Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., has requested an outside independent panel to investigate the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Wolf made his call in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder Monday,
The Hill reports. Wolf said a recent report from the department’s inspector general illustrated the need for action.
“One cannot read the report without concluding that the division has suffered systemic mismanagement,” the letter reads. “It has become a rat’s nest of unacceptable and unprofessional actions, and even outright threats against career attorneys and systemic mismanagement.”
The inspector general discovered multiple instances of harassment in the department's voting rights section, but concluded it wasn’t guilty of partisanship during the administration of either President Barack Obama or former President George W. Bush, according to The Hill.
Still, Wolf sees a need for action. “Although the troubling actions documented in the report are not limited to your tenure as attorney general, it is unacceptable that these practices have continued on your watch,” he wrote Holder.
“As the head of the department, you bear ultimate responsibility for the serious abuses that have occurred over the last four years.”