There was "no need" for a special counsel to investigate 2016 Russian election interference, because the entire Justice Department "was not in any way conflicted," according to former Attorney General Edwin Meese.
"In my opinion, no, there was no need," Reagan-era AG Meese told Fox News' "Life, Liberty & Levin." "For one thing, the department was not in any way conflicted."
Former AG Jeff Sessions was a "fact witness" as a former member of the presidential campaign, "but, that certainly did not conflict the entire Department of Justice," according to Meese.
As the DOJ Inspector General is preparing to deliver a report on the origins of the investigation into the Trump campaign, Meese told host Mark Levin the DOJ could have investigated criminality in the specific jurisdictions they occurred in, per Meese.
"If once there was an allegation, if there was one, then that should have gone through the normal processes of the department and been handled by the U.S. attorney either in Washington, D.C., or in New York – wherever the jurisdiction happened to be," Meese said.
Meese's appearance came after a week in which former special counsel Robert Mueller testified before two House committees and showed a lack of understanding of his own report, per Meese.
"I was concerned by his testimony," Meese said. "I was concerned by the fact that so much of the report seemed to be foreign to him, or at least he was not familiar with it. And I've since reflected the views of a lot of people who were watching and that was: That he was not familiar with the report because it looked like someone else had written it."
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