U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is resigning after five-and-a-half years in the Obama administration. Despite Cause of Action raising the following concerns to the Department of Justice (DOJ) during Attorney General Holder’s tenure, here are four DOJ failures that Cause of Action hopes the next Attorney General would ensure the agency corrects:
- Cause of Action asked DOJ to take the claims of IRS targeting seriously, but the available evidence suggests a failure to conduct a full and fair investigation.
- The IRS appears to have violated the Federal Records Act (and possibly other laws) by losing or deleting Lois Lerner’s emails, but DOJ has given no indication that it will investigate the email destruction in any meaningful way.
- Cause of Action provided DOJ with evidence of up to $150 million in fraud at the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) in May 2012. When given the opportunity to intervene and recover taxpayer dollars under the False Claims Act, DOJ declined. Cause of Action is continuing to pursue this fraud lawsuit against the CTA because American taxpayers deserve accountability. DOJ retains the ability to intervene, despite its initial failure to do so.
- On March 19, 2009, AG Holder issued a memo on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) stating: “In the face of doubt, openness prevails.” Despite this proclamation, Associated Press Washington Bureau Chief Sally Buzbee says the transparency of the Obama administration “is significantly worse than previous administrations.” Cause of Action’s own investigation found that improper White House review of FOIA requests violated both the letter and spirit of FOIA. In fact, DOJ is one of twelve agencies Cause of Action is suing for allowing the White House to obstruct the processing of FOIA requests.
