House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Rep. Trey Gowdy on Tuesday demanded the appointment of a special counsel to investigate “conflicts of interest” and decisions “made and not made” by current and former Justice Department officials in 2016 and 2017, noting that “the public interest requires” the action.
Gowdy, R-S.C., and Goodlatte, R-Va., penned a letter Tuesday to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
“Matters have arisen—both recently and otherwise—which necessitate the appointment of a Special Counsel. We do not make this observation and attendant request lightly,” Gowdy and Goodlatte wrote.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News, Gowdy and Goodlatte spoke about the discovery of new information as their reasoning behind calling for a second independent counsel.
“What changed for me was the knowledge that there are two dozen witnesses that Michael Horowitz, the [DOJ] Inspector General, would not have access to,” Gowdy said. “When I counted up 24 witnesses that he would not be able to access were he to investigate it, yeah only one conclusion, that’s special counsel.”
That list of witnesses included former FBI director James Comey, Gowdy confirmed.
Last week, Sessions announced that Horowitz would investigate allegations of government surveillance abuse in light of memos released on Capitol Hill by the House Intelligence Committee which suggested, at least on the Republican side, that the dossier compiled by ex-U.K. intelligence officer Christopher Steele was used to obtain a FISA warrant to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
“Absolutely, this whole FISA warrant was on Carter Page,” Gowdy told Fox News.
Goodlatte agreed stating that the case on which the warrant was built was “highly suspect.”
The lawmakers wrote, “There is evidence of bias, trending toward animus, among those charged with investigating serious cases.”
More at Fox News
Independent investigations are absolutely necessary. The failures of honest investigations into the wrongdoing of Democrats and the illegal surveillance is beyond question. All that is not PROVEN is how high up the leadership ladders does the responsibility go?
Then, the question arises, will there be accountability?
Deplorable
I think you are right.
“Accountability” Co’mon man this is the SWAMP! Absolutely UN accountable for 28 years! they have a least 5 levels of “gators” in every agency!