Former congressman turned Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz on Thursday said a second special prosecutor should be coupled with the Inspector General of the Justice Department to investigate surveillance abuses by the FBI.
Chaffetz, former chairman of the House Oversight Committee, was reacting to Wednesday's news that the internal watchdog at the DOJ intends to launch a second investigation into Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuses.
"It means that they're following the facts, and that the Inspectors General, they just don't go on fishing trips," Chaffetz said on Fox News' "Fox & Friends" morning program. "What this indicates to me is that he's got some real evidence out there and he's warning a second investigation."
While Chaffetz applauds that move, he asserted that the IG's probe should be coupled with a special counsel.
"That should be coupled with a special prosecutor because there are a number of people who have left the employment of the government, and Michael Horowitz, as good and as talented as he and his staff are, they don't have the jurisdiction to go talk to people who, like Mr. McCabe for instance, has now left," Chaffetz said.
"If you couple a special prosecutor, then they have the investigative tools to go interview those people and to prosecute those people if they find anything where people have broken the law," he said.