Politics back drive may have Trump Doj Covid home examination

Several high-ranking civil servants of the Ministry of Justice In the first Trump administration, confidential details on investigations into covid 19 deaths in nursing homes in the states led by Democrats have inappropriately disclosed. This comes from a newly published report Request according to the Freedom of Information Act by CNN.

The report suspects that the disclosures were politically motivated because they were made only a few days before the 2020 elections. The confidential information affected investigative steps by the Ministry of Justice in New York and New Jersey, whose democratic leaders were opponents of President Donald Trump during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Inspector Michael Horowitz's report describes monthly internal disputes between political appointments and civil servants who normally lead such investigations, on the procedures in the examinations in the states mentioned and other states mentioned by Democrats. A large part of the disagreement revolved around the question of whether and how certain investigative steps in the department should be announced publicly.

The identity of the three civil servants who are accused of misconduct was removed from the report. One of the officials, whose identity was edited by the Inspector General, wrote in an email dated October 17, 2020 that a plan to pass on the investigative steps to New York Post, "our last move before the election will be, but it is a big one".

According to Horowitz, this disclosure and promotion of articles with non-public details by an official on social media are counteracting the ministry's confidentiality and media contact policy. The inspector General stated: "We also found that the behavior of these high -ranking civil servants raised serious questions about the party -political motivation of their actions near the 2020 elections." His office has referred to the Office for Special investigation that examines violations of the HATCH ACT, a law that prevents government employees from using their official positions for political campaigns.

According to the report, the pressure to investigate New York, New Jersey and other democratic guided countries, as the Coronavirus policies of the states influenced the covid transmissions in nursing facilities, in the summer of 2020 and was promoted by political appointments in the Ministry. At a