Arguments Against a Special Counsel per DOJ:
- Like a federal prosecutor, a special counsel in the Department of Justice can’t bring a case before a court unless its investigators find evidence of a crime.
- Special counsel investigators are usually FBI. If the special counsel agrees that there is a conflict of interest in bringing FBI investigators into the fold it would have to select a different team of investigators to aide in the case.
- The special counsel could use the Post Master General or the DEA but those investigators would be far behind the DOJ’s Inspector General investigators, who have already been working on the cases.
- Federal prosecutors, special counsels, and those attorneys working with them do not “conduct” investigations. DOJ officials told me that the process is much like the TV show law and order where law enforcement brings evidence of a crime and then the prosecutor puts together a case to be brought before the court.
- The DOJ Inspector General is an independent office that investigates possible violations of criminal and civil law by employees of the FBI and its own department.
- The Inspector General reports to the Attorney General and to Congress.
- The IG’s Investigations Division Special Agents develop cases for criminal prosecution, civil or administrative action.
- Inspector General’s office acts similar to the FBI in that it has the authority to investigate wrongdoing and collect evidence.
- The Inspector General has the power to subpoena and present cases for criminal prosecution to the Attorney General.
Arguments For a Special Counsel, per Congressional Members:
- An independent arbiter because the FBI and DOJ cannot investigate themselves.
- Any criminal referral from the Inspector General will go to Attorney General Jeff Sessions for prosecution and he has not made clear the scope of his involvement in the cases.
- Republicans and some senior government officials say there is no rational argument for letting current Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who was the former head of the FBI, expand his special counsel investigation. It won’t work because of Mueller, as the former director of the FBI, is conflicted out.
- Robert Mueller’s investigation crosses into the territory of the unsubstantiated and salacious dossier, he is after all supposed to be investigating alleged collusion between Russia and President Trump. And he’s reportedly using the unverified dossier crafted by former British spy Christopher Steele in his investigation. A dossier, which Steele, told the British courts is not verified.
- Mueller has close previous working relationships with many of the same players he would be investigating. For example, former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former FBI Director James Comey, to name two.
- The American public won’t buy into an investigation by Mueller, the DOJ or FBI.
- Attorney General Jeff Sessions has never clearly stated where his recusal begins and ends.
- A second special counsel needs to come from outside Washington D.C. with its own team of impartial, hand selected investigators.
A second special counsel might investigate any or all of the following: possible criminal violations by senior FBI and DOJ officials in obtaining a warrant to spy on a former Trump campaign volunteer, the bureau’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server to send classified information and whether senior Obama administration officials, including the president, were aware of the use of the unverified dossier to open an investigation into the Trump campaign and possible Russian collusion.
“You need an independent arbiter, and the Department of Justice cannot investigate itself”
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC)
The investigations could also be conducted by DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who is expected to conclude his much-anticipated report into the FBI’s handling of the Clinton server investigation in the next several weeks and who Attorney General Jeff Sessions has asked to investigate possible FISA warrant abuse against Carter Page, who briefly volunteered for the Trump campaign in 2016.
Republicans, however, are not satisfied and are now pushing Sessions, who is recused from the Russia investigation, to appoint a special counsel. DOJ officials are arguing against it, telling this reporter that Horowitz and his team can conduct the unbiased investigation and refer potential people to the DOJ for criminal prosecution.
The situation can be confusing to anyone outside Washington D.C. One Republican congressional member, who spoke on background, questioned, “how long will it take for Horowitz to investigate and if he does make a criminal referral for prosecution, it will have to go back to Sessions, who apparently has recused himself from all matters Russia and apparently everything else. I don’t see how we have any choice but to get a second special counsel.”
Rep. Jim Jordan, R- Ohio, who has proposed the idea for a special counsel since last year, said although he “wishes there was another way around it, there appears to be no other course of action.”
“I think Sessions needs to appoint a second special counsel and they need to be somebody from outside the swamp, like a retired judge, someone that can select his or her own team of investigators,” said Jordan. “I don’t see any other course of action that would be acceptable to anybody involved, including Republicans, Democrats and the American people.”
Five days ago, President Trump called out Sessions for his decision to turn over the investigation into possible abuse by the FBI when it sought a warrant to spy on Page from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the most secretive court in the United States with the authority to grant warrants to surveil Americans.
Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse. Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isn’t the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 28, 2018
Sessions stated in a response to Trump, “we have initiated the appropriate process that will ensure complaints against this Department will be fully and fairly acted upon if necessary. As long as I am the Attorney General, I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor, and this Department will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and Constitution.
And it may be that there are already investigations ongoing inside the DOJ that the public is unaware of. Several
“The IG can only really investigate the people who are there (under his authority) but not the people who have left”
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL)
government officials who have defended Sessions said that any ongoing investigations requested by Congress if they exist, would not be leaked or discussed publicly.
