(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) As many private companies dial back their pandemic era “remote work” policies and seek to get employees back into the office, the politicized Department of Justice, led by Attorney General Merrick Garland, appears to be trying to get its oversight arm as far away as possible.
The DOJ recently expanded its remote-work option for the office of Inspector General Michael Horowitz, requiring them to report to the office only two days out of every two-week period, the Daily Signal reported.
The OIG oversees more than 500 special agents, auditors, inspectors, attorneys and support staff nationally.
Horowitz’s job is to be an internal watchdog for the DOJ, ensuring that all individuals within it act in the name of the law, and not for partisan reasons.
He became something of a household name during the Trump administration, when he conducted oversight into the FBI’s misconduct during the “Crossfire Hurricane” probe that led to several bombshells and ultimately resulted in the firing of then-acting Director Andrew McCabe, agent Peter Strzok and others whose partisan conduct had impugned the agency’s reputation for being apolitical.
Horowitz also issued a harsh rebuke to Garland that the DOJ had failed to sufficiently address the concerns of partisanship in November 2021.
However, criticism of the attorney general has only grown more pronounced as overly aggressive investigations into former President Donand Trump, and equally languid probes of President Joe Biden and his family crime syndicate, have exposed a blatant two-tiered system of justice.
But, according to a recently obtained memo from the Heritage Foundation’s news service, the employees in Horowitz’s office, tasked with keeping the other parts of the DOJ honest, need only report to the building about once per week.
“Eligible employees may telework, with supervisory approval, for a maximum of 8 days per PP [pay period], and must report to the Official Duty Station for a minimum of 2 days per PP,” the memo said. Each pay period spans a cycle of 10 business days.
The work-from-home option reinforces the narrative that discipline and order are slipping at the partisan DOJ.
Mike Howell, director of Heritage’s Oversight Project, noted that timing of the announcement was particularly problematic.
“I can’t think of a worse time for the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General to be working from home than over the last few years,” Howell said.
“We’re living through an unfortunately corrupt period in American history, and much of that action is at Merrick Garland’s DOJ,” Howell continued. “In all honesty, if these investigators must work from a home, then it should be Merrick Garland’s home. That’s who they should be investigating.”
