Federal Government Policy and Business

Inspectors General Lose Bid to Expand Access to Agency Documents

Government Executive: In a long-awaited opinion, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel on Thursday issued a memo to Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates denying requests by the agency’s inspector general for greater auditor access to documents the department protects in matters involving grand jury testimony, national security wiretaps and credit information.

The memo dated July 20 interpreted statutes to “forbid disclosures that have either an attenuated or no connection with the conduct of the department’s criminal law enforcement programs or operations,” adding that the Fair Credit Reporting Act “forbids disclosures that have either an attenuated or no connection with the approval or conduct of foreign counterintelligence investigations.”

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