Two weeks ago Chairmen of the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees, Trey Gowdy and Bob Goodlatte, officially requested a second Special Counsel investigation from Attorney General Jeff Sessions to investigate FBI bias and FISA abuse during the 2016 presidential election.
Now, four of the most high profile Republicans in the Senate are following suit.
On Thursday evening Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Chuck Grassley, along with Republican members Lyndsey Graham, John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, called for Sessions to work with DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz on a second Special Counsel.
In a letter sent to Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Senators express concern former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton got a pass for mishandling classified information and that crimes may have been committed during FISA abuse. In addition they want to know how information from the infamous Russian dossier about presidential candidate Donald Trump was used by the FBI in court.
"We have all kinds of confidence in the inspector general's work. We know he's a good person. We know he is doing good work, digs in deep. He's got a staff of maybe about 400 but he doesn't have the capability of working with people that have left the Justice Department. He can only bring in those people that are already in government to investigate," Grassley said during an interview with Special Report anchor Bret Baier. "And this special counsel working in a team, and I want to emphasize the word 'team' with the inspector general, we'll give him the tools he needs to get all the information that we are asking him to get. And we sent him 30 questions that we want investigated."
"The chairman and I have looked real close at the FBI investigation of the Clinton e-mail scandal and I have come away believing that it was shoddily done; that there were conflicts of interest, that there was political bias that may have resulted in giving Clinton a pass," Graham added. "The FBI and the Department of Justice were corrupt in my view when it came to handling the e-mail investigation of Clinton. And the entire FISA warrant application process was abused."
Here are some of the questions Grassley and Graham want the inspector general to investigate, with the help of a special counsel. The rest of them can be found here.
Who in the Department of Justice or the FBI knew that Christopher Steele's work ultimately was funded by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Clinton Campaign? When did each individual learn that information?
What connections are there between Mr. Steele and the Russian government or Russian intelligence community? Has Mr. Steele ever been paid directly or indirectly by the Russian government, Russian intelligence community, or other Russian sources?
What department standards, rules, regulations, or policies, if any, govern the use of privately or politically funded intelligence gathering as a predicate for a FISA application? Are those standards, rules, regulations, or policies adequate to ensure the ultimate political and financial motivations behind the work are adequately shared and disclosed? Were those standards, rules, regulations, or policies followed in connection with the use of the Steele dossier information in the FISA application for Carter Page or in any other context where the dossier information was relied upon?
Did anyone express any concerns about the propriety of presenting unverified, uncorroborated claims from the Steele dossier as the basis for a FISA warrant on an American citizen?
Inspector General Horowitz is expected to release a report any day now about whether polticial bias at the FBI influenced the criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton.