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A newly released inspector general report following CNN’s disclosure reveals that multiple senior Justice Department officials under the first Trump administration died from COVID-19 at nursing homes in Democratic-led states. It was revealed that he had improperly leaked non-public details of an investigation into the matter. Action request.
The report expressed suspicions that the disclosure was politically motivated, as it occurred days before the 2020 election. The private information concerned investigative actions taken by the Justice Department in New York and New Jersey, where Democratic leaders were opponents of President Donald Trump during the coronavirus pandemic.
Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report is the latest in a series of discussions between political appointees and the officials who typically spearhead such investigations in these and other Democratic-led states about how to proceed with investigations. It details the exchange over a period of months. Much of the disagreement centered on whether and how the department’s specific investigative procedures should be made public.
The identities of the three officials accused of wrongdoing were redacted from the report.
One of the officials, whose identity was redacted by the inspector general, told the New York Post in an Oct. 17, 2020 email that the plan to leak investigative procedures was “a final play against them before the election, but this is a big one,” he wrote.
Horowitz concluded that this disclosure, along with an official promoting a news article on social media that contained nonpublic details, violated the department’s confidentiality and media contact policies.
“We also found that the conduct of these officials raises serious questions about the partisan political motives for their actions in the run-up to the 2020 election,” the inspector general said. His office referred the case to the Office of the Special Counsel, which investigates violations of the Hatch Act, a law that prohibits government employees from using their official positions to campaign for politics.
(The U.S. Office of Special Counsel is different from the special prosecutors appointed to conduct politically sensitive criminal investigations like Jack Smith).
New York, New Jersey, and other Democratic-led states began efforts in summer 2020 to examine how their coronavirus policies are affecting coronavirus infections in nursing homes, according to a report. It was said to have started in the 1990s and was backed by political appointees at the ministry. .
At one point, the inspector general said an analysis by government officials with expertise in such investigations showed that none of the state-run facilities with the worst indicators were in the targeted Democratic-led states. said that it was done.
Department officials also expressed concern about claims that Justice Department leaders in Washington were trying to make in draft press releases announcing the department’s various moves.
One draft press release that was supposed to announce an investigation into two New Jersey facilities was misleading, speculative or lacked evidence, according to an inspector general’s report. It is said that it contained multiple statements that he objected to on the grounds that it was
The draft press release ultimately removed some of these statements, but was never ultimately issued by the department.
Instead, a private letter telling state officials the department was opening an investigation in New Jersey, and another letter requesting specific nursing home data from New York state officials, were sent to a New York Post reporter. and was subsequently disclosed to other journalists.
The Post’s report was published Oct. 27, more than 30 minutes before the Justice Department emailed the letter to the New Jersey governor’s office, according to the inspector general.
CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz contributed to this report.
