Should America Trust Inspector General Michael Horowitz?

Should America Trust Inspector General Michael Horowitz?

I believe all members of the Obama administration are crooked until proven otherwise.

Obama allowed his minions, mostly Clinton satellites to run his administration as they saw fit. His role was to “pretend to be presidential” and get rich. He accomplished both.

And certainly Obama felt confident that he had the right swamp creatures in place. He declared his administration “scandal-free”. Then he practically guaranteed that Donald Trump would not become president.

He was wrong on both counts.

With Trump’s election came revelations of just how bad government had become, evil in fact. The Obama administration reeked of scandals. And the latest involving their attempt to tie Trump with Russia may be the biggest political scandal in American history.

We know the FBI is crooked. So now Americans aren’t sure who to trust.

On July 29, 2011, then-President Barack Obama announced his nomination of Michael Horowitz as Inspector General for the Department of Justice. Then on March 29, 2012 the Senate confirmed Horowitz as Inspector General.

Next, he was sworn in as the fourth confirmed Inspector General on April 16, 2012. Since 2015, he has simultaneously served as the Chair of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE).

As Inspector General, Mr. Horowitz oversees a nationwide workforce of more than 450 special agents, auditors, inspectors, attorneys, and support staff. I learned from testimony of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that the IG has a budget of $100 million. The mission of the IG as stated on the website is “to detect and deter waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct in DOJ programs and personnel, and to promote economy and efficiency in Department operations.”

So the man we now trust to get to the bottom of the Russian investigation fraud is an Obama appointee. And in all the almost 4 years Horowitz served under Obama, he found nothing that amounted to waste, fraud, abuse, or misconduct by the DOJ?

Let’s look at the effectiveness of Horowitz in Fast and Furious.

In “Fast and Furious,” the Arizona field office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives (ATF) allowed licensed gun dealers to sell illegal weapons. They supposedly hoped to track the arms into Mexico as part of a sting operation.

Of the nearly 2,000 illegal guns that were sold between 2006 and 2011, only 700 or so were recovered, and many of the arms are believed to have ended up with drug cartels.

And that was the intent of the Obama administration.

They secretly hoped the drug problem would become bad. So bad in fact that America would be forced to provide amnesty for millions of illegals.

According to the Washington Times, Horowitz was stonewalled in getting answers:

The Obama administration has made it increasingly difficult for Congress and inspectors general to uncover government misdeeds and access information in various agencies, according to recent congressional testimony and reports.

On Thursday, Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz testified before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing that Attorney General Eric Holder stonewalled his investigation of the “Operation Fast and Furious” gunwalking scandal.

Mr. Horowitz also said his office has been stymied in other investigations of the Justice Department because of the Obama administration’s interpretation of access laws, which essentially requires investigators to ask department heads for permission to investigate them.

“For a review to be truly independent, an inspector general should not be required to obtain permission or authorization of the leadership of the agency in order to gain access to certain agency records, and the determination about what records are relevant and necessary to a review should be made by the inspector general and not by the component head or agency leadership,” he told the Senate subcommittee. “Such complete access to information is a cornerstone of effective independent oversight.”

At least Horowitz tried? Perhaps he will be happy to finally be able to do his job.

As Politico points out, at least Comey is under investigation by Horowitz.

The Justice Department’s review of alleged misconduct by then-FBI Director James Comey and others during the 2016 presidential election is almost finished, Justice’s top official watchdog told a House panel Wednesday.

“We are aiming to release the report in late winter/early spring — hopefully in that March/April time period,” Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said during a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing.

In the first public update on the work that has gone into the inquiry since he announced it in January, Horowitz said he’s gotten good cooperation from the Justice Department.

“In terms of process, we have gotten all the records we’ve asked for,” Horowitz said in response to a question from the House panel’s chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.). “We’ve interviewed dozens of people. … We’ve reviewed about 1.2 million records.”

What happens with Comey will be a big indicator of things. Will Horowitz ignore the past he shares with Comey as his assistant?

As Heavy reports:

Michael E. Horowitz will now be looking into the actions of FBI Director James Comey. In the early 1990s, Horowitz briefly worked for Comey while the two of them were in the Southern District of New York.

From 1987 to 1993, James Comey worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, serving as deputy chief of the Criminal Division. Horowitz also worked for Southern District of New York for some of that time; Comey and Horowitz were both there from 1991 through 1993, with Horowitz being assistant U.S. attorney.

And speaking of timing, things won’t look good for Democrats going into November of 2018.

The one concern I have is Rod Rosenstein’s insistence during questioning by Jim Jordan that the IG would be fair. Comey gave similar assurances of Robert Mueller.

 

 

 

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