Quote: A top Justice Department official on Thursday brushed aside GOP requests for a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS’s treatment of Tea Party groups, saying the evidence didn’t warrant such a appointment.

“It is very, very rare to use a special prosecutor,” Deputy Attorney General James Cole told a House Oversight subcommittee, adding that he and Attorney General Eric Holder determined the IRS case “didn’t meet any sort of standard to warrant a special prosecutor.”

Cole tried to assure Republicans at a House hearing that his department was taking seriously a criminal investigation that a host of GOP lawmakers have accused of being shoddy.

Cole stressed that the department had made no final decisions about whether anyone — including former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner — would be charged with a crime as a result of their investigation. News reports have suggested that Justice and the FBI had already determined that no charges would be filed.