Congress, Media, Politics

Obama Administration Moves To Sharply Curtail Authority Of Government Watchdogs

President_Barack_Obama600px-US-DeptOfJustice-Seal.svg DOJThe Obama Administration has been accused by public interest groups of being one of the most hostile administration toward whistleblowers since the Nixon Administration. Not only whistleblowers but reporters have been subject to abusive investigations and crackdowns under President Obama. Now, that record has taken an even more dangerous turn. The Justice Department is facing bipartisan criticism after it moved to restrict access of inspectors general to documents needed to ferret out corrupt and abusive practices. The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) has issued a controversial 68-page memo that says that the department’s inspector general would be required to get permission from the agencies it is investigating to obtain wire taps, grand jury testimonies, and credit information.

For the record, I have been a long critic of the OLC due to what I have viewed as a significant decline in both the neutrality and quality of work in that office. The office has been wrong on a number of important constitutional questions, including the unconstitutional use of recess appointments by the President. In my view, these opinions were a departure from the tradition of the OLC in offering detached and apolitical analysis.

DOJ Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz has correctly noted that federal law gives his office independent authority and that having to coordinate documents requests from the very agency under investigation is counterintuitive: “I strongly disagree with the OLC opinion. Congress meant what it said when it authorized Inspectors General to independently access ‘all’ documents necessary to conduct effective oversight. … Without such access, our office’s ability to conduct its work will be significantly impaired.”

He is joined in this view by key members of Congress from both parties, including Senators Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., as well as Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and John Conyers, D-Mich. As Senator Grassley correctly noted “If the Inspector General deems a document necessary to do his job, then the agency should turn it over immediately.”

The requirement that IGs get permission and access from the subject agency is inimical to the very function of their office and the effectiveness of these offices. When combined with the controversial measures taken against whistleblowers by the Obama Administration, the new policy would allow an Administration far greater power in controlling investigations of its authority and would guarantee notice of potential controversies or scandals within its ranks.

207 thoughts on “Obama Administration Moves To Sharply Curtail Authority Of Government Watchdogs”

  2. Mark Collins, the cultists here don’t seem to have the intellectual and/or emotional ability to see that many people vilifying Obama now were once supporters.

  3. If this had been Bush doing this, all hell would break loose! I think Obama is letting the Iranian born Muslim Jew hating Valerie Jarrett make a lot of these moves. Their disarmament of the U.S. and arming of Iran is very telling.

  4. So much for the promise of the most transparent administration ever. Makes Nixon look liberal and open-minded. So sad, for what could have been.

  5. You have to have lived in Chicago to understand how Chicago politicians operate. They can do crap like this because they have a monopoly. Obama has become petulant because when he does crap like this he gets push back from some. His cult followers here and elsewhere protect him when he does stuff like this. When he leaves office, Obama’s power will be gone and the dead bodies will be found.

  10. Obama should have been in the dock at the Hague years ago.

    According to U.S. and International Law;
    The U.S. Invasions are Wars of Aggression
    The U.S. Invasions are Supreme War Crimes as Hitler and the Nazis committed
    All the U.S. Invasions are Illegal as were the Nazi Invasions
    Washington, DC = Nazi Berlin
    U.S. Military = War Criminals
    The Media Propaganda is that the U.S. Military is ‘protecting our freedom’ This is a Lie
    In Truth, the U.S. Military is committing Wars of Aggression, War Crimes, Mass Murder
    The U.S. Military is NOT to be honored. They are criminals
    As evidenced in Nuremberg Nazi trials ‘just following orders’ is no defense
    Zionists, Obama, Bush, Congress, Courts, Media, et al are Mass Murderers, Supreme War Criminals
    These Imperialist Mass Murderers Manufacture and Fund Terror to Sell Arms and Take Our Freedoms
    They are doing any evil you can imagine for money and power

    http://www.buenavistamall.com/14567.jpg

  11. The Secret Indian removal act by good ol Tom Jefferson would be paraded as wonderful for our nation though. Great Blog

    1. chipkellyshouldgoogleleibniz – what Secret Indian removal. Cite, please

  12. For the record, I have been a long critic of the OLC under President Obama due to what I have viewed as a significant decline in both the neutrality and quality of work in that office. The office has been wrong on a number of important constitutional questions, including the unconstitutional use of recess appointments by the President. In my view, these opinions were a departure from the tradition of the OLC in offering detached and apolitical analysis.

