Two GOP Senators are asking the DOJ to open a criminal investigation into the author of the Russian dossier, former British spy, Christopher Steele.

Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) sent a letter to Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray Friday demanding they investigate if Christopher Steele lied to federal authorities.

The letter is the first criminal referral from Congress; the DOJ, however, isn’t required to open an investigation in response.

“I don’t take lightly making a referral for criminal investigation. But, as I would with any credible evidence of a crime unearthed in the course of our investigations, I feel obliged to pass that information along to the Justice Department for appropriate review. Everyone needs to follow the law and be truthful in their interactions with the FBI. If the same actions have different outcomes, and those differences seem to correspond to partisan political interests, then the public will naturally suspect that law enforcement decisions are not on the up-and-up. Maybe there is some innocent explanation for the inconsistencies we have seen, but it seems unlikely. In any event, it’s up to the Justice Department to figure that out.” Grassley said in the letter.

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Lindsey Graham called for a Special Counsel:

“After reviewing how Mr. Steele conducted himself in distributing information contained in the dossier and how many stop signs the DOJ ignored in its use of the dossier, I believe that a special counsel needs to review this matter. The rule of Law depends on the government and all who work on its behalf playing by the rules themselves. I hope the Department of Justice will carefully review our letter and take appropriate action,” Graham said.

A lawyer for Fusion GPS responded to the referral via The Hill:

A lawyer for Fusion GPS fired back at the referral, saying that “we should all be skeptical in the extreme.” “Publicizing a criminal referral based on classified information raises serious questions about whether this letter is nothing more than another attempt to discredit government sources, in the midst of an ongoing investigation,” the firm’s counsel said.

Hillary Clinton previously claimed she didn’t know about the Russia dossier that her campaign actually paid for until after Buzzfeed published the 35-page document in January of 2017.

** In fact Hillary’s team lied for nearly a year about funding the anti-Trump dossier.

The documents contain explosive, but unverified, opposition research that alleges intel ties between Russia and Trump and also claims Russia holds sexual blackmail material over Trump.

One of the most outrageous unconfirmed allegations in the report says the Russians recorded Trump watching Russian prostitutes urinate on each other in a Moscow hotel room previously occupied by President and Mrs. Barack Obama.

The FBI most likely used this garbage dossier to obtain a FISA warrant to spy on Trump’s camp. A short recap of some of the claims in the dossier compiled by Christopher Steele: