Special prosecutor appointment

In the run up to the 2016 election the FBI was conducting a counterintelligence investigation into the possibility of Russian influence in the election. The purpose was to first discover if there were any crimes committed and second to stop any such interference. Attorney General Jeff Session recused himself and Assistant Attorney General Rob Rosenstein took over. Rosenstein recommended that Trump fire FBI director James Comey and Trump did so on May 9th, 2017. A few days later Comey gave documents to a professor to give to the NY Times in the hopes of getting a special prosecutor to investigate Trump. Comey said that in a private conversation with Trump he was asked to go easy on his prosecution of General Flynn and this he felt was grounds for investigation. A few days later on May 17th, 2017 Rosenstein appointed his close friend Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate allegations of Russian interference and herein lies a problem. The law specifically states that the special counsel can only be appointed to investigate a crime. At that time the FBI had not yet determined if a crime was committed so there was no crime to investigate. He should have waited for the FBI to complete their investigation. Mueller was going to investigate collusion but that is not a crime. In addition Mueller was a friend of Comey's and the law once again specifically states that would be a conflict of interest. The word friend is used in the law.