Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Tuesday that President Donald Trump should choose an “independent person” to investigate allegations that his aides were in contact with Russian officials before the election.
“Find a very smart, independent person, maybe somebody like Michael Mukasey, the former attorney general,” Gingrich said on “Fox and Friends.” “Put them in charge of the whole project and say, there are questions here.”
He said that Trump should “take a lesson from the past, from Ronald Reagan and others” and choose “one person who coordinates the administration on that topic.”
“Because it’s the kind of thing that can grow, and it looks early on like it’s not a big deal, and then one morning it’s a big deal and now it’s really expensive to deal with,” Gingrich said. “The earlier they have a central person directing their efforts, the less problem it will be, the faster it will go away.”
Gingrich is the latest in a line of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who have called for a rigorous investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Earlier in February, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said that if there was truth to the allegations, Congress should form a special committee to carry out an investigation.
“That would be a very serious event and would justify the Senate forming a Select Committee to look at all things related to Russia,” Graham said.
On Friday, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) said that Attorney General Jeff Sessions will “need to use the special prosecutor’s statute and office” to investigate the allegations.
He qualified that call on Monday, saying that there has “been no allegation by any part of this administration or by anyone who’s been to the hearings about any crimes.”
“One of the challenges we have is a special prosecutor exists when you have an individual under suspicion,” Issa said. “Currently we don’t have that.”
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) called on Sessions on Monday to appoint a special prosecutor to head an “independent, transparent investigation” into allegations that Trump’s aides were in contact with Russian officials before the election.
House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) dismissed those calls, saying on Monday that “the history of special prosecutors is mixed.”
“At this point, what are we going to appoint a special prosecutor to do exactly? To chase stories of American citizens that end up in newspaper articles?” he said. “Look, if at some point we have serious crimes that have been committed, it would be something that we would consider.”
h/t NBC News.
