Doing a little light reading of the quarterly report from the Justice Department Office of Inspector General (OIG) last week, I came across an interesting pattern: the DOJ may be the safest place in America to break the law. Because if you work there, your prosecution is most likely to be declined.
One of the odd byproducts of being a former House Oversight Committee chairman is a strange fascination with the independent investigations of misconduct within the federal government. You can learn a lot about the stories our media is choosing not to tell from these routine reports.
These quarterly snapshots offer a glimpse into how the Justice Department polices itself.
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This is the entity charged with enforcing the law against you and me. They choose whether to charge people with crimes or to look the other way. And as I read through the list of investigations against DOJ personnel from the last quarter, I developed a deep concern that Lady Justice often seems to be afraid to prosecute anyone inside the DOJ.
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The list of investigations found on pages 4-5 of the report identified serious misconduct – unwanted sexual contact, serious undisclosed conflicts of interest, inappropriate touching of an intern’s breast, and the familiar “lack of candor” (aka lying by a federal employee) to the OIG. These cases all had one thing in common: all were recommended for criminal charges, and all resulted in a “decline to prosecute” response. That’s just the most recent quarter.
In one case, an assistant U.S. attorney (AUSA) was investigated for allegations of verbally and sexually harassing an intern. The investigation found that the AUSA had also made sexually suggestive comments to three other individuals, including another AUSA, an FBI forensic analyst and a USPIS postal inspector. What was the result?
“The investigation was presented for federal prosecution on July 1, 2019 and declined on Feb. 10, 2020, and was presented for state prosecution on Aug. 24, 2020, and declined that same day. ”
I am reminded of the results of the FISA abuse investigation: more than a dozen recommendations for action with only one resulting in a plea deal. None fully prosecuted.
Why doesn’t Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., do a hearing on misconduct within the DOJ?
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