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Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee want the Justice Department to appoint a second special counsel to investigate actions taken by Hillary Clinton, James Comey and Loretta Lynch during the 2016 presidential election.

Twenty Republicans, led by Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, who is Judiciary Committee chairman, wrote a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein requesting the appointment of a new special counsel.

"Democrats and the mainstream media called for a special counsel to be appointed to investigate any Russian influence on President Trump's campaign," the Republican lawmakers wrote. "Their pleas were answered, but there are many questions that may be outside the scope of Special Counsel Mueller's investigation."

Republicans say the mandate of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russia's election interference, is too narrow, and that the Justice Department should focus on other issues related to the Obama administration by appointing another special counsel, in addition to Mueller.

Mueller is also investigating whether the Trump campaign worked with the Kremlin.

"The unbalanced, uncertain, and seemingly unlimited focus of the special counsel's investigation has led many of our constituents to see a dual standard of justice that benefits only the powerful and politically well-connected," the Republican lawmakers wrote.

The letter comes after the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday approved an amendment demanding from the Justice Department information related to Comey's handling of the Clinton email case. Comey is the former FBI director fired by President Trump in May.

The amendment demands information on "leaks" by Comey on "the propriety and consequence of immunity deals given to possible Hillary Clinton co-conspirators" and Comey's decision to "usurp the authority of then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch in his unusual announcement that criminal charges would not be brought against" Clinton.

The amendment, passed on a party-line vote, replaced a resolution from Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., that requests the Justice Department provide documents related to Comey's firing.

In addition to Clinton and Comey, the amendment targets Susan Rice, former President Barack Obama's national security adviser.

Some Republicans argue she inappropriately sought the identities of people close to Trump -- in a process known as "unmasking" -- whose communications were captured after the election in surveillance of foreigners by U.S. spy agencies.

The Judiciary Committee Republicans want a special counsel to probe whether Comey had advance knowledge of Rice's unmasking request.

Other information sought includes communication between Comey and Mueller before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing last month in which the former FBI director described his interactions with Trump, and evidence of "any or all" leaks by Comey to New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt dating back to 1993.

Schmidt broke the story detailing memos that Comey wrote about his conversations with Trump.

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Group of Republicans want separate special counsel to investigate Hillary Clinton and James Comey - Washington Examiner

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi seemed to take an underhanded shot at the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign Sunday, while defending the Democratic Partys newmessage known as a better deal.

You call for higher wages, lower prescription drug costs, job training, infrastructure, Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace said to Pelosi. Im not saying any of that is wrong, what I am saying is none of it is new. Weve been hearing it for years. We heard it from the Democrats and Hillary Clinton in 2016 and you lost.

Pelosi didnt disagree with Wallace, instead highlighting the fact that Congressional Democrats are in charge of the messaging for the first time since 2006 and that they, unlike Clinton in 2016, won.

Were going to hear it [Democratic messaging] with more clarity, Pelosi explained.For the first time since 2006, Congressional Democrats are in charge of the message. In 06, we were in charge. We won.

We had a democratic president in 08, Pelosi said. Now it is our turn to win the Congress for the American people.

Wallace also asked her about critics who have said the Democratic leadership team is too old, and that fresh blood is needed.

Well let me just say this, self-promotion is a terrible thing but somebodys gotta do it, Pelosi responded with a smile. Im a master legislator. I know the budget to the nth degree.

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Pelosi Agrees: Blame Falls On Hillary's Campaign - The Daily Caller

Welcome, readers! Im Carolyn Kellogg, The Times book editor, with links to book reviews and news for you this week.

THE BIG STORY

Arundhati Roys 1997 novel, The God of Small Things, won the Booker Prize and earned her international acclaim. She then turned her attention to activism and protest, until returning to fiction this summer with The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, a novel packed with the ghosts of Indias conflicts. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness unfolds in that liminal space between novel and history lesson, writes critic at large Rigoberto Gonzlez in our review, which might disappoint all but her most ardent fans since the fictional story appears to have been written in service to the nonfiction content.

