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Attorney General Merrick Garland is the unnamed official whose sworn testimony before Congress is being challenged in a bombshell letter from an IRS whistleblower’s attorney that also alleges a coverup in the Hunter Biden criminal investigation, The Post has learned. Attorney Mark Lytle wrote Wednesday that the longtime IRS employee wants to provide information to congressional leaders to “contradict sworn testimony to Congress by a senior political appointee” — Garland —and also to detail “preferential treatment” in the criminal probe of the first son. The whistleblower already has made disclosures to the inspectors general of the Treasury and Justice departments....

Joe Biden recently admitted that he didn't "recall" the Obama administration's conspicuous 2009 firing of a prominent inspector general, even as he sought to slam President Trump for terminating the State Department's internal watchdog amid a probe of whether Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ordered staffers do the dishes, walk the dog and obtain dry cleaning. The awkward moment, which came during a Yahoo News virtual town hall last Tuesday, highlighted a problem for the Biden campaign and others hammering away at Trump's IG firings. While those decisions have been controversial enough to raise concerns from even the Republican side...

As part of President Trump’s efforts to clear out bureaucrats who have tried to undermine his policy agenda, the president is now looking at Obama-era inspectors general (IGs)

Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz, an Obama administration appointee, is scheduled to deliver a report this week on DOJ and FBI abuses during the 2016 campaign cycle. Remember: His last investigation of FBI misconduct advised a criminal referral for fired former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who allegedly lied to federal investigators. McCabe and at least a half-dozen other FBI employees quit, retired, were fired or were reassigned as a result of fallout from the politicization of the FBI. Yet, as Barack Obama left office, his chief of staff, Denis McDonough, strangely boasted that the Obama administration "has...

Washington is talking about the action taken by the Trump Team informing all inspector generals of federal agencies that their jobs would be on a temporary basis. In a Jan. 13 email, a transition official instructed the transition agency leads to tell the inspectors general in their agencies “that they are being held over on a temporary basis,” according to the Washington Post. Inspectors general are independent watchdogs who are typically in place for an indefinite period, regardless of the party in charge. So why would the Trump team want to let these “government watchdogs” go? Do they really do...

The scandal at the Veterans Administration may go deeper than first thought. According to a scathing letter from the US Office of Special Counsel, which has authority to probe whistleblower abuse within the executive branch, the VA’s Office of Inspectors General ignored whistleblowers and their complaints, shrugging off evidence of fraud and manipulation of wait time statistics. According to OSC,the IG even attempted to “discredit the whistleblowers by focusing on the word ‘secret,'” rather than try to correct the problems their investigation uncovered: A top government watchdog on Thursday accused the central agency tasked with holding Veterans Affairs accountable of...

Agency watchdogs are up in arms over a Justice Department memo questioning the legality of turning documents they say are crucial to their investigations. The new policy protecting certain portions of sensitive documents — announced last month by the DOJ’s office of legal counsel — came under fresh fire from lawmakers during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday. Lawmakers in both parties, including the top Republican and Democrat on the panel, disagree with the policy shift, saying it goes against the specific intent of the Inspector General Act of 1978. The law specifies that inspectors general have access to...

The inspectors general for the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Intelligence Community issued a joint written statement late Friday afternoon asserting that emails that Hillary Clinton had on her personal email account while she was Secretary of State, and that she kept on a personal server after she left the government, “contained classified information when they were generated,” “remain classified today” and “should never have been transmitted via an unclassified personal system.” This joint statement the two inspectors general issued late Friday contradicts what former Secretary Clinton said about the emails on Saturday. So far, the inspector general for...

U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said on Saturday that she did not use a private email account to send or receive classified information while she was secretary of state, in response to a government inspector's letter this week. "I did not send nor receive anything that was classified at the time," Clinton said at a campaign stop in Iowa. The email controversy has dogged Clinton's bid for the presidency, fuelling worries that the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination has tried to sidestep transparency and record-keeping laws. At least four emails from the private email account that Clinton used while secretary...

