Three senior DOJ officials leaked non-public investigative information days before an election, inspector general finds

Three senior Justice Department officials violated internal policies and engaged in “misconduct” when they leaked details about a non-public investigation to the media “days before an election,” the agency’s inspector general revealed Monday.The DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG), which has been run by Michael Horowitz since 2012, launched a probe after it received a complaint alleging that a “politically motivated” disclosure related to “information about ongoing matters” was made in the runup to an unspecified election. “The OIG investigation found that three then Senior DOJ Officials violated DOJ’s Confidentiality and Media Contacts Policy by leaking to select reporters, days before an election, non-public DOJ investigative information regarding ongoing DOJ investigative matters, resulting in the publication of two news articles that included the non-public DOJ investigative information,” the DOJ OIG said in a brief investigative summary.“The OIG investigation also found that one of these three then Senior DOJ Officials violated the Confidentiality and Media Contacts Policy and DOJ’s Social Media Policy by reposting through a DOJ social media account links to the news articles,” the summary continued. The three officials were no longer DOJ employees when the investigation began and declined or did not respond to interview requests, according to the OIG, which does not have the authority to compel testimony from former employees. “The OIG has completed its investigation and provided its report to the Office of the Deputy Attorney General and, because the report contained misconduct findings against attorneys, provided its report to the Professional Misconduct Review Unit for appropriate action,” Horowitz’s office said, adding that a report was also provided to the US Office of Special Counsel for potential Hatch Act violations to be investigated. It’s unclear what investigation the former DOJ employees are accus...