Amid new evidence of Obama White House collusion with the FBI in the probe of alleged Trump-Russia collusion in the 2016 election, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has decided a special prosecutor is not needed at the moment to investigate allegations of abuse of power by the bureau and by Hillary Clinton in the sale of Uranium One.
Sessions revealed, however, a federal prosecutor is examining the allegations. And the attorney general said he will rely on the prosecutor’s review to determine whether or not a special counsel should be appointed.
Sessions said Thursday that Utah’s top federal prosecutor, John Huber, has been reviewing the allegations of Republican lawmakers that the FBI used a bogus anti-Trump dossier to obtain the spy warrant and ignored evidence of pay-to-play in Hillary Clinton’s approval of the sale of U.S. uranium interests to a Russian state-owned company.
Sessions communicated his plans in a written response to three Republican chairmen on Capitol Hill.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, in a Twitter message called Session’s decision not to appoint a special counsel “disappointing.”Â
“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? Disappointing.”
Republican congressional investigators have obtained newly uncovered text messages from FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok and his paramour Lisa Page that show possible coordination between high-ranking officials in the Obama administration, CIA, FBI, Justice Department and former Senate Democratic leadership in the early stages of the Russia investigation, Fox News reported.
Information provided to Fox News “strongly” suggests coordination between President Obama’s chief of staff Denis McDonough, then-Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and former CIA Director John Brennan, investigators say.
The information would contradict the Obama administration’s public claims about its role in the Russia investigation.
Investigative reporter Sara Carter reported the senior Obama officials used unsubstantiated evidence to launch allegations in the media that the Trump campaign was colluding with Russia during the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.
The documents, Carter said, reveal that former Senate majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., asked former FBI Director James Comey to investigate the Trump allegations. Reid had been brief privately on the investigation in a private meeting days before his request to Comey by then-CIA Director John Brennan.
Meadows told Carter it “appears there was a coordination between the White House, CIA, and FBI at the onset of this investigation and it’s troubling.”
“We’ve been asking for documents with little cooperation of the DOJ and FBI — we’re having to find these unredacted documents on our own,” said Meadows.
‘Full, complete and objective evaluation’
In his letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, Sessions said he is “confident that Mr. Huber’s review will include a full, complete and objective evaluation of these matters in a manner that is consistent with the law and facts.”
“I receive regular updates from Mr. Huber and upon the conclusion of his review, will receive his 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,” he said.
On Wednesday, the Justice Department’s department’s inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, said he would review how the FBI obtained a warrant to spy on the Trump adviser, Carter Page. He also will look into the bureau’s relationship with former British spy Christopher Steele, the author of the Trump dossier.
Huber was appointed by President Obama in 2015 as the U.S. attorney in Utah. He resigned, as did many other Obama-appointed attorneys, after President Trump took office, but Trump later reappointed him.
Some Republicans on Capitol Hill have been calling for a special counsel, arguing the Justice Department cannot investigate its own employees without bias.
Sessions told the lawmakers the law allows the use of a special counsel “in only the most ‘extraordinary circumstances.'”
“To justify such an appointment, the Attorney General would need to conclude that ‘the public interest would be served by removing a large degree of responsibility for the matter from the Department of Justice,” Sessions wrote.
