Senator Lindsey Graham stressed Tuesday that should he become chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he would investigate the FBI’s handling of both the Russia and the Clinton probe.
Asked if he would look into how the FBI handled these two investigations, Graham told reporters, “Totally. The oversight function will be very much front and center.”
The senator has been a critic of the FBI’s handling of the probes into the 2016 Russian election interference and Hillary Clinton’s email controversy and has long called for a second special counsel to look into the matter. This could very well happen, as the current chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Chuck Grassley is expected to step aside from his post to run the Senate Finance Committee.
In such a scenario, Graham would likely become its next chairman and open an investigation into the handling of the two probes, serving as a counterbalance to House Democrats, who plan to end the House Republican probe into the FBI and launch a flurry of new investigations in their new majority next year, CNN writes.
Graham further noted he would support a bill protecting special counsel Robert Mueller from political pressure, although he pointed out he didn’t see any threat to him. Democrats called last week for a quick passage of that bill after President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions and named Mueller critic Matt Whitaker to the post as acting AG.
“I’d support it if it came to the floor, but I don’t see any threat to Mueller. The idea of a check and balance going forward makes sense to me. … I don’t see an imminent threat to Mueller, but I’ve always been supportive of the idea,” said Graham, who is the cosponsor of the special counsel bill that the Senate Judiciary Committee approved this year.
However, he also said that there was no need for such a bill as the new acting attorney general “understands the position he is in” and won’t interfere with the Mueller probe.
“He’s probably not going to be the next attorney general, but this is a chance for him to show he can handle responsibility. This enhances his political future if he handles this well. It would be a nightmare for us to truncate the Mueller investigation,” Graham concluded.
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