House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte has direct oversight authority over the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Courts. Within this oversight, the House Judiciary Committee also has oversight over the FISA court. Additionally, in his current oversight role, Chairman Goodlatte has been working closely with DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

Today Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Representative Trey Gowdy pen a letter (full pdf below) to Attorney General Jeff Sessions requesting 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.

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.”

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(Authors note: Sorry for the delays – I had surgery today)