Grassley brushes off call for special prosecutor

A day after the firing of FBI Director James Comey, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, brushed aside Wednesday the idea of calling a special prosecutor to look into Russian influence on the 2016 election and said he supported Comey's dismissal.

Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, also echoed President Donald Trump's claim that the president was not being investigated personally.

Comey's dismissal has brought objections from Democrats, and some Republicans have even expressed some misgivings. But Grassley, who on Fox News early in the day said that critics ought to 'suck it up and move on,” argued the way to transparency on Russian influence is to rely on congressional committees investigating the matter, not a special prosecutor.

'Remember, there's been charges but no proof,” Grassley added. 'And we know that Trump was not being investigated.”

In a letter to Comey notifying him of his dismissal, Trump claimed the FBI director had told him three times he was not under investigation. The White House would not elaborate on the statement.

Meanwhile, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, weighed in on the dismissal Wednesday. Ernst did not issue a statement on the matter, but when asked by a reporter about the firing on Wednesday, a spokesperson said in an email: 'Senator Ernst has said the director of the FBI serves at the pleasure of the president; therefore, this decision was up to President Trump to make.” She did not elaborate.

Rep. Rod Blum, R-Iowa, said, 'It was probably time for Comey to go. The FBI has been way too involved in politics, on both sides of the aisle.”

Democrats have called for a special prosecutor or an independent commission to investigate Russian interference. And they have likened Comey's dismissal to President Richard Nixon's firing of special prosecutor Archibald Cox during Watergate.

In a tweet Wednesday, the president accused Democrats of hypocrisy given their past complaints about Comey. But Democrats expressed concerns about the effect on the Russia investigation.

'The president's actions transcend any one individual and raise significant concerns over the basic rule of law, especially if they are intended to dissuade criminal investigators from digging too deep into Trump administration officials and associates - or even the president himself,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., said in a statement late Tuesday.

Reps. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, and Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., also complained about the firing. Bustos objected to the idea that Trump would appoint a new FBI director who would oversee the Russia investigation. Loebsack noted he had disagreements with some of Comey's past actions but said 'his firing is an abuse of power and flies in the face of the rule of law.”