As part of Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) dramatic shift in posture — from Donald Trump critic to Donald Trump flatterer — the senator issued a curious call late last week.
As Graham sees it, the Justice Department should appoint another special counsel, presumably to run an investigation that runs parallel to Robert Mueller’s probe, to investigate Hillary Clinton’s email server protocols. And Uranium One. And Fusion GPS. And “bias” among officials at the FBI and the Justice Department.
This all seemed a bit bizarre, even by 2017 standards, but it now appears Graham isn’t the only prominent Republican thinking along these lines. Axios reported this morning that members of Donald Trump’s legal team “want an additional special counsel named to investigate the investigators.”
Jay Sekulow, a member of the President’s legal team, tells me: “The Department of Justice and FBI cannot ignore the multiple problems that have been created by these obvious conflicts of interests. These new revelations require the appointment of a Special Counsel to investigate.”
Ari Melber, MSNBC’s chief legal correspondent, added this morning that Sekulow has confirmed to NBC News that he’s calling for a new special counsel to investigate the Justice Department.
The point of this political strategy is hardly subtle. For Trump World and its allies, the Russia scandal is an existential threat to this presidency, so it’s become necessary to undermine public confidence in the investigation and muddy the waters with unrelated, trumped up controversies.
Republicans may be doing this in a clumsy and ham-handed way, and the whole ploy may reek of desperation, but that doesn’t appear to be much of a deterrence. But the nonsense won’t actually amount to anything, will it? Don’t be too quick to dismiss the possibility. The Washington Post reported a month ago, “Attorney General Jeff Sessions is entertaining the idea of appointing a second special counsel to investigate a host of Republican concerns — including alleged wrongdoing by the Clinton Foundation and the controversial sale of a uranium company to Russia — and has directed senior federal prosecutors to explore at least some of the matters and report back to him and his top deputy.” Watch this space.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
