Over the past four years, Congressional Republicans have asked the Inspector General (IG) for the Department of Justice to investigate a number of issues related to conduct by DOJ officials:
- Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s tarmac meeting with Bill Clinton
- James Comey’s exoneration of Hillary Clinton
- Peter Strzok and Lisa Page’s text messages sent on FBI-issued phones
- The use of Christopher Steele’s Dossier in the FISA warrant application for Carter Page
- The use of Stefan Halper as a confidential human source in the Trump-Russia investigation
(The IG investigated all these issues.) Likewise, three years ago Congressional Democrats asked the IG to investigate two issues: Comey sending his famous letter about Hillary Clinton shortly before the election, and anti-Hillary bias in the FBI’s New York field office as it relates to the FBI’s Clinton Foundation investigation. (The IG investigated the first issue, and it’s unclear whether he investigated/is investigating the second.)
But my question is, have Congressional Democrats asked the Inspector General to investigate any issues related to the conduct of Attorney General Bill Barr or the conduct of other DOJ officials during Barr’s tenure? I ask because they have publicly criticized Barr and his subordinates concerning a number of issues:
- Barr’s (allegedly) misleading summary of the principal conclusions of the Mueller Report
- Barr and Rosenstein’s declination decision concerning Obstruction of Justice charges for President Trump
- Barr’s decision to task US Attorney John Durham with looking into the origins of the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation
- John Durham’s review turning into a criminal investigation and whether it was properly predicated
- Barr’s meeting with foreign government officials related to John Durham’s review
- Barr’s role in Trump‘s conduct vis-a-vis Ukraine
- The decision of the DOJ’s Criminal Division to not open an investigation into President Trump’s conduct vis-a-vis Ukraine after receiving four criminal referrals
So have Congressional Democrats called for IG investigations into whether any of these actions were affected by political bias or were otherwise improper/unethical, given that they have made statements to that effect? And if so, has the Inspector General announced investigations in response to any such requests by Congressional Democrats?