Lindsey Graham Says 'Dangerous' Congress Is Replacing Prosecutors: 'The Last Thing You Want... Is 535 Special Counsels'

Senator Lindsey Graham has claimed Congress is attempting to replace prosecutors in the wake of the Mueller report through multiple investigations across committees from both chambers into President Donald Trump, his financial dealings and those close to him.

The South Carolina Republican faced calls to resign from his Democratic critics after he suggested Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son and former campaign adviser, should ignore a Senate Intelligence Committee subpoena to give testimony.

Trump Jr. has already given hours of testimony to the committee. But, following the Mueller report, it wants to know more about the meeting he arranged at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer touting dirt on Hillary Clinton, the then Democratic presidential candidate.

He eventually agreed to give further, limited testimony at some time in mid-June. The committee's chairman is North Carolina Republican Senator Richard Burr, who sparked a backlash from within his own party with the subpoena.

"Mueller, I thought, was the final word on all things criminal," Graham told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Wednesday night.

"The last thing you want, Sean, is 535 special counsels. Richard Burr is a good friend of mine. He's a great chairman of the intel committee...What I worry about is when is enough enough?"

Graham made reference to the House Intelligence Committee, which is now investigating if four attorneys connected to Trump—including Jay Sekulow, Alan Futerfas, Alan Garten and Abbe Lowell—had input into the president's former fixer Michael Cohen's false testimony to Congress.

The committee is grappling with the attorneys to release documents, Politico reported, which the four are refusing to do, citing attorney-client privilege and claiming the committee's request does not have a proper legislative purpose.

"What you see happening is congressional committees are now beginning to take the place of prosecutors and that's dangerous for us all," Graham told Hannity.

"And if I were Don Jr.'s lawyer, I'd be reluctant to put him back in the environment where two of the people on the intel committee in the Senate are running for president of the United States.

"They want to impeach [Attorney General William] Barr, they want him to resign, they want me to resign, and they think Brett Kavanaugh was Bill Cosby in high school. These people are going nuts."

Various congressional committees are using the evidence collected in the 448-page report by special counsel Robert Mueller to advance their own investigations.

Mueller laid out in detail the evidence that Trump obstructed justice, but the prosecutor also said he could not establish that there was a conspiracy by the president or his campaign to coordinate with Russia in its election interference.

Lindsey Graham Senate Donald Trump Jr
Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) (C) speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on May 1, 2019 in Washington, DC. Alex Wong/Getty Images

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Shane Croucher is a Senior Editor based in London, UK. He oversees the My Turn team. He has previously overseen ... Read more

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