The threshold has not yet been met to appoint a special counsel to investigate 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton or former FBI Director James Comey, Rep. Trey Gowdy, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday, while disagreeing with Rep. Jim Jordan's insistence on an independent investigation.
"Jim Jordan is a great friend and I have respect for him," the South Carolina Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" program. "I didn't sign the letter. I don't think the threshold has been met for an appointment of special counsel."
That doesn't mean an investigation can't be held, said Gowdy, but that could be done without appointing an outside person to conduct it, as "99.9 percent of all investigations in this country are done by the women and men at the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorneys' offices, and none of them is called a special counsel."
Gowdy joked that he didn't want to get on Jordan's bad side, as "he is a NCAA wrestling champion" and a "dear friend," but he the point he "would make to Jimmy and have made to Jimmy" is that the fact pattern concerning Clinton and Comey warrants investigation.
"The appointment of special counsel, when you hear special counsel, what you should hear in your head is that the current people we have that we are paying to be federal prosecutors cannot do the job," and that someone on the outside should conduct it, Gowdy said.
"That hasn't worked well in the past. The jurisdiction gets expanded. There is a reason."
To meet the threshold for a special counsel, it must be shown that there would be a conflict of interest, "where the Department of Justice and all 94 U.S. Attorneys offices are ill-suited, and the public would not have confidence in an investigation that they ran," said Gowdy.
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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