CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin applauded Attorney General Jeff Sessions for ignoring Republican calls for a second special counsel and avoiding giving merit to “lunatic conspiracy theories.”
When asked for his legal opinion if there was a legitimate case for a second special counsel, Toobin sharply responded: “No.”
“No, as far as I can tell, most of the accusations against the FBI are lunatic conspiracy theories, just not grounded in anything. And I think the attorney general did an appropriate thing here,” he explained on CNN’s “The Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzer.
Republican lawmakers have been pressuring Sessions to open a second special counsel to investigate allegations of abuse at the FBI and Department of Justice.
Toobin dismissed the GOP accusations as baseless and commended Sessions for “doing the right thing.”
“Well, most of these Republicans making accusations, as far as I can tell, are getting the information from tinfoil hats that they wear,” he claimed. “This is the thing about the Department of Justice. They actually deal with facts.”
He continued by attacking Fox News for pushing the allegations and giving airtime to the criticisms of Sessions, which he described as a political act to “distract attention from the investigation of Trump and attack Hillary Clinton.”
Sessions announced on Thursday that he has named Utah’s top federal prosecutor to investigate the abuse allegations, but said he saw no cause to appoint another special counsel beyond Robert Mueller, who is looking into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
