WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, America First Legal (AFL) announced that it has initiated an investigation into the presence of politically biased employees within the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG).
The DOJ OIG proclaims that it is “a statutorily created independent entity whose mission is to detect and deter waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct in the Department of Justice, and to promote economy and efficiency in the Department’s operations.” While all administrations have political personnel who come and go, OIG personnel–at least historically–carried the imprimatur of impartiality. The OIG has identified and admitted that its “preeminent challenge is to continue to strengthen public trust in the institution by ensuring that decisions and actions adhere to the Department’s foundational values of independence, impartiality, and integrity.”
But recent reporting indicates that this is far from reality–and in fact, there are hyper-partisan actors who seek to achieve political victories with their work and undermine the integrity of their offices with carefully crafted partisan hatchet jobs. According to recent reporting by The Federalist, DOJ OIG “is staffed by Democrat activists eager to use their power to crush their political enemies.”
For example, the Federalist’s reporting indicates:
- One individual is assisting in the OIG’s investigation into deaths occurring in state-run nursing homes in 2020 — she made 33 donations to the Democrat 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 Assistant 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, Biden Victory Fund, and Biden Fight Fund.
- Social media accounts that appear to belong to Zerwitz display an overwhelming bias against President Trump and other Republicans. Her alleged X account liked a tweet saying, “We need to send Donald Trump packing, but we can’t stop there. We need to boot his Republican enablers out of office — at every level of government.” She has liked tweets expressing “hate” for Kayleigh McEnany and supporting the removal of 15 Republican senators from President Trump’s impeachment jury.
- Zerwitz liked another tweet that stated that Mitch McConnell was “eroding our democracy” and another asking, “Why are mythical white grievances prioritized over the well being of black kids?”
- According to The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway, Zerwitz liked one tweet that began, “Attention QANON, MAGAT Fascists,” and ended with, “SO F*CK OFF.”
- Another tweet liked by Zerwitz referenced “Trump and his racist homophobic cult members.”
These apparently overtly politically biased actors within the OIG indicate a potential lack of oversight and control over its impartiality and independence. But the fact of the matter is that there are likely others within the OIG with similar backgrounds that the American people have no idea about–politically motivated and biased personnel who seek to use the levers of power to advance their own agenda while simultaneously undermining public confidence in the institution.
AFL has opened an investigation to uncover the extent to which the DOJ OIG is compromised by partisan political actors who are failing to uphold the OIG mission of “Promoting the rule of law through objective, independent oversight of the Department of Justice.”
Statement from Gene Hamilton, America First Legal Executive Director:
“The American people deserve answers about the apparent rampant political bias that permeates throughout the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General. An office that employs individuals with clear political biases, yet holds itself out to the public as being fair, objective, and impartial harms the public trust in government institutions. If the ‘watchdog’ is a mere partisan bulldog, it does not deserve to exist. We will obtain and expose the truth to the American people,” Gene Hamilton said.
Read the FOIA here.
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Photo credit: Adobe Stock Images / Nicholas
