Senior officials of the Department of Justice in subordinate service Donald Trump’s The former administration may have violated federal law in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election by promoting pandemic-related investigations, targeting states with Democratic governors, and then leaking private information about those investigations to friendly media outlets. election, according to a report by the Justice Department’s internal watchdog.
The inspector general’s report, obtained by ABC News, concluded that for one of the officials — a senior member of the department’s public affairs team, who the report said first believed created the plan to leak investigative information — “the upcoming election was a motivating factor.”
The report specifically pointed to a text message he sent in mid-October 2020, describing a leak to a major tabloid in the New York area. COVID-related deaths Nursing homes in New York and New Jersey “as our last game before the election” — “but it’s a big one,” he added, according to the report.
The inspector general’s report comes just weeks before Trump is slated to take office again after winning re-election two months ago, fueled in part by the Biden administration’s dubious claims that the Justice Department is pushing its own political agenda.
Last week, the inspector general’s office released a brief and vague summary of its report, which found that three former officials violated Justice Department policies by leaking “non-public DOJ investigative information” to “select reporters days before the election.”
The brief said the officials also violated the Hatch Act, a non-criminal law that prohibits federal employees from using their positions to engage in political activities.
The summary does not say when the alleged violations occurred or which elections may have been involved, but some Trump supporters and at least one leading conservative media outlet, Breitbart.com, said the Biden administration was implicated in an attempt to damage Trump’s recent election. offer
The partially redacted report, obtained by ABC News through a Freedom of Information Act request, suggests otherwise.
According to the report, in the summer of 2020, leaders of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division at the time led a review of state-run nursing homes in several states in an attempt to find a link between deaths there and governors’ orders directing them to nursing homes. admit COVID-positive patients.
In late August 2020, when the Justice Department sent letters to the governors of Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York seeking relevant data — “despite data indicating that nursing homes with the most significant care problems were in other states” — the Justice Department’s public affairs office issued a press release about the move, the report said.
While the inspector general’s office said it did not find that officials, including career officials, raised concerns at the time, the report said current and former officials described the press release as “unusual and inappropriate.”
The report details how, over the next few months, Civil Rights Division leadership pressured officials in the department’s Civil Rights Division to send a letter to New York City officials seeking the data. Deaths related to COVID-19 in private nursing homes across the state, the report says. Civil Division officials were reluctant to do so, but eventually complied because they were “led to believe” the directive to make the investigation public “came from Attorney General (Bill) Barr,” the report said.
Then, in October 2020, in the final weeks of the 2020 presidential campaign, a top official in the Justice Department’s Office of Public Affairs proposed a plan to leak information about the letter and other information about an investigation of state facilities in New Jersey. according to the report.
The seal of the U.S. Department of Justice is seen on a podium in the briefing room at the Department’s headquarters before a news conference with the attorney general on Jan. 24, 2023 in Washington.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
On October 17, 2020, the senior public affairs officer texted colleagues: “I’m trying to get (New Jersey and New York) letters to nursing homes, respectively. Packing them together and leaving (a certain tabloid) will be our last play before the election.” , but it’s big,” according to the report.
A week before the election, on Oct. 27, 2020, investigative information was provided to the New York tabloid, which published a story that night accusing New York officials of downplaying deaths in nursing homes, the report said. The inspector general’s report indicated that official statistics released at the time actually underestimated the actual death toll.
However, “the conduct of these senior officials raised serious questions about partisan political motivation for their actions surrounding the 2020 election,” Inspector General Michael Horowitz said in his report.
“(T)he upcoming election in 2020 could have been a factor in the timing and manner and publicity of these actions,” Horowitz added, concluding that the three officials violated the Justice Department’s media relations policy.
Horowitz said his office has forwarded its findings to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which is charged with investigating potential violations of the Hatch Act.
A spokesperson for the Office of Special Counsel confirmed to ABC News that his office received the referral and is now reviewing it.
The inspector general’s report noted that Barr declined to be interviewed in connection with the Horowitz investigation.
A representative for Trump did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
