Lindsey Graham: appoint a special council to investigate the "bureaucratic coup d'etat" against Trump

Senator Lindsey O. Graham (RS.C.) said Sunday that he thought that a "bureaucratic state coup" led by President Trump's enemies was taking place at the Department of Justice, and the senator asked that a new special adviser be appointed to investigate.

Graham, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, commented on "Fox News Sunday" in response to questions about a report that Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein suggested secretly recording Trump and possibly the 25th amendment. Office.

Graham said he was not in favor of dismissing Rosenstein, who denied the report and said he had never advocated the removal of the president. "He should not shoot Rosenstein unless you believe Rosenstein's lie," said Graham.

Instead, the senator from South Carolina pointed to other people in the department who, he said, "tried to destroy this president." He specifically mentioned former FBI officials Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page and Peter Strzok.

McCabe, a former FBI deputy director, was fired after being accused of making an unauthorized disclosure to the media. Strzok, who helped lead the FBI's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, lost his job after officials discovered he was exchanging messages. textual anti-Trump with Page, a lawyer who had also left the department.

"Before the elections, the people in question tried to corrupt the election, in favor of Clinton; after the elections, they are trying to undermine the president, "Graham said. He added that he did not know "what Rosenstein did, but I know what McCabe or Page and Strzok did. They tried to destroy this president. If Rosenstein is involved, he should be fired. If he's not involved, leave him alone. "

Graham told Chris News host Chris Wallace on Sunday that a new special adviser was needed to investigate what had happened at the FBI, and he called Rosenstein to name one immediately.

"Rosenstein does not serve the country by not appointing special counsel" to investigate the FBI's actions regarding Trump and Russia, he said.

Democrats have resisted the call for another special council to be named and ridiculed the claims of Trump and his allies that the FBI is tainted with bias.

"The president has claimed a vast conspiracy in his own government against his campaign and his administration," said Senator Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) When publishing the report of an inspector general of the Department of Justice. B. Comey and others did not follow the rules. Durbin noted that "this report found no evidence that political bias affected FBI investigations". With other Democrats, he has repeatedly stated that the complaints were misplaced and seemed to jeopardize the investigation of the Trump Robert S. Mueller III campaign.