However, there may be clues. In a Nov. 13, 2017 letter to House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-VA, Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd told congressional members that the DOJ had appointed senior prosecutors who would report “directly to the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General, as appropriate, and will make recommendations as to whether any matters not currently under investigation should be opened, whether any matters currently under investigation, require further resources, or whether any matters merit the appointment of a Special Counsel.”
DOJ officials could not comment on whether or not these prosecutors assigned by Sessions last year have uncovered any wrongdoing or what specifically the prosecutors were currently investigating. Boyd’s letter did stress that all congressional requests from the approval to grant Russia the sale of the Canadian firm Uranium One, which at the time had access to 20 percent of American mining rights, and requests for investigations into FISA abuse were being looked into.
But for Jordan and many other Republicans, the deafening silence out of DOJ is difficult to understand. And now many lawmakers are asking Sessions to do what he is apparently fighting against and appoint a new special counsel.
For the first time, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-SC, told Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo, “you need an independent arbiter, and the Department of Justice cannot investigate itself.”
“Horowitz is a fair guy, but when there are two dozen witnesses that have left the department or worked for another agency, someone else has to do it and I am reluctant to call for special counsel, but I think it may be unavoidable in this fact pattern,” Gowdy said.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, is also calling for a second special counsel and echoed Gowdy in a call with this reporter Monday, saying “the IG can only really investigate the people who are there (under his authority) but not the people who have left.”
So far, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes, R-CA, has not weighed in on whether or not he believes the appointment of a special counsel is necessary to investigate many of the same issues his committee is looking into. Some congressional members, who spoke to this reporter, say it’s only a matter of time before Nunes joins the chorus of Republicans demanding the investigation.
Sessions is a deep swamp dwellers & need to be replaced by someone from outside Washington.
Sara we all know what a great job your doing but, Jeff Sessions is a major part of this problem we can talk all we want, we all know that this is a witch hunt but nothing is going to happen until the AG GETS HIS HEAD OUT OF HIS ASS. Rod Roseinstein is wagging his tail and Jeff Sessions is afraid of him.
Nothing will happen. We live in a police state where the state protects its own. Sessions is either a blithering idiot who cannot find a coherent thought. Or, he is probably a part of it, being compromised by the police state which gas dirt in him.
Wake up people…it’s over. The police state is now fully in control because people like Jeff Sessions, and those like him, are much more enamored with their position instead of doing what’s right. To do what is right would be to upend the entire political/investigative state. It will NEVER happen. When you have IRREFUTABLE PROOF that classified emails were exchanged on a private, non governmental server and nothing happens; there is your answer. It’s over.
And one more thing…how many of these, ‘this is it!!! They can’t hide this one…’ and every single time…NOTHING happens.
We could have an email from Obama to Hillary with a cc to Comey and McCabe telling them to monitor all Trump communications and report anything to the Clinton campaign…NOTHING would happen. Why? 2 reasons. 1. The Nazi propaganda machine, otherwise known as the media. 2. The Republicans are a bunch of weak kneed, spineless, gutless wimps. They will never fight.
Saw Sara on Hannity tonight talking about his article. My opinion is that there has to be a special counsel because this hoax involves so many players in and out of government that the FBI IG has no access to, he can’t interview the people in the state department. Besides if you worked for government you know how these IG Investigations go. Unless they are out to get you it is like: “Hey Joe what’s up, they got me looking into this FISA thing you know anything about it.”
I think this whole Tump Russia hoax was conceived and implemented by people in Obama State Department, Intelligence, Dept. of Justice, Fusion GPS with partners in the media. Media players briefed by Steele and Fusion GPS: (From DailyCaller Chuck Ross) The New York Times, The Washington Post, Yahoo! News, The New Yorker and CNN and Mother Jones. Trying to figure out this cast of characters is nuts.
You would think a news outlet would get a few investigative reporters to lay this all out for us. I got a little bit from just reading articles on the web. Got a lot from Sara Carter but seems she just looks at the intelligence agency and FBI part. Classic can’t see the forest for the trees. Looks like a bunch of Friends of Hillary and Democrats in and out of government were feeding each other info and coordinating activities. Looks like Steele was running the op to get the FBI investigation going. Looks like Fusion was running the media side of it. Other players were brought in as needed, like Ohr at the Justice dept. and the state dept., to help prop up the dossier by feeding the dossier info so FBI would have another source to help get FISA warrant. You would think there is enough information in public that a good reporter and couple of researchers could reconstruct how Fusion GPS and Steele pulled this off. They should be able to list a lot of the players and the part they played as well as the ones in the know. Like Secretary of State John Kerry was in the know but he probably didn’t do anything.
