Not as bad as the title hints. What actually happened was a deferral to the Inspector General. In essence, since there is an ongoing investigation, he referred the question to the people conducting the investigation.
Ah, yes, the old “ongoing investigation” gambit. The problem with that (or the genius, depending upon where you are on the corruption spectrum) is that when almost everything is under investigation almost all of the time, no information ever comes out, and the investigations never end.
In essence, since there is an ongoing investigation, he referred the question to the people conducting the investigation.
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The appropriate response to that is, “We’re conducting an investigation, too, and you have, or have access to, information and documents that will assist US. Go ahead and conduct your investigation, and we look forward to hearing from you, but in the meantime you’ll need to cooperate with our investigation.”
That is a standard delaying tactic, plus the IG works for him.
And that seems to be this Administration's MO. Do an investigation that drags on for years so that questions don't have to be answered. The Justice department is investigating the IRS. The Justice department is invoking Executive Privilege when it comes to Fast and Furious documents in Federal Court. The State Department created an ARB to investigate Benghazi........................
That’s was life vest... He didn’t want to rat out the Administration.
If Bush did this, then media would have gone crazy.