A Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the Justice Department used their two government computers to view pornography and lied to investigators about it, according to a new report by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
The unnamed top DOJ official resigned before the investigation ended and DOJ declined prosecution. The report was released Thursday. The Washington Examiner reached out to DOJ for the former official’s name but did not receive an immediate response.
Acting on a tip from DOJ’s employment division, Horowitz’s one-page report stated that a “forensic examination of two DOJ computers issued to the DAAG determined that the computers contained data regarding numerous sexually explicit website searches, visits to websites hosting sexually explicit videos, sexually explicit search engine terms, and sexually explicit images.”
DOJ’s watchdog also concluded that the DOJ official “made false statements under oath” to investigators.
The watchdog’s office interviewed the former DOJ official at least twice. The first time, the official “denied accessing or viewing sexually explicit websites or material from a government computer.” But after Horowitz’s team confronted the official with the preliminary results of their forensic exam of the official’s computers, the official “ultimately admitted” that they “may have” accessed porn on government computers.
This one-page report came the same day that Horowitz released an 83-page bombshell report related to former FBI Director James Comey’s improper behavior handling his so-called “Comey Memos.”
Horowitz’s broader report on alleged abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is expected to be released in September or October.
