WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) today co-sponsored a Senate Resolution that urges U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint an independent special counsel to investigate classified information leaks by the Administration.  In recent weeks, media outlets have reported on multiple highly-sensitive, classified efforts by U.S. intelligence agencies.

“American intelligence personnel work under extremely difficult conditions, and these leaks have already put lives, methods, and ongoing operations at risk,” said Wicker.  “Improper use of classified material is illegal.  An independent investigation is necessary because Administration officials have been cited as a source of the leaked information.  Politics must not interfere with efforts to get to the truth.”

The resolution reads, in part:

Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that—

(1) the Attorney General should—

(A) delegate to an outside special counsel all of the authority of the Attorney General with respect to investigations by the Department of Justice of any and all unauthorized disclosures of classified and highly sensitive information related to various United States military and intelligence plans, programs, and operations reported in recent publications; and

(B) direct an outside special counsel to exercise that authority independently of the supervision or control of any officer of the Department of Justice;

(2) under such authority, the outside special counsel should investigate any and all unauthorized disclosures of classified and highly sensitive information on which such recent publications were based and, where appropriate, prosecute those responsible; and

(3) the President should assess—

(A) whether any such unauthorized disclosures of classified and highly sensitive information damaged the national security of the United States; and

(B) how such damage can be mitigated.