Despite Mitch’s claims to the contrary:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday rejected calls for a special prosecutor or independent commission to investigate Russia’s election meddling in the wake of the firing of FBI Director James Comey.
"Today we'll no doubt hear calls for a new investigation, which could only serve to impede the current work being done," McConnell said on the Senate floor, referring to the Senate Intelligence Committee's probe of Russia's election meddling.
Appointing a special prosecutor would not start a new investigation, but rather ensure the integrity of the existing FBI investigation. Comey explained all of this at a Senate hearing before he was fired:
“Our investigative team would just coordinate with a different set of prosecutors. It's as if a case was moved from one U.S. attorney's office to another, the investigative team just starts working with a different set of assistant U.S. attorneys.”
Here is the full exchange:
HIRONO: Well, a number of us have called for an independent investigator or a special prosecutor to investigate the -- the Russian efforts to undermine or to interfere with our elections, as well as the Trump team's relationships with these -- these Russian efforts.
And should the Department of Justice decide that there should be such a independent investigator or a special prosecutor? And you already have an ongoing FBI instigation into these matters. How and the attorney general has already recused himself, so how would -- how would this proceed, when you have the Department of Justice conducting or assigning an independent or special prosecutor and then you're already doing investigation? How would this work?
COMEY: Our investigative team would just coordinate with a different set of prosecutors. It's as if a case was moved from one U.S. attorney's office to another, the investigative team just starts working with a different set of assistant U.S. attorneys. You don't -- you don't...
HIRONO: So the two investigations could proceed, but you would talk to each other, is that what you're describing?
COMEY: Right, its one -- its one investigation and the strength of the justice system at the federal level of the United States is, the prosecutors and the agents work together on their investigations. And so the investigators would disengage from one prosecutor and hook up to another and just continue going.
HIRONO: So in the investigations that you're currently doing on the Russian interference and the Trump team's relationship, are you coordinating with any U.S. attorney's office in these investigations?
COMEY: Yes, well -- two sets of prosecutors, the Main Justice the National Security Division and the Eastern District of Virginia U.S. Attorney's Office.
HIRONO: So should the A.G. decide to go with this special prosecutor, then you would end your engagement with these other two entities and work with the DOJ special prosecutor?
COMEY: Well, I could -- yes, potentially or it could be that in some circumstances, an attorney general will appoint someone else to oversee it and you keep the career level prosecutive team. And so to the prosecutors and the agents, there's no change except the boss is different.
HIRONO: If I could just ask one more follow-up question, so does this -- has this happened before, where you're doing an investigation and the attorney general appoints a special prosecutor to conduct the same investigation?
COMEY: It happened to me when I was in what I thought was my last job ever in the government as Deputy Attorney General and I appointed Patrick Fitzgerald, then the U.S. attorney in Chicago to oversee a very sensitive investigation involving allegations that Bush administration officials outed a CIA operative.
And so what happened is, the team of agents that had been working for the upper (ph) chain that came to me was just moved over and worked up under Patrick Fitzgerald.
HIRONO: OK, thank you so it happens.