Attorney General Jeff Sessions is not opposed to appointing an outside counsel to investigate the many scandals of President Obama's Department of Justice and IRS.
To jog your memory, recall two major, yet underreported stories - "Fast and Furious" and the IRS targeting of conservative groups. Attorney General Eric Holder was held in contempt of Congress for covering up the former scandal, in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) unfathomably allowed illegal gun sales to and from Mexico to track drug cartels. As for Obama's IRS, they unfairly withheld tax-exempt status from groups who dared to oppose the president's agenda, and subjected them to extra scrutiny. Matt had interesting news on that just this morning.
In a conversation with radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday, Sessions left the door open for a special counsel to take the lead on the investigation into these Obama-era scandals.
“Well I’m going to do everything I possibly can to restore the independence and professionalism of the Department of Justice,” Sessions said. “So we’ll have to consider whether or not some outside counsel is needed. Generally, a good review of that internally is the first step before any such decision is made.”
If the counsel finds wrongdoing, it will have the authority to bring charges, Sessions noted. He insisted it will only come to this if he concludes it will be necessary to restore the "independence and professionalism" of the department.
Sessions recently had to overcome his own controversy for not disclosing his meeting with Russian leadership last year, eventually recusing himself from any investigation into Russia's supposed interference in the 2016 election.