FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Sessions Assigned a U.S. Attorney To Help Office of Inspector General Clean Up DOJ/FBI
March 30, 2018 (EIRNS)—Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent a letter March 29 to Sen. Charles Grassley and Representatives Robert Goodlatte and Trey Gowdy (chairs of Senate and House Judiciary and the House Oversight and Government Reform committees, respectively), advising them that the U.S. Attorney John Huber in Utah has been tasked to work with the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) on its investigation into possible FBI and DOJ violations of laws and of established practices in 2016-2017.
The letter was in response to the request from these committees that a Special Counsel be appointed to investigate the DOJ and FBI with respect to the Russiagate investigation, particularly the use of the Steele dossier, abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), disclosure of classified information to the press, and the criminal investigation and case of former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, as well as the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation.
Sessions, in rejecting the request at this time for appointment of a special counsel, writes that Huber “is conducting his work from outside the Washington, D.C. area and in cooperation with the IG.” The IG’s Office, he notes, has a staff of some 470 people, and the IG is empowered to refer any evidence of criminal wrongdoing to a U.S. Attorney. Huber, unlike the IG, has the power to investigate those no longer at the FBI or the DOJ, and has subpoena power. Sessions’ letter does not give a date when Huber was delegated this responsibility, but it implies that it was done as of November last year.
Sessions adds that the “additional matters raised” in the March 6 letter from the two House committee chairmen “fall within the scope of [Huber’s] existing mandate,” and that he will make the Congressmen’s letters available to the DOJ leadership, Inspector General Michael Horowitz, and Huber. (That Goodlatte/Gowdy letter calls for appointment of a Special Counsel
“to investigate potential bias and potential conflicts of interest and decisions made or not made by the Department of Justice in 2016 and 2017.”)
Representatives Goodlatte and Gowdy responded that “
while we continue to believe the appointment of a second Special Counsel is necessary, this is a step in the right direction. We expect that U.S. Attorney Huber, given his reputation, will conduct an independent and thorough investigation. Such an investigation is critical to restoring the reputation of both the Bureau and DOJ in the eyes of the American people.”