Looks like the FBI got played by Steele or were players themselves. I think they are so many people in and out of government that are involved, that either participated in or knew about it, congressmen from Senators such as Reed and McCain, to maybe even Obama that Sessions probably is delusional and thinks he is protecting our Democracy because if the full extent of this ever gets out, people will lose all faith in the government. ALL of this will be buried and the only way to make sure it stays buried is for Mueller to find something on Trump.
I made notes from articles I read on the internet and watching news trying to figure out the players and how they did it, I gave up. Got this far:
March 29, 2016: Manafort joins the Trump campaign to help wrangle delegates for the July convention. Tump won the primary in July and Manafort resigned in August after media reported about his work in Ukraine.
Over at the State Department, Victoria Nuland: the top State Department official charged with overseeing U.S. policy toward Russia, was franticly telling anyone in the Obama administration who would listen that Russia was interfering in the election. In 2014, She had been in Kiev, frantically working behind the scenes to put in place a new governing coalition in Ukraine as it teetered on the brink of revolution against its Russia-backed leader, Viktor Yanukovych (the same Yanukovych, it should be noted, who was being advised at the time by future Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort). Nuland said she was familiar with Steele’s work through regular reports he had passed on to her office over the previous several years dealing with political maneuverings in Russia and Ukraine (The Global POLITICO article)
Nuland’s buddy, Jonathan Winer, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state and former Libya special envoy was busy getting info from Sidney Blumenthal, Cody Shearer and sending to Christopher Steele and passing Steele’s info to Nuland and the FBI.
Christopher Steele was passing the dossier to Fusion GPS, FBI and Winer at the state dept. Seems someone was also briefing the media and probably Democrats in senate and house, they know Brennan, CIA director, briefed Harry Reed. Sure Fusion was briefing DNC and Hillary
IN October the FBI got the FISA warrant.
Candidate Trump’s 2 foreign policy advisors linked to Russia
George Papadopoulos, a 2009 graduate of DePaul University, directs an international energy center at the London Center of International Law Practice. He previously advised the presidential campaign of Ben Carson and worked as a research fellow at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington. During a night of heavy drinking at an upscale London bar in May 2016, George Papadopoulos, a young foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, made a startling revelation to Australia’s top diplomat in Britain, Alexander Downer : Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton.
About Mr. Downer , from the Zerohedge.com by Tyler Durden: “Smith names several key figures in his complaints of malfeasance, including Bill and Hillary Clinton and multiple Australian government officials – including senior diplomat Alexander Downer, whose conversation with Trump aide George Papadopoulos that Russia had ‘dirt’ on Hillary Clinton allegedly launched the Trump-Russia investigation (as opposed to the Fusion GPS dossier, of course). Smith claims the foundation received a “$25M financial advantage dishonestly obtained by deception” as a result of actions by Bill Clinton and Downer, who was then Australia’s minister of foreign affairs. Also included in the Smith materials are evidence he believes shows “corrupt October 2006 backdating of false tender advertisements purporting to advertise the availability of a $15 million contract to provide HIV/AIDS services in Papua New Guinea on behalf of the Australian government after an agreement was already in place to pay the Clinton Foundation and/or associates.”-Lifezette
Carter Paige
From the Dailycaller by Chuck Ross: “How Page made his way onto the Trump campaign has lately been a source of growing intrigue. The former Merrill Lynch banker, who has an office in a building next to Trump Tower, has refused to discuss the matter publicly. He dismissed questions about it during interviews this week with CNN’s Jake Tapper and ABC’s George Stephanopoulos… Page officially left the campaign in September amid growing questions about his ties to Russia. In July, he traveled to Moscow to speak at a ceremony for the New Economic School. While in the Russian capital, Page met Russia’s deputy prime minister, Arkady Dvorkovich… FBI and Justice Department officials sought the warrant only after Page separated from the campaign, The New York Times reported on Wednesday. The officials waited to seek the warrant in order to not be seen as intervening in the presidential campaign, sources told The Times…. The warrant application cited a 2013 attempt made by a Russian espionage ring in New York City to recruit Page. Three spies who were working under cover, met with Page and discussed their recruitment attempts. One of the spies called Page an “idiot” who was motivated by money, a sealed January 2015 FBI affidavit states. BuzzFeed News first reported the affidavit earlier this month.” Paige cooperated with the FBI and helped them convict the Russian spies
I think Carter Paige was a possible FBI informant. They pulled him out when they couldn’t get a FISA warrant on George Papadopoulos then used him to get the warrant.
The FISA warrant allows them to search the NSA database, which saves 5 years of data. They used Paige as the key to get in. Once in the database they can search 3 degrees from Paige which would easily capture everyone in the trump campaign. ALL this info on the NSA can be found with a search on Google, I learned about 3 degrees from watching a congressional hearing on c-span. FBI doesn’t care about Paige, they kept renewing that warrant, until Mueller took over, so they could have access to the NSA database. Be nice if Rep. Numes could get the database search querys that were based on the Paige FISA warrant released.