RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — An outside probe into how Virginia’s government watchdog agency conducted an investigation of a controversial parole decision found no inappropriate outside interference and concluded that the lead investigator was likely “impaired by personal bias.”

The findings came Monday in a 65-page report prepared by a law firm at the request of the Democrat-controlled General Assembly, which funded the work this spring.

The report was essentially an investigation of an investigation into the highest-profile part of a long-running, bitter and mostly partisan dispute over the work of the state parole board.