Mayank Austen Soofi

Arundhati Roy, author of "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness."

Arundhati Roy, author of "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness." (Mayank Austen Soofi)

HILLARY CLINTONS NEW BOOK

This week publisher Simon & Schuster confirmed that the book coming this fall from Hillary Clinton is changing shape instead of essays on her inspiration, it will be a deep dive into the 2016 presidential election titled What Happened. The publisher writes: Now free from the constraints of running, Hillary takes you inside the intense personal experience of becoming the first woman nominated for president by a major party in an election marked by rage, sexism, exhilarating highs and infuriating lows, stranger-than-fiction twists, Russian interference, and an opponent who broke all the rules."

Patrick Semansky / Associated Press

Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton

Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (Patrick Semansky / Associated Press)

IF YOU LIKE GET OUT, YOULL LOVE VICTOR LAVALLE

We talk to Victor LaValle, who writes complex and literary horror and speculative fiction that, like the blockbuster movie Get Out, addresses social issues such as racism and inequality. His new book, The Changeling, also tackles the complex emotions around parenthood. For all this horror stuff, Im really an optimist, so I wouldnt say that I only think the world is a horror show, he tells writer Nichole Perkins. I think its also beautiful.

Spiegel & Grau

Victor LaValle

Victor LaValle (Spiegel & Grau)

Some people, like Morgan Jerkins at the New Republic, think that the roil of news from Washington, D.C., has taken the wind out of book sales. But some books seem to be riding the wave, and I think its why Trevor Noahs Born a Crime is now in its 22nd week on our nonfiction bestseller list. The book, a memoir of growing up mixed-race in South Africa, isnt speaking directly to whats happening with President Trump, but Noahs appeal as the host of politically edged The Daily Show, has, I think, a clear connection to his books enduring popularity.

Timothy A. Clary / AFP/Getty Images

Trevor Noah at "The Daily Show Presents: The Donald J. Trump Presidential Twitter Library," designed to look like the Oval Office.

Trevor Noah at "The Daily Show Presents: The Donald J. Trump Presidential Twitter Library," designed to look like the Oval Office. (Timothy A. Clary / AFP/Getty Images)

ALAIN MABANCKOU

Speaking of growing up in Africa: Black Moses is a picaresque novel of an orphan in the Republic of Congo in the 1960s-70s. Author Alain Mabanckou, who writes in French, is widely acclaimed in France and teaches at UCLA. Like every other literary orphan, Moses gets a sense of freedom and a few good times out of his predicament, reviewer Mark Athitakis writes. But his restless wanderings are never a substitute for what hes lost.

Caroline Blache

Alain Mabanckou

Alain Mabanckou (Caroline Blache)

MORE ON BOOKS

As an editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Sean McDonald gained a reputation for championing boundary-pushing fiction and for creating new ways for readers to engage with it (the three books of Jeff VanderMeers Southern Reach Trilogy were published just months apart). Now McDonald has his own imprint at the publisher, MCD; Margaret Wappler takes a look at whats in store.

The premise for many dystopias is how those who remain after a cataclysm will survive without the benefits of our technological society. But what if youve already opted out of that society? Thats the idea behind the Amish dystopia, When the English Fall, the debut novel by David Williams, reviewed by Swapna Krishna.

Janelle Brown hit bestseller lists with her debut novel, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, a wry take on the Silicon Valley suburbs. Now shes written a page-turning thriller, Watch Me Disappear, about a mother who goes missing. The novel evolved a lot. I didnt expect it to be a mystery, she tells Meredith Maran.

Seattle Seahawks star Michael Bennett is writing a book: How to Make White People Uncomfortable. Co-written by Dave Zirin, Bennetts book will be published by Haymarket Books in 2018.

Ted S. Warren / Associated Press

Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett, above left at a recent football practice, is co-writing a new book, "How to Make White People Uncomfortable," to be published next year.

Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett, above left at a recent football practice, is co-writing a new book, "How to Make White People Uncomfortable," to be published next year. (Ted S. Warren / Associated Press)

carolyn.kellogg@latimes.com

@paperhaus

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Books: Rigoberto Gonzlez on Arundhati Roy, a new book from Hillary Clinton and more - Los Angeles Times

Democrat Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election to President Donald Trump, but some Republicans in Congress are intensifying their calls to investigate her and other Obama administration officials.

As investigations into Russian meddling and possible links to Trump's campaign have escalated on both sides of the Capitol, some Republicans argue that the investigations should have a greater focus on Democrats.

Democrats who have pushed the election probes "have started a war of investigative attrition," said GOP Rep. Steve King of Iowa, a member of the House Judiciary Committee.

Several officials from former President Barack Obama's administration and Clinton's campaign have appeared before or been interviewed by the House and Senate Intelligence Committees as part of the Russia investigation, along with Trump campaign officials. The GOP-led committees are investigating whether Trump's campaign had any links to Russian interference in last year's election.

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., has continued a separate investigation into whether Obama administration officials inappropriately made requests to "unmask" identities of Trump campaign officials in intelligence reports.

The House Judiciary Committee, which has declined to investigate the Russian meddling, approved a resolution this past week to request documents related to the FBI's now-closed investigation of Clinton's emails. In addition, Republican on that committee wrote the Justice Department on Thursday and asked for a second special counsel, in addition to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, to investigate "unaddressed matters, some connected to the 2016 election and others, including many actions taken by Obama administration."

"The American public has a right to know the facts all of them surrounding the election and its aftermath," the lawmakers wrote.

Republicans want to investigate the unmasking issue and also Clinton's email scandal that figured prominently in the campaign. They also frequently bring up former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and former FBI Director James Comey's testimony that she told him to call the Clinton email investigation a "matter" instead of an investigation during the campaign.

Nunes wrote his own letter to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats last week, saying that his committee has learned that one Obama administration official had made "hundreds" of the unmasking requests.

Even though he remains committee chairman, Nunes stepped back from the Russia investigation earlier this year after he was criticized for being too close to the White House. Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, took over the leading role.

The committee has conducted bipartisan interviews of witnesses; Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner appeared on Tuesday, a day after talking to Senate staff. But partisan tensions have been evident.

GOP Rep. Pete King of New York, who's on the House Intelligence Committee, said after the Kushner interview that the committee investigation into Russian meddling is a "sham."

"To me there is nothing to this from the beginning," he said of his committee's own probe. "There is no collusion ... it's the phoniest investigation ever."

Both the Senate and House committees have interviewed or expressed interest in interviewing a series of Democratic witnesses, including Obama's former national security adviser, Susan Rice, and former U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power both of whom Republicans have said may be linked to the unmasking. Rice met with staff on the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this month, and Power met with the panel Friday.

"Ambassador Power strongly supports any bipartisan effort to address the serious threat to our national security posed by Russia's interference in our electoral process, and is eager to engage with the Senate and House committees on the timeline they have requested," Power's lawyer, David Pressman, said in a statement.

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Clinton lost, but Republicans still want to investigate her - ABC News

Weve been gorging on the travails of Donald Trump and the Republicans. When a president and his own governing party step in so many cowpats in so brief a period of time, its hard to avert your gaze. Whats next? Mitch McConnells drops his trousers on the steps of Congress?

That happened already, of course. The humiliation that was the Senate rebuke in the wee hours of Friday to McConnells last-gasp effort to kill the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare cant be overstated. A majority leader just doesnt ask for a floor vote unless he knows how it will turn out. Not at 1.30am. Not when half the land has stayed awake to watch. Not when the thing youre trying to do has been the sole obsession of your party for nigh on eight years.

