--- title: Darrell Issa Calls for Donald Trump and Russia Investigation description: Rep. Darrell Issa has called from an outside, independent investigation into Donald Trump's associates' alleged ties to Russia canonical: https://time.com/4683128/darrell-issa-russia-investigation-donald-trump/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-26T21:56:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:31:41.675Z article:section: Politics og:title: GOP Rep. Darrell Issa Calls for Investigation Into President Trump and Russia og:description: He said Attorney General Jeff Sessions would be compromised if he led an investigation og:url: https://time.com/4683128/darrell-issa-russia-investigation-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6075ede5b2f3e750/6988bbf9cf40a86794c469ca/darrell-issa.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-TRUMP og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: GOP Rep. Darrell Issa Calls for Investigation Into President Trump and Russia twitter:description: He said Attorney General Jeff Sessions would be compromised if he led an investigation twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6075ede5b2f3e750/6988bbf9cf40a86794c469ca/darrell-issa.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # GOP Rep. Darrell Issa Calls for Investigation Into President Trump and Russia by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Feb 26, 2017 9:56 PM CUT  US Representative Darrell Issa arrives for a meeting with Donald Trump at Trump Tower, on Dec. 14, 2016 US Representative Darrell Issa arrives for a meeting with Donald Trump at Trump Tower, on Dec. 14, 2016Bryan R. Smith—AFP/Getty Images by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Feb 26, 2017 9:56 PM CUT Representative Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has called for an independent investigation into President Donald Trump’s associates’ alleged ties to Russia during the 2016 presidential election — making him the first Republican lawmaker to do so. Though Trump has said there’s [no validity](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-defends-mike-flynn-blasts-fake-news-administration-leaks-n721906 "undefined") to these claims, any internal investigation into [Trump and Russia ](http://time.com/4671931/donald-trump-russia-don-mcgahn-democrats/ "undefined")would be led by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. However, in an interview Friday with HBO’s [_Real Time With Bill Maher_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MzVZE-Mk0U "undefined"), Issa said Sessions may have a conflict of interest because he worked on the President’s campaign — suggesting that an outside, independent investigation would be better. “You cannot have somebody, a friend of mine Jeff Sessions, who was on the campaign and who is an appointee,” he said. “You’re going to need to use the special prosecutor’s statute and office to take — not just to recuse. You can’t just give it to your deputy. That’s another political appointee.” In the interview, Issa, who [supported Trump](http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-essential-poli-rep-darrell-issa-endorses-donald-trump-1462491805-htmlstory.html "undefined") during the election, also emphasized that any investigation may or may not find fault. However, he did say that Russian President Vladamir Putin “murders his enemies,”— as enough cause to start a probe. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4683128/darrell-issa-russia-investigation-donald-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4683128/darrell-issa-russia-investigation-donald-trump/"},"headline":"GOP Rep. 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