The House Judiciary Committee chairman says he has not discussed his call for a second special counsel with Attorney General Jeff Sessions or Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) have called on the Department of Justice to appoint a second special counsel to investigate allegations of political bias and surveillance abuse at the FBI.
“I have not spoken to Jeff Sessions about the special counsel,” Goodlatte (R-Va.) said in an interview with The Hill.
The Judiciary chair said, however, he was “pleased” to hear Sessions say that “he would take that recommendation seriously and look into the matter in depth.”
Goodlatte said Sessions asked Horowitz, who is currently writing a report following a departmentwide inquiry into the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, to “look into the FISA warrant issuance issue.”
But Horowitz, Goodlatte said, “does not have the same authority that a special counsel has, he can’t interview, subpoena witnesses that are outside the agency’s purview. And we have other departments of the government involved, potentially the State Department, and therefore, that’s why Chairman Gowdy and I have called for the appointment of a independent special counsel.”