Legislators seek investigation of DOJ WASHINGTON—Two Republican chairmen of powerful House committees have asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel to investigate “potential bias” within

“The public interest requires the appointment of a Special Counsel” to investigate “certain decisions made and not made by the Department of Justice and FBI in 2016 and 2017” due to potential political conflicts of interest, Reps. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina and Bob Goodlatte of Virginia wrote in a letter to Sessions and Rosenstein on Tuesday.

Gowdy is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee; Goodlatte is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

The request appears to stem from allegations contained in a memo released by House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes. The memo alleges FBI investigators relied on unsubstantiated evidence from a dossier compiled by Democratic opposition researchers to obtain surveillance warrants through Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act against members of President Donald Trump’s campaign team.

“There is evidence of bias, trending toward animus, among those charged with investigating serious cases. There is evidence political opposition research was used in court filings. There is evidence this political opposition research was neither vetted before it was used nor fully revealed to the relevant tribunal,” Gowdy and Goodlatte wrote in the letter.

Sessions last month instructed DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz to investigate potential FISA abuses. IG investigations cannot compel key witnesses to testify.