Two top Republican committee chairs on Tuesday called for a special counsel to investigate "potential criminality" related to a surveillance warrant application for former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in the Russia probe headed by special counsel Robert Mueller.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia and House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy of South Carolina made the request in a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
The lawmakers urged a review of any evidence of "bias" by any employee of the Justice Department or FBI employee — and whether any "extraneous influence" was involved in the surveillance process, according to the letter.
Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department's inspector general, is probing alleged abuses by the agencies in obtaining Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants.
However, Goodlatte and Gowdy contend that he lacks sufficient authority to call on current or former top officials and does not have prosecutorial powers.
Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee released a memo last month alleging that the agencies abused the FISA process to obtain the Page warrant by relying on an unsubstantiated dossier of negative information on President Donald Trump.
The dossier was paid, in part, by the campaign of Democrat Hillary Clinton — and this information was never disclosed in the application for the FISA warrant, according to the memo.
Panel Democrats countered in their own document that the Republicans selected or distorted certain information to try to undercut Mueller's probe.
Goodlatte told Bret Baier on Fox News that the process was "abused by a gathering of information from a very suspect source, not disclosing that information to the court.
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"In my opinion, getting the authority to look into the background of an American citizen's life on questionable circumstances," he said. "That's a very serious concern.
"The FBI is America's premier law-enforcement organization," he added. "Every day, thousands and thousands of great men and women keep us safe.
"Investigate crime and prevent terror attacks.
"But several people at the top of this organization have engaged in activities that are questionable.
"In order to set the record straight, clear up what is going on in the FBI and make sure this doesn't happen again, we need to have an outside special counsel investigation."
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