Michael Mukasey, a former attorney general for President George W. Bush, disagreed Wednesday with calls for a special prosecutor to investigate the Internal Revenue Service for wrongdoing in targeting groups for political reasons.
On Fox News Channel’s “America Live,” he explained to host Megyn Kelly the prosecutor would not be independent of the executive branch.
“I think it’s a lousy idea for two reasons,” Mukasey said. “First of all, I’ve never been a fan of special prosecutors and particularly under the current system. Special prosecutors are not independent of the executive. They can’t be constitutionally.”
“They would answer to the president,” he continued. “They may not have to adhere to procedures within the Justice Department,” he explained. “But ultimately they would answer to the president. He has the executive authority. So the notion they have somehow they’ve got some independence is an illusion and a myth.”
Mukasey suggested the best course of action would be to continue with congressional investigations and then trust the Justice Department to conduct an impartial investigation.
“Ironically, if you decide to have a criminal investigation, I would think that perhaps the proper entity to investigate is the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, which has been charged politicizing the way it enforces the law and would have an excellent opportunity to redeem itself and get out from under those charges if it were to conduct an impartial investigation,” Mukasey added.