Orrin Hatch: “We did that with due deliberation, without any desire to hurt anybody and without any desire to do other than to help…”

“We did that with due deliberation, without any desire to hurt anybody and without any desire to do other than to help the Attorney General make this decision. I must confess to a degree of frustration with the Independent Counsel Act. Did I appreciate having to send our letter? Certainly not. However, the law sets forth a specific process by which Congress is to request that the Attorney General begin the process by which an independent counsel is appointed, and this process requires the Judiciary Committee to make what the other party will inevitably characterize as partisan charges in order to trigger the Attorney General's responsibilities. In order for Congress to trigger the most preliminary steps for the Department of Justice to take to consider the need for an independent counsel, the law essentially provides that the party not in control of the executive branch make specific charges when and if the Attorney General fails to act on her own. I would have preferred to have had the Attorney General seek an independent counsel on her own. But she has not done so. At the very least, I would have preferred that she conduct a preliminary investigation on her own. But she has refused to do even this. I would have preferred to have requested that she seek an independent counsel without having to set forth, in such a public manner as the law requires, the specific and credible evidence which warrants such an appointment.”