Chuck Schumer: “There was a view that we ought to get to the bottom of this situation. I think, again, that was universally held. Our…”

“There was a view that we ought to get to the bottom of this situation. I think, again, that was universally held. Our President himself stated it. However, when we looked at the mechanism to get to the bottom of this, there didn't seem to be a very good one. You couldn't go to the inspector general of either the Justice Department or the Defense Department because they can't look at the White House. The independent counsel law had lapsed, and to allow the Justice Department itself to conduct the investigation seemed to many of us at the outset to pose, at the very least, an apparent conflict of interest that now seems to be a very real conflict of interest given the facts that have come out about the Attorney General's relationship with Karl Rove and some of the others who, it is bandied about with no backing in the sense there is proof, but there are signs, have said that he was involved. So many of us called for a special counsel.”