; Horowitz has a prosecutor & a grand jury empaneled.
I don’t believe IG has that authority only referrals
I forget the name of the other group in this moment, but that group has prosecutorial authority.
While OIG has referral authority only, the moment the OIG uncovers a crime having been committed through their investigation, that referral must be made immediately for criminal process. Does not wait for the OIG report to be complete for indictments to be made. Because of that, when the OIG report is announced, we may also see indictments announced same time
Now we are hearing that report will not come forward until tax day 15 April. Argh
-- saywhatagain: That was why Sessions opened up a parallel investigations --
At least that's how the relationship is phrased. It may be that OIG Horowitz and a Sessions-appointed prosecutor are working as a team, with Horowitz doing the investigation and the prosecutor preparing the criminal cases. This way, the legal action is ready to commence the day the report is made public.
I don't see a parallel investigation, that would be inefficient and wasteful.
Another benefit of adding a prosecutor is that a prosecutor (inside -or- SC) may expand investigation to places that are out of Horowitz's scope - such as State Department.
I've speculated that a Special Counsel has been appointed without notice to Congress or the public. This practice is spelled out in DOJ regulations. This would be similar to naming an inside prosecutor, only putting the formal bringing of charges "slightly outside" of the DOJ (using 28 CFR 600 SC regulations). The ready-to-roll timing and scope expansion effects would be the same as with an inside prosecutor.