Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) took to the Senate Floor on March 14 to call for the appointment of a new special counsel to investigate possible misconduct by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI.
Graham made the remarks in response to a Democrat-backed resolution that passed in the House unanimously earlier in the day, which calls for any final report in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation to be made public. The South Carolina senator said the resolution should be amended before it is considered in the Senate.
He summarized his proposed changes in a tweet on March 14, requesting that the “House-passed Mueller resolution should be amended to include [the] appointment of a Special Counsel to:
*) Investigate alleged misconduct around the handling of the Clinton email investigation.
*) Investigate the abuse of the FISA warrant process against Mr. Carter Page.”
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant allows for some of the most invasive surveillance methods on someone suspected of spying with or for a foreign government.
“Was there two systems of justice in 2016? One for the Democratic candidate and one for the Republican candidate?” Graham said during his Senate address. “Where the Republican candidate’s campaign had a FISA warrant issued against someone associated with it based on a document that was known to be unreliable [and] politically charged on four different occasions.”
He continued, “This should bother every American and rather than me telling you whether it happened or not why don’t we appoint a Mueller-like figure to look at how the Clinton email investigation ended up the way it did and what the tarmac meeting was all about between Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) objected to the proposed amendments and the bill did not get a vote.
This is not the first time Graham has requested a new special counsel investigation into the two federal agencies. He made similar remarks multiple times last year calling for an investigation into “all things” related to Hillary Clinton.
In an interview with Fox News on March 13, Graham said there were two questions that needed to be answered in an investigation.
“There are two questions that I think the public deserves an answer to: Did they short-circuit the Clinton e-mail investigation because they wanted her to win, and they knew if they charged her she might lose? Did they start the Russian investigation against Trump as an insurance policy in case he did win? Those are the two questions that I'll try to get you answers to,” Graham said.
He continued, “the point is, the Congress, me—not gonna happen in the House—we’re going to call them all before the committee. Did they try to invoke the 25th Amendment to take the president down? Did they get a warrant against an American citizen using information they know was flawed. Did they tank the Clinton email investigation because they were afraid if they indicted her she would lose an election they wanted her to win? You’re going to get answers to that, the best I can give them to you.”
“I promise, everybody in the country, that in the Senate, we’re going to have hearings about the FISA process,” Graham said.