July 23, 2015 The Obama administration formally announced that inspectors general will have to get permission from their agency heads to gain access to grand jury, wiretap and fair credit information — an action that severely limits the watchdogs’ oversight capabilities, independence and power to uncover fraud. An opinion, issued by the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel, says the Inspector General Act of 1978 — which was written by Congress to create the government watchdogs in order to help maintain integrity within their agencies — does not have the authority to override nondisclosure provisions in other laws, most...

Majority of the Inspectors General find themselves unable to perform their duties to audit the federal government Inspectors General (yes, that’s the plural) are considered watchdogs for the government. Their jobs primarily focus on “uncovering waste, fraud, and mismanagement”, which is an important function to keep government programs and agencies in check. A serious breach of trust is evident, therefore, when 47 of 73 Inspectors General pen a letter to Congress describing “serious limitations on access to records.” That’s 64% of the total watchdogs who express such concerns.

The IRS scandal is so bad that Democrats are unleashing total war in an attempt to beat back a full airing of the abuse. The old adage, "The best defense is a good offense," is all the more valid when the major media outlets are on their side. It is not necessary to have any actual facts to use as rebuttal for the indefensible; it is enough to simply throw a cloud of dust, so as to discredit any charges - in the eyes of supporters and media sycophants. President Obama's absurd contention to Bill O'Reilly that there was "not...

Among all the unanswered questions about the IRS’s illegal targeting of conservative organizations, one is most crucial: Who ordered this extreme scrutiny? Amazingly, IRS inspector general J. Russell George, responsible for the investigation asking those questions about the IRS, has testified that he did not obtain that information. Details of that testimony are interesting. Representative Tom Graves (R., Ga.) asked, “Have you asked the individuals who ordered them to use this extra scrutiny to punish, or penalize, or postpone, or deny?” George turns around to confer with his assistant. Just the fact that the inspector general had to confer to...

Probably in part because the Obama administration intimidates inspector generals. Among all the unanswered questions about the IRS’s illegal targeting of conservative organizations, one is most crucial: Who ordered this extreme scrutiny? Amazingly, IRS inspector general J. Russell George, responsible for the investigation asking those questions about the IRS, has testified that he did not obtain that information. Details of that testimony are interesting. Representative Tom Graves (R., Ga.) asked, “Have you asked the individuals who ordered them to use this extra scrutiny to punish, or penalize, or postpone, or deny?” George turns around to confer with his assistant. Just...

Some federal government heroes were honored yesterday, and Barack Obama was nowhere to be seen. For good reason. From Ed O'Keefe of  the Washington Post: Politicians talk plenty about rooting out waste, fraud and abuse, but the folks who actually find the corruption enjoyed a few brief moments in the limelight Tuesday. The nation's federal watchdogs honored 85 of their own at an awards ceremony consistent with the work ethic of many inspectors general: It started on time and lasted an hour, as promised. It featured no refreshments or souvenirs and no long-winded acceptance speeches. It was a very...

Lawyers learn early that if they are in danger of losing a case, their best strategy is to delay it. With the help of a friendly judge, that seems to be the Obama administration's strategy in the case of fired AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin. It is past time for the case to move forward. Mr. Walpin was fired in June after releasing two reports critical of close allies of President Obama's. As a senator, Mr. Obama was a leading co-sponsor of a 2008 law requiring that inspectors general receive 30 days' notice before being fired and that Congress receive...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has begun looking into a dispute that is linked to an AmeriCorps money scandal that has fingers pointing all the way up to the White House because of President Obama's dismissal of an inspector general who was on the case. According to a report in the Sacramento Bee, acting U.S. Attorney Lawrence G. Brown has confirmed the agency is looking into the "circumstances" regarding the alleged destruction of e-mails regarding a dispute over the handling of money at Mayor Kevin Johnson's "brainchild" St. HOPE Academy, which had been investigated after allegations that public funds were...

WASHINGTON - -- He was appointed with fanfare as the public watchdog over the government's multi-billion dollar bailout of the nation's financial system. But now Neil Barofsky is embroiled in a dispute with the Obama administration that delayed one recent inquiry and sparked questions about his ability to freely investigate. The disagreement stems from a claim by the Treasury Department that Barofsky is not entirely independent of the agency he is assigned to examine ¿ a claim that has prompted a stern letter from a Republican senator warning that agency officials are encroaching on the integrity of an office created...