Last week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that he would not appoint a second special counsel to investigate former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the FBI for actions taken in 2016. However, buried in the statement released just before the Easter/Passover weekend, Sessions did assign a U.S. attorney to investigate the FBI.
A Daily Beast report noted that the media has been almost mum on the revelation, which came during the never-ending flood of information and tweets coming from the White House. Those that did report the appointment, did so far down the page of the stories.
President Donald Trump frequently obsessed over deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe's wife, who received a campaign contribution from an ally of Hillary Clinton.
Last fall, Sessions appointed a U.S. Attorney from Utah, John Huber, to work with the Justice Department's inspector general on an internal investigation about concerns Republicans in Conress had about FBI agents being against Trump.
Ethics expert Norm Eisen told the Daily Beast it wasn't anything to be too concerned about.
“It is not unusual to task U.S. attorneys outside Washington with things like this because they’re outside the bubble,” said the former White House Special Counsel for Ethics and Government Reform. “Huber has a good and non-partisan reputation.”
Huber was appointed by Obama, but the appointment was demanded by Republicans and the former administration acquiesced to avoid a fight with the U.S. Senate. Huber hosted a press conference at the White House last year touting Trump's immigration agenda. Something unheard of for U.S. Attorneys.
While there is a precedent for U.S. Attorneys to investigate internal concerns, never before has one been ordered to investigate on behalf of a political battle manifested by presidential paranoia.