House Intelligence Committee Chair Rejects Special Prosecutor Calls: It’s Like McCarthyism Revisited

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Tulare, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, rejected calls from his fellow Republican for a special prosecutor to investigate purported ties between Russia and members of President Trump’s administration and campaign.

Earlier Saturday, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista (San Diego County), the former House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chair, said it would be inappropriate for Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was involved with the Trump campaign and is a Trump appointee, to investigate the matter. Nunes was a member of Trump’s transition team and held a fundraiser for him in California during the campaign.

But after addressing the California Republican Party convention Saturday, Nunes rebuffed Issa’s idea, telling reporters: “At this point we can’t go on a witch hunt against any American people … just because they appeared in a news story.

Nunes said the intelligence committee is investigating the matter, “but I have to have some evidence that some American actually had contact with Russians. And I don’t have that now. This is almost like McCarthyism revisited.”

Bolding is mine. Nunes went on to call the Trump/Russia stories “fake news.”