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Thursday, Mar 9, 2017 8:20 PM UTC

Jeff Sessions may order independent investigation of Barack Obama’s Department of Justice

"I’m going to do everything I possibly can to restore the independence and professionalism of the DOJ"

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Topics: Attorney General Eric Holder, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Barack Obama, Department of Justice, Fast & Furious, Jeff Sessions, Obama Derangement Sydrome, ,

Jeff Sessions may order independent investigation of <i>Barack Obama's</i> Department of JusticeJeff Sessions (Credit: AP/Susan Walsh)

When Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced his surprise recusal from all Justice Department (DOJ) investigations related to the 2016 election exactly one week ago, he adamantly resisted calls to appoint a special prosecutor to handle the investigation of any ties between President Donald Trump’s administration and the Russian government. Now facing mounting to pressure to resign for failing to disclose at least two such dealings of his own during his Senate confirmation hearing, Sessions is openly musing about appointing a special prosecutor to investigate former President Barack Obama’s DOJ.

Sessions left the door open for a special counsel to take the lead on the investigation into alleged Obama-era scandals during an interview with conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday.

The right-wing commentator pressed the embattled attorney general on his plans to investigate the department’s probe of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server under former attorney general Loretta Lynch. Conservatives are still clamoring for criminal charges against the former secretary of state and point to Lynch’s infamous tarmac meeting with Bill Clinton as evidence of improper collusion to not seek any indictment against the Democratic presidential nominee.

Hewitt also asked Sessions about two other favorite conservative boogeymen: what Republicans argue was politically-motivated scrutiny against Tea Party organization seeking non-profit status by the IRS, and the scheme in which federal law enforcement allowed gun dealers to sell firearms to illegal straw buyers known as “Fast and Furious.” Conservatives have gone after Obama’s first attorney general, Eric Holder, for years, in large part, due to those so-called scandals.

The Justice Department declined to bring charges in those investigations.

“How about an outside counsel, not connected to politics, to review the DOJ’s actions in those matters with authority to bring charges if underlying crimes are uncovered in the course of the investigation, and just generally to look at how the Department of Justice operated in the highly-politicized Holder-Lynch years?” Hewitt asked in the interview.

“Well I’m going to do everything I possibly can to restore the independence and professionalism of the Department of Justice,” Sessions said. “So we’ll have to consider whether or not some outside counsel is needed.” If a special prosecutor finds wrongdoing, they will have the authority to bring charges, Sessions noted.

Sessions’ remarkable attempt to deflect scrutiny to already closed investigations into “scandals” that conservative media obsess over years later comes just as a new report suggests the former Alabama senator may have met with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. three times while campaigning on behalf of Trump, not twice as previously reported.
A poll released Wednesday found that a majority of American voters think Sessions should resign for failing to disclose his meetings with Russian officials while under oath during his Senate confirmation hearing in January.
Listen to Sessions’ full interview here.
Sophia Tesfaye
Sophia Tesfaye is Salon's Deputy Politics Editor and biggest Golden State Warriors fan in Brooklyn. You can find her on Twitter at @SophiaTesfaye. More Sophia Tesfaye.

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