Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said Monday that he’ll launch his own investigation into the 2016 election, but he’ll focus on anti-Trump FBI employees and Democrats’ payments to fund the Steele dossier.
Now that special counsel Robert Mueller has concluded there was no Trump-Russia conspiracy to subvert the election, Mr. Graham said it’s time to take a look at the other side of the election equation, including the Obama administration’s decisions and the Clinton campaign’s moves.
“You haven’t had much scrutiny, but that’s coming,” he said.
He said that includes getting answers from fired FBI Director James Comey and tracking down the use of the anti-Trump Steele dossier in a secret court wiretap warrant. And he chided reporters for ignoring those issues in favor of an obsession with Mr. Trump.
“The double standard here has been striking and quite frankly disappointing,” the South Carolina Republican said.
As chairman of the Judiciary Committee, he has the power to lead an investigation.
Mr. Graham said he will call Attorney General William Barr to testify to his committee to review the outcome of Mr. Mueller’s report and Mr. Barr’s own decision not to bring an obstruction of justice prosecution.
But he said he also wants to hear from Justice Department figure Bruce Ohr, who was a key conduit for the Steele dossier, and he wants answers from Mr. Comey about his role in approving a foreign intelligence surveillance warrant against a Trump campaign figure.
And he wants Mr. Comey to explain why he’d lost faith in then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch to make decisions about Hillary Clinton.
Mr. Graham said he suspects the information in the Steele dossier was Russian disinformation, and he wants to produce a definitive record about how it was compiled, what Democrats paid for it, and how it was used in the highest circles of government.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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