Tags
Benghazi, DOJ, Fake Scandal, Fast and Furious, Gaslighting, Glenn Reynolds, Government Failure, Inspectors General, IRS Targeting, John Fund, Obama, Obstruction, Separation of Powers, Sharyl Attkisson
President Obama and his aides have raised the ire of his own inspectors general, who are charged with oversight duties within each federal agency. A letter signed by 47 IGs to the Congressional Oversight and Homeland Security Committees claims that the administration has obstructed efforts to perform their investigative tasks. The “most transparent administration in history” has generated a series of controversies (Fast and Furious, Benghazi, IRS Targeting, and the Healthcare.gov rollout are just the most prominent) and has managed to shield them from effective investigation using delay tactics, apparent destruction of evidence and pure obstinance.
Sharyl Attkisson weighs in on the subject with “Six Serious Questions Regarding Elusive Federal Documents.” In “Stonewaller-in-Chief,” John Fund documents the blatant hypocrisy displayed by Obama last week when he told African leaders of “the positive role inspectors general can play in fighting corruption in government agencies.” More from Fund:
President Obama appointed most of the IGs in office today, and all those who were appointed by him have been confirmed by a Democratic Senate.
That makes the complaints raised in the IGs’ letter all the more serious. More and more agencies are setting documents off-limits by declaring them “privileged.” The Peace Corps is said to have refused to provide documents for a probe into whether its administrators were properly handling charges of sexual abuse. The Environmental Protection Agency withheld documents by claiming they might fall under an attorney-client privilege, though the IGs’ letter makes clear that such privilege shouldn’t prevent another executive-branch official from reviewing them. Eric Holder’s Department of Justice withheld FBI records that had been previously produced to investigators in past administrations. FBI Director James Comey told Congress in June that the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel was still reviewing what “was a difference of view as to what the law permitted here.”
As Glenn Reynolds has mentioned in the past (though I can’t find a link), the administration seems to be engaged in an unending campaign to “gaslight” the public, rather than any effort at transparency.