America First Legal launches investigation into partisan political actors in DOJ’s Office of Inspector General

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, America First Legal (AFL) announced that it has opened an investigation into the presence of politically biased employees in the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG).

The DOJ OIG states that it is “an independent agency created by law whose mission is to detect and prevent waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct in the Department of Justice and to promote economy and efficiency in the work of the Department.” While all administrations have political personnel who come and go, the OIG staff – at least historically – has borne the stamp of impartiality. The OIG has noted and admitted that its “biggest challenge is to continue to strengthen public confidence in the institution.” Ensure that decisions and actions are consistent with the department’s core values ​​of independence, impartiality and integrity.”

However, recent reports suggest that this is far from reality – and in fact there are bipartisan actors seeking to use their work to win political victories and undermining the integrity of their offices with carefully crafted partisan hatchet jobs. According to a recent report by The Federalist, the DOJ OIG is “made up of Democratic activists who want to use their power to destroy their political enemies.”

For example, the Federalist’s reporting states:

• One person is participating in the OIG’s investigation into deaths in state nursing homes in 2020 – he made 33 donations to the Democratic fundraising mechanism ActBlue between 2020 and 2022.
• Another individual is also investigating nursing home deaths that allegedly occurred under President Trump. She previously worked under President Obama’s Deputy Attorney General Leslie Caldwell. Since 2007, she has donated over $6,000 exclusively to Democrats, including $3,866 in the 2020 election cycle to Biden for President, the Biden Victory Fund and the Biden Fight Fund.
• Social media accounts that appear to belong to Zerwitz show overwhelming bias against President Trump and other Republicans. Her alleged We must remove his Republican supporters from office – at all levels of government.” She has liked tweets expressing “hatred” for Kayleigh McEnany and supporting the removal of 15 Republican senators from President Trump’s impeachment jury.
• Zerwitz liked another tweet that said Mitch McConnell was “undermining our democracy” and another that asked, “Why are mythical white grievances being prioritized over the well-being of black children?”
• According to Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist, Zerwitz liked a tweet that began, “Watch out QANON, MAGAT fascists” and ended, “SO FUCK OFF.”
• Another tweet that Zerwitz liked referred to “Trump and his racist, homophobic cult members.”

These obviously politically biased actors within the OIG suggest a potential lack of oversight and control over its impartiality and independence. But the fact is that there are likely others within the OIG with similar backgrounds that the American people have no idea about – politically motivated and biased employees seeking to use the levers of power to advance their own agenda while undermining public trust in the institution.

The AFL has launched an investigation to uncover the extent to which the Justice Department’s OIG is being compromised by partisan political actors who undermine the OIG’s mission of “promoting the rule of law through Objectiveindependent oversight by the Ministry of Justice.”

Statement from Gene Hamilton, Legal Executive Director of America First:

“The American people have a right to answers regarding the apparent rampant political bias that permeates the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General. An office that employs people with clear political biases but presents itself to the public as fair, objective and impartial damages public trust in government institutions. If the ‘watchdog’ is just a partisan bulldog, he doesn’t deserve to exist. We will find out the truth and reveal it to the American people,” said Gene Hamilton.

Read the FOIA here.

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Photo credit: Adobe Stock Images / Nicholas