Clearer law needed to let inspectors general do job
A few years ago, the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General was looking into how the department had handled people detained as material witnesses after the 9/11 attacks. There had been complaints that civil liberties were abused in some detentions. The inspector general made a request for documents from the FBI that included grand jury testimony by those detained – and hit a roadblock. In 2010, the FBI refused to turn over the documents.
The Justice Department inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, has pointed to this refusal in appealing to Congress to rectify a larger problem: Not only at Justice but in other agencies, inspectors general are coming up against hurdles to their independent investigations created by the very departments they are supposed to keep an eye on. Inspectors general, created by a 1976 law to be independent watchdogs over government, are finding it increasingly difficult to carry out their vital mission.
The original law said that inspectors general must have access to “all records, reports, audits, reviews, documents, papers, recommendations or other material available” for their work. But the "all" in this language has been thrown into doubt by the FBI's actions and by a subsequent opinion by the department's Office of Legal Counsel.
According to Mr. Horowitz, every time he was blocked, he turned to the attorney general or deputy attorney general and asked for an override, which they provided. But the result has been significant delays in the investigations. Mr. Horowitz has pointed out that such objections to the release of documents for investigations were not raised for many years after the creation of his office, only beginning in 2010.
Legislation pending in both chambers of Congress would clarify this by making clear that all records mean all records – and that inspectors general remain an important mechanism of accountability and oversight. The legislation has bipartisan support and deserves to be passed.
This was excerpted from The Washington Post.
This story was originally published November 4, 2015 at 4:01 PM with the headline "Clearer law needed to let inspectors general do job."