Tuesday, September 9, 2014

IG says Justice Department caused 'significant delays' in investigations

IG says Justice Department caused 'significant delays' in investigations

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Department of Justice senior officials have barred or delayed the inspector general there from gaining access to documents crucial to high-visibility investigations.
"The FBI and some other department components ... have refused our requests for various types of documents. As a result, a number of our reviews have been significantly impeded," IG Michael Horowitz told the House Committee on the Judiciary Tuesday.
Horowitz said DOJ officials caused "significant delays in gaining access to important documents" in the IG's review of Operation Fast and Furious.
Operation Fast and Furious was a DOJ program that allowed gun-running into Mexico in an effort to generate evidence to be used against drug cartels.
U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in 2010 with one of an estimated 1,400 guns shipped to Mexico as a result of the program.
Horowitz also said FBI objections delayed an investigation of DOJ's use of the federal material witness statute in international terrorism, as well as an investigation of the FBI's use of national security letters.
The Inspector General Act of 1978 grants IGs "access to all records, reports, audits, reviews, documents, papers, recommendations or other material" within a federal department or agency.
Horowitz said he appreciated efforts by Attorney General Eric Holder and Deputy Attorney General James Cole to intervene on behalf of IG requests.
But Horowitz said having to rely upon DOJ's senior leaders to gain access to documents Congress clearly intends to be given to IGs on request is inconsistent with the law.
In addition, such dependence "compromises our independence. The IG Act expressly provides that an independent inspector general should decide whether documents are relevant to an IG's work; however, the current process at the department instead places that decision and authority in the leadership of the agency that is being subjected to our oversight."
Having to seek permission to gain access to documents also "results in delays to our audits and reviews, consumes an inordinate amount of OIG staff time and my time, as well as time from the attorney general's and deputy attorney general's busy schedules."
Horowitz' testimony came in a hearing by the committee concerning a recent letter to Congress signed by Horowitz and 46 other IGs describing multiple instances of obstruction by executive branch officials.
In an apparent allusion to the Justice Department's bungled prosecution of former Sen. Ted Stevens, Horowitz noted that Holder's policy also requires IG investigators to ask for documents concerning allegations of official misconduct by government lawyers.
No such limits are placed, however, on DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility, which also investigates such allegations.
"This disparate treatment ... is unjustifiable and results in the department being less willing to provide materials to the IG, presumably because the IG is statutorily independent, while OPR is not," Horowitz said.
Two prosecutors in the 2008 case against Stevens failed to turn over to defense lawyers exculpatory evidence concerning allegations that the then-Alaska senator benefitted personally from his relationship with an oil company.
The prosecutors were disciplined but not fired following an investigation by the OPR. Stevens, who lost his re-election effort because of the case, died in a plane crash two years later.
Horowitz called on Congress to grant specific authority to his office to investigate allegations of misconduct by government attorneys.
Legislation now pending — the Inspector General Empowerment Act of 2014 — would grant that authority, he noted.
The bill was endorsed earlier this year by the Project on Government Oversight, a non-partisan non-profit that investigates waste and fraud in government.
Mark Tapscott is executive editor of the Washington Examiner.

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