House Republicans seek special prosecutor for FISA requests

 WASHINGTON — Two top congressional Republicans are calling on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate alleged abuses in the use of a secret surveillance program targeting a Trump campaign aide, the latest in a string of GOP efforts to put federal investigators under the same scrutiny facing many Trump associates.

The new investigation, sought by the chairmen of the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees, would call into question a significant component of the FBI investigation now in the hands of special counsel Robert Mueller. It builds off the allegations in a memo authored by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee that the Justice Department withheld key information from a FISA court as it sought to launch surveillance against former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page.

The lawmakers acknowledged in making the announcement that the Justice Department’s internal watchdog was already probing the FISA issue at the behest of Sessions. Inspector General Michael Horowitz has also been conducting an investigation of how the FBI handled the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, with a report expected as soon as April.


Source : nbcnews