legislation that would keep Mueller from being fired as special counsel.
Mueller is an ex-FBI director who’s been appointed to look into Russian intrusion in last year’s presidential election.
In June, Trump supporters had floated the idea of firing Mueller. An unnamed Trump friend who visited the White House on June 12 said the president was considering it.
Trump later said in a Fox News interview that he had concerns about Mueller’s impartiality, saying he was “very, very good friends” with ex-FBI director Comey, who he fired in May as the FBI investigated Russian influence in the election.
Then-White House spokesman Sean Spicer later said that Trump has “no intention” of firing Mueller.
Last week, The Washington Post reported that Trump’s lawyers were working to build a case against Mueller, and undermine his investigation by alleging that he has conflicts of interest.
The lawyers were also reportedly looking into Trump’s pardoning powers, and whether he could pardon aides, family members and himself.
- With files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press