But lets give some due to the Democrats, who have almost been forgotten in all of this. Its been a long, long road. I suggest we turn the page, Chuck Schumer, the Minority leader, offered minutes after McConnells so-called Skinny Bill at least to unwind parts of Obamacare fell to defeat. If the senator from New York was looking smug, you could hardly blame him.

Hillary Clinton wins! That was the headline we thought we were going to be reading last November. But maybe now she does. The one thing that most terrified her supporters about the unthinkable occurring complete Republican control of Washington was that the only really big thing Democrats had done in eight years with Barack Obama at the top would be destroyed.

Obamacare, an attempt at last to bring a kind of universal health coverage to the last country in the developed world not to have it, was, Clinton declared, one of the great accomplishments not only of this president, but of the Democratic Party going back to Harry Truman.

Call it a vicarious victory for Clinton, at least. It comes thanks to Schumer who warned colleagues in January that Republicans would try to pick them off one by one in their quest to kill the health law. Only by sticking together would they thwart them. This wasnt going to be easy. The Democrats are no more ideologically homogeneous than the Republicans are, ranging from Bernie Sanders on the left to Joe Manchin of West Virginia to the centre. But they did it.

They also coordinated with a fearsome army of grass-roots resisters, including groups like MoveOn.org, Indivisible and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. Relations were sometimes tense, the anti-Trump factions not always convinced the Senate Democrats would stay strong. Indeed, Schumer was not always as obstructive on the Hill as they wanted. But his strategy of more constructive resistance he allowed members to talk to Republicans about improving Obamacare but never, ever about repealing it outright worked. Instead of Republicans exploiting Democrat disunity, it was Democrats who exploited theirs.

All the while, a group of former Obama aides who had been at ground zero of passing the Affordable Care Act and then shielding it from various assaults had come quietly come out of retirement to form a third front. Called Protect Our Care, the group included Kathleen Sebelius, Obamas Secretary of Health and Human Services, who was plotting a month-long, nationwide bus tour to pressure Republicans not to dump Obamacare. That wont be necessary now. As the New York Times reported this week, Leslie Dach, one of Obamas top health care officials, meanwhile ran a war room in Washington also helping to coordinate the grass-roots resistance.

What they did was win the propaganda war. The White House and congressional Republicans continued to pedal the notion that Obamacare was a catastrophe. Americans couldnt use the doctors they wanted, faced stiff fines if they ignored the laws requirement that every America buy insurance and sometimes lost coverage anyway because of soaring premiums. Elements of the message were true - premiums are rising fast. But the momentum was shifting to the Democrats. The greatest of ironies is this: Obamacare was never as popular when Obama was president as it is now, with more than 50 per cent of Americans now saying theyd like to keep it. It didnt hurt that with every new Republican proposal so came a new forecast from the Congressional Budget Office of how many Americans would lose coverage as a result. 26 million. 23 million. 16 million.

Republicans sometimes have the easier job of getting their message across just because it is so simple: government intrusion is bad. Taxes are bad. Freedom to choose is good, and so forth. But all that is only so much ideological guff when policy decisions actually impact directly on peoples lives. Even Trump voters started to see through it. If you are poor and live in one of the 33 states that accepted a massive expansion of Medicaid benefits that was allowable under Obamacare, they were always going to ask what will happen to them if those benefits are erased.

Republicans should have grasped that once new benefits are given, there is no taking them away. The watered-down Skinny Bill was a nonsense, because it sought to leave the good bits of Obamacare intact while taking away the bad bits like the mandate that said you must have health insurance just as you must have car insurance. You cant have one without the other; the system would simply collapse. Its why Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina publicly called it a fraud and why, in the most dramatic moment of his career, the ailing Senator John McCain killed it by voting "no" alongside Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine.

Clinton is putting the final touches to a book about her failed 2016 run due out in September called What Happened. She might indulge now in writing an epilogue. Maybe We Won After All.

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Did Hillary Clinton win after all? The collapse of Trumpcare has turned her defeat into unexpected victory - The Independent