    The OLC’s neutrality and quality declined under Obama? Huh? Under Obama’s predecessor, the OLC (including John Yoo and Jay Bybee) redefined torture to make it allowable.

    Not to overly downplay “unconstitutional uses of recess appointments,” but they certainly aren’t remotely comparable to (let alone a decline from) justifying crimes against humanity.

  14. The cowardly republicans should have impeached this guy a long time ago. Just like any tyrant or bully; they’ll continue to do it until you stop them. Its time for a Constitutional Convention.

    1. dw – the Republicans have the votes to impeach, just not to convict.

  15. So, the argument is for an investigative body to have no restrictions in investigating potential wrongdoings, i.e. third party authorization of wire taps, personal finance investigation, etc. in order to pursue whistle blower allegations. Somehow this seems like a double edged sword. In order to catch wrongdoers a check and balance is in question. This parallels the cop shows on TV where the detectives can’t catch a crook because it took too long to get a warrant from a judge that was out playing golf or something. Then there are the blatant house break ins by cops with no warrants, smashing in doors, handcuffing, macing, etc for next to nothing, in real life.

    Perhaps JT has something here with this ongoing conspiracy. Or, perhaps this is simply more of Obama not following the letter of the law as he, a lawyer, sees it. JT could have a case here but as with most of this blog, in this area of contention, he typically lays out much but not all of the information and pretty much one side of the opinions.

    Obama could be guilty of horrible crimes here, or this could just be the bandwagon on its regular route.

  16. The OLC has usually done a great job upholding white supremacy and our exceptionalism,until Obama huh?

    The OLC is created to support illegal activities, the work may be artistic, but never neutral and rarely quality.

  17. I am a UK whistle blower in the National Health Service and my case was covered by this website in “Rope A Dope…” I ended up losing my medical license despite the Police recording a crime against the GMC and Hospital of perverting the course of justice. So my erasure is subject to appeal and this is historic. We await the decision of the Crown Prosecution Service and a decision of whether to prosecute the GMC and Hospital. This will occur if it is judged that there is a 50% chance of a conviction.

    Sir Robert Francis QC wrote a report advising that whistle blowers needed protection by Act of Parliament. The Government accepts this but does nothing.

    The Office of Legal Counsel advice to get permission from the agencies it is investigating to obtain wire taps, grand jury testimonies, and credit information is incredulous if my understanding is correct – and would mirror putting the Mafia in charge of Fort Knox?

    Institutional corruption is a real danger in any country and should not be a requisite for democratic government.

    I am sure that this will be resisted to the full extent of the Law.

    1. Ninianpeckitt – you are telling us there is no freedom in the UK. The punish whistleblowers by taking their licences away? Wow!!!! And you have been lecturing us. Although I must admit you lecture have no standing.

      1. To Paul C. Schulte:

        Unlike some – I tell it like it is. Warts and all.

        If folks agree. That’s fine. If they don’t that’s fine too.

        It’s when they cant think for themselves that I did my heels in and argue.

        1. ninianpeckitt – you do not have enough knowledge to ‘tell it like it is.’ I am sure you have heard the expression “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” This is the point at which you are.

          1. Paul C. Schulte: “A Little knowledge is a dangerous thing”.

            If we are talking about informed opinion supported by well reasoned logic, verified multiple references, building up a case step by step that’s one thing, but my advice to you is that you must never allow your mind to be confused by the facts.

            Readers will have to make up their own minds.

  19. You just know how much dirt he is hiding when he does something like this.

  20. Mr. Obama has some good elements to his record, but his authoritarian streak combined with his uncritical confidence in big government and his desire to destroy his “enemies” has made him a very poor president.

    We will spend many years recovering from the damage that Mr. Obama has done to the checks/balances inherent in our system of government.

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