There was no need for a special prosecutor for the investigation into Russian attempts to influence the U.S. presidential election because there appeared to be no crime committed, but that all changed when President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley said.
"Once the president did that, I believe that regardless of the evidence of the crime, we needed something like an independent counsel or special counsel to render this decision, to take over this investigation," Turley told Fox News' "The Story With Martha MacCallum."
Comey's predecessor at the FBI, Robert Mueller, was appointed to the job Wednesday by Assistant Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Mueller and Comey are friends and both stood up to President George W. Bush's attempt in 2004 to reauthorize a secret surveillance program because Comey deemed it illegal.
"That was a defining moment for both of them," Turley said. "So, I think what you are going to find is that he is not someone who is going to take lightly the damage that has been done to the image of the FBI or the Justice Department. That is the coin of the realm for the Justice Department is its integrity. I think he will be really working very hard to restore it."
But, he warned, politicians on both sides of the aisle might be wary with the broad scope Mueller will have.
"The city is awash with Russian money," he said. "There are a lot of Democrats as well as Republicans that have been hired by Russian outfits under extensions of Moscow. This is sort of a cottage industry in this town."