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EXCLUSIVE — Newly released details about a controversial mass surveillance program shed light on the pitfalls of government data acquisition programs as Congress debates reauthorizing a crucial statute. The Drug Enforcement Administration collected massive amounts of telephone records for 20 years before the program was shuttered amid the Edward Snowden revelations in 2013. A heavily redacted inspector general’s report into the program was released six years later, a more forthcoming version of which has been obtained by the Washington Examiner. While the Office of the Inspector General exists to provide oversight of government agencies, among the new details of the...

A senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary committee is demanding that U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram address allegations of improper hiring and contracting of her past associates. The request Thursday by Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa follows an Associated Press investigation finding that a federal watchdog is investigating whether strict federal rules on no-bid contracting and hiring may have been violated to channel DEA work to Milgram’s associates. “These are serious allegations, and DEA must respond to them and clear the air,” Grassley wrote in a letter sent to Milgram’s office, a copy of which was obtained by...

In the most blatant move of hatred of the United States Constitution to date, U.S. Representatives Adam Schiff (D-Calif.)Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Jamie Raskin (MD-08), Melanie Stansbury (NM-01), and Senator Richard Blumenthal (CT) have filed legislation which will create an Office of the Inspector General to ensure accountability of justices in the Supreme Court of the United States.The U.S. Constitution establishes three separate but equal branches of government: the legislative branch (makes the law), the executive branch (enforces the law), and the judicial branch (interprets the law). This bold move by house Democrats basically erases the separation of powers in United...

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration has come under scrutiny for allegedly accepting numerous designer gifts without proper documentation or transparency, according to a recent report by the city’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The OIG’s investigation revealed that from February 2022 to March 2024, the mayor’s office received 380 gifts, including high-end items like Hugo Boss cufflinks, a personalized Montblanc pen, a 2023 U.S. National Soccer Team jersey, various Gucci, Givenchy, and Kate Spade bags, and Carrucci size 14 shoes. However, nearly 70% of these gifts did not have the donor’s identity recorded. When OIG investigators attempted to inspect...

Chicago cops blocked city inspectors from entering a curious “Gift Room” filled with designer bags, Hugo Boss cufflinks, a personalized Mont Blanc pen and other ritzy goodies that were accepted by Mayor Brandon Johnson, according to a bombshell report. The trove of pricey giveaways are part of an “unwritten arrangement” that dates back 35 years, in which mayors can just write down gifts they received in a logbook and store some of them on the fifth floor of City Hall instead of reporting them to the Board of Ethics, according to the Office of Inspector General. But the new report...

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the FBI issued a report last week that detailed at least 26 FBI Confidential Human Sources (CHSs) were present at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. There are limitations imposed on the OIG in an investigation like this. If the office found 26, there were likely more. The OIG’s mandate is limited to interviewing current FBI employees only. If the FBI was working with Capitol police, and the Capitol police had a CHS, the OIG would not learn of or report on this because of lack of jurisdiction. The same with the CIA...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)'s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has released its annual report identifying the top management and performance challenges currently facing the federal agency. Among the OIG's findings, a lack of public trust in the DOJ remains a "longstanding" problem, Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz announced Monday, and strengthening such trust poses "a significant challenge." However, in its 59-page report highlighting incidents that have contributed to the department's confidence crisis, the DOJ watchdog largely overlooked transgressions under the Biden-Harris administration, which still reigns. Instead, the OIG looked farther back to Trump's time in office, his...

The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee on Thursday launched a bipartisan investigation into the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Commerce over allegations the agency’s chief had engaged in whistleblower retaliation. The Committee members alleged that Inspector General Peggy Gustafson and “senior members” of the OIG had engaged in the retaliation, made misleading statements to Congress and conducted operations with “gross mismanagement,” according to a letter signed by Chairman Frank Lucas and Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren, an Oklahoma Republican and California Democrat respectively, citing reports received by the Committee. The letter also notes the...

*It's still unclear if the messages were deleted intentionally or by accident.* The Secret Service deleted text messages from Jan. 5 and 6, 2021, after an internal watchdog requested them as part of a review of the department’s handling of last year’s Capitol riot, the watchdog said this week. A letter sent Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General to the heads of the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees, which was obtained by ABC News, said the messages were deleted “as part of a device-replacement program” despite the inspector general requesting such communications. "First, the Department notified...

A new court filing by special counsel John Durham reveals that Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz concealed crucial information from Durham in connection with the ongoing prosecution of Michael Sussmann, a former attorney to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. The filing also reveals that Horowitz failed to disclose that his office is in possession of two cellphones used by former FBI general counsel James Baker. The phones may contain information that’s important to the Sussmann case, as well as to a separate criminal leak investigation of Baker that Durham personally conducted between 2017 and 2019. Horowitz first...

(p. 26) The decision by the Corporation and the U.S. Attorney to cut out OIG and agree to this Settlement Agreement was injurious to the Federal government as a whole and specifically to the Corporation and the hard-working and dedicated staff of the Office of Inspector General. First, the settlement sends the signal that acceptance of a grantee or its principal as “responsible” can be purchased in a monetary settlement, overriding all evidence of wrongdoing previously found to warrant a suspension, without the presentation of any contradicting evidence. Settlement Agreements are supposed to settle the liability of the grantee and...

The DOJ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is initiating an investigation into whether any former or current DOJ official engaged in an improper attempt to have DOJ seek to alter the outcome of the 2020 Presidential Election. The investigation will encompass all relevant allegations that may arise that are within the scope of the OIG’s jurisdiction. The OIG has jurisdiction to investigate allegations concerning the conduct of former and current DOJ employees. The OIG's jurisdiction does not extend to allegations against other government officials. The OIG is making this statement, consistent with DOJ policy, to reassure the public that...

Agent Strasser: “I am trying to twist you a little bit” “I am scaring you here”...” we have Senators involved...DOJ involved...reason they called me is to try to harness that storm.”

A top State Department official has accused Steve Linick, the department’s fired inspector general, of contacting a former colleague, obtaining official documents and returning to his former office -- all in violation of the terms of his administrative leave, Fox News has learned. In a letter to Linick's attorney, obtained by Fox News, the State Department Under Secretary for Management Brian Bulatao says “in the days before his Congressional testimony, he sent a text message to the Deputy Inspector General, Diana Shaw, requesting a copy of the DOD IG report on the origins of a leak of a draft State...

A top FBI lawyer who fabricated evidence in a federal spy warrant against Trump campaign affiliate Carter Page is expected to plead guilty to federal charges brought by U.S. Attorney John Durham. Kevin Clinesmith, who is expected to admit to deliberately fabricating evidence in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant application, used to spy on a former campaign affiliate of President Donald Trump, was a top attorney in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Office of General Counsel (OGC) and a key agency attorney under fired former FBI Director James Comey. Clinesmith is the first individual to be charged as part...

In March of 2020, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the United States Department of Justice released an audit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) controls over weapons, munitions, and explosives. The FBI has 57,812 firearms in their inventory.  Extrapolating from the numbers in the survey recorded in the report, the FBI has about 2.8 million rounds of ammunition on hand, relatively small numbers of less than lethal munitions, and small amounts of explosives.The FBI is not a national police force. They are closer to a national detective, or some say a “secret police” force. Their primary...

DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz testified to Senators on Wednesday that he found evidence of political bias in text messages sent by FBI officials who were involved in the FISA process targeting Carter Page.

An Inspector General report for the Social Security Administration flew under the radar when it was issued in August, and the administration refused to answer Breitbart News’s inquiry about the findings that reveal $11.6 million in payments were paid to dead people in Puerto Rico. The findings of the report stated: SSA issued approximately $11.6 million in payments after death to 149 beneficiaries and 4 representative payees who died in Puerto Rico from January 1992 through December 2016. Identifying and correcting these discrepancies will prevent approximately $1.4 million in additional improper payments after death over the next 12 months. We...

The FBI lost track of more than 60 foreign cooperators in the U.S. after sponsoring them to aid in investigations, according to a report released Tuesday by the Justice Department’s (DOJ) Office of Inspector General. In addition, the watchdog's audit identified 1,000 DOJ-sponsored foreign nationals that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was not provided information on in February 2018. By that August it was still seeking information from DOJ on 665. While DHS facilitates the cooperators' entries into the U.S., the DOJ takes custody of them once they are in the country. “We believe that all DOJ components need...

The closing of the final inspector general investigation into the Russia collusion investigation promises to open the flood gates for previously undisclosed information and indictments. The forthcoming report from the Office of Inspector General on potential Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse will finally unleash Attorney General William Barr, and when it does, watch out. For the last month, conservative pundits have predicted the ever-imminent dropping of Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report on his investigation into the circumstances surrounding FISA surveillance of former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page. Horowitz’s report will likely provide new and damaging details surrounding the FBI’s use...