On Thursday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions disappointed many Trump supporters, Republican lawmakers, and conservatives who do not feel that the Justice Department can properly investigate their own wrongdoing in the 2016 election. He announced that instead of appointing a second special counsel to look into the crimes of the Obama administration’s law enforcement regime, he will rely on a “top federal prosecutor” from Utah to handle the investigation.
“CNN first reported Thursday that John Huber, the federal prosecutor in Utah, has been investigating Republicans’ allegations that the FBI abused a surveillance program against a former Trump campaign adviser,” reported The Hill. “Huber has also been looking at whether the FBI should have more thoroughly probed Hillary Clinton‘s ties to Uranium One, a Russian nuclear energy agency.”
We appreciate, at the very least, that Sessions is taking these matters seriously enough to appoint SOMEONE to investigate them, but we are disappointed that he thought an Obama pick was the right man for the job. Furthermore, we’re extremely doubtful that this is a subject that can be properly investigated from within the federal government. There are too many cross-loyalties and too many conflicts of interest. If the Trump/Russia investigation deserves a special prosecutor, then the FISA abuses and other misdeeds of the Obama DOJ certainly do.
“So the Obama DOJ can open a legally questionable investigation into the Trump campaign – allegedly based on a campaign volunteer mouthing off at a London bar – but this DOJ can’t appoint a second special counsel after all the troubling documents we’ve seen?” asked House Freedom Caucus chairman Mark Meadows.
Exactly.
“Major fail from DOJ!” wrote Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton. “AG Sessions writes he tasked a lawyer to investigate whether to investigate the Clinton/Obama abuses! No wonder @RealDonaldTrump is frustrated.”
From what it looks like, Sessions is trying to have his cake and eat it, too. He wants to give the American people the illusion of an independent investigation without actually going all the way and appointing a special counsel. We’re not sure if this is a failure of backbone on Sessions’ part, if he knows something we don’t, or if this is his way of getting back at Trump for public criticism, but we’re not pleased about it. There are serious allegations hanging in the air about how the Obama DOJ handled the Trump investigation in the early stages, and the American people deserve a serious inquiry. We’ll hope that Huber can provide that, but we’re definitely skeptical.
