House Judiciary Committee Bob Goodlatte, who had asked for a special counsel to investigate whether the FBI abused the federal Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [FISA] program, said Saturday he thinks Attorney General Jeff Sessions still made the right move to enlist U.S. Attorney John Huber to work on the investigation instead.
However, the Virginia Republican told Fox News' "Cavuto Live" program Saturday that he and other Republicans are not sure if Huber will be able to investigate all of what's cropped up in the growing scandal.
"We don't know for sure and that, coupled with the fact that we really think this should be an investigation outside of the Department of Justice altogether, is why we continue to call for a special counsel," said Goodlatte.
The move, though, is a step in the right direction, as it gets the probe out of Washington D.C. and shows Sessions and the DOJ are taking the claims that the FBI misused the FISA court to obtain warrants to spy on President Donald Trump's campaign seriously, said Goodlatte.
"I think that, coupled with their scramble here in recent days to comply with the subpoena that I issued last week, shows that the attention to this is increasing," said Goodlatte. "It's very important."
Huber, said Goodlatte, will have power to seek subpoenaes and prosecute cases, said Goodlatte.
"We're very hopeful that he, working with the inspector general, will make substantial progress in this area," said Goodlatte. "So we're reserving judgment on his work. But, again, we think that ultimately a special prosecutor would be needed and would be best."
What Huber can't do, though, is be outside the Department of Justice's reaches, and Goodlatte said that is concerning.
"What he can't do is what you mentioned and that is he can't be outside of the Department of Justice," Goodlatte said. "He is a presidential appointee, confirmed by the United States Senate. In fact, appointed first by President [Barack] Obama and then reappointed by President [Donald] Trump. So, he has that form of independence, but he still is a part of the Department of Justice and that, I think, is a difficulty unless he steps up and shows us that he's willing to take on anybody here, including former senior employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation."
Goodlatte also commented on the firing of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, noting that there have been many people who have seen the conflicting statements both he and ex-FBI Director James Comey have made.
Huber and DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz should look into those statements to determine who is telling the truth, said Goodlatte.
Meanwhile, Goodlatte said he would not go so far as to call the bureaucracy in the DOJ and FBI as a "deep state."
"Let's be clear, there are tens of thousands of people in the Federal Bureau of Investigation who every day work very hard, very professionally to keep us safe, fight crime," he said. "This is about a small number of people. We don't know exactly how many and that, again, is the purpose of the investigation."
The representative added that material also keeps coming that is redacted, and the redactions need to be removed "so we can find out the extent of what was going on in 2016 when the FBI in an astonishing manner conducted one investigation with regard to one presidential candidate, and bent over backwards not to prosecute her, and then launched another investigation where they definitely were leaning into it with insurance policies and secret plans."
He also said he remains "very concerned there were a number of people in key positions at the FBI who were taking sides."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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