More Department of Justice attorneys who misbehave might be punished under stricter agency policies, but it’s difficult to say for sure because officials can’t document whether any discipline is being imposed under the current rules, a government watchdog report found.
Despite implementing new rules in 2011 on handling the 1,000 misconduct complaints it receives each year, the DOJ does not require its various offices to document when government attorneys are disciplined, according to a Government Accountability Office report.
The agency often fails to document whether disciplinary action has taken place in cases where attorneys are found to have engaged in misconduct and does not ensure that punishments are issued “consistently,” the GAO report said.
“Neither DOJ, nor component management requires its offices that impose discipline to demonstrate that they actually implemented the discipline,” the report said.
Congress, the American Bar Association and other “third-party stakeholders” have long criticized the DOJ’s discipline policies for their lack of transparency and inability to hold government attorneys accountable, the report said.
Some congressmen have initiated calls to give the DOJ inspector general the power to handle allegations of attorney misconduct. According to GAO, the agency’s independent watchdog currently does not have the authority to investigate complaints of professional misconduct for any attorney, even against the attorney general, the report said.
Instead, DOJ’s office of professional responsibility evaluates all complaints of attorney misconduct by first opening an inquiry into whether an allegation warrants a full probe and launching an investigation only in select cases, the report said.
Attorney General Eric Holder led DOJ resistance to the proposed change in April 2014 when it surfaced on the Hill for the fourth time since 2007, this time as a Senate bill proposed by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.
Holder argued in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee in April that the office of professional responsibility’s “long and distinguished history” of investigating alleged wrongdoing gives it a “unique expertise” on the issue.
The DOJ IG itself has criticized the agency for allowing the office of professional responsibility to have special oversight of attorneys, arguing that handling misconduct complaints differently for attorneys than for other agency staff “has a detrimental effect on public confidence in DOJ’s ability to review its own attorneys’ misconduct,” the report said.
GAO found nine government attorneys who had been disciplined for misconduct who still received performance awards within a year after their punishments. Some of the disciplined attorneys even received cash awards or extra time off, the report found.
