Thread by @JewhadiTM

Feds gone wild: DOJ's stunning inability to prosecute its own bad actors thehill.com/opinion/crimin…

One was caught red-handed engaged in nepotism. Another, a lawyer no less, admitted to shoplifting at a Marine barracks store. A third leaked sealed court information to the news media. And a fourth engaged in fraud by turning a government garage into a personal repair shop.

Four cases, all solved in the past month, with suspects who cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars and significant breaches of public trust.

But these weren’t your everyday perps.

All were U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) employees who are supposed to catch other criminals while working for the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and U.S. attorneys’ offices. Instead, they broke the law or violated the rules.

And all managed to escape prosecution, despite their proven transgressions.

Under the leadership of Inspector General Michael Horowitz, DOJ’s internal watchdog is doing an outstanding job of policing bad conduct inside America’s premier law enforcement agency.

And DOJ is doing a poor job of punishing its own.

In cases closed in the past month, more than 6 FBI, DEA, U.S. atty & U.S. marshal officials were allowed to retire, do volunteer work, or keep their jobs as they escaped criminal charges that everyday Americans probably wouldn't.

In most instances, the decisions were made by federal prosecutors who work with the very figures impacted by or committing the bad conduct. In local law enforcement, that go-easy phenomenon is known as the “thin blue line.”

The troubling pattern of weak punishment emerges as DOJ heads into one of its most ambitious internal affairs probes in recent history. AG Barr, IG Horowitz & special U.S. Atty Durham are investigating whether the FBI & other intel agencies violated law w/the Russia investigation

Even before the recently closed IG investigations, questions surfaced about DOJ’s willingness to punish its own. That’s because fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was recommended for prosecution over 15 mos ago for lying about news leaks, and so far faces no criminal charges

To put that into perspective, it took special counsel Robert Mueller just a few months to bring charges against multiple figures associated with President Trump’s campaign accused of lying or other process crimes.

It’s still possible that McCabe could face prosecution. But the recent spate of fresh wrongdoing inside DOJ doesn’t portray a compelling pattern of enforcement or punishment.

Take, for example, the DEA executive who just this week was found to have engaged in nepotism by routing hundreds of thousands of dollars to contractor jobs for his son and retired colleagues or friends. The official also engaged in a “lack of candor".

Despite the established wrongdoing, criminal prosecution “was declined” and “the senior DEA official retired from his position.” In short, he kept his retirement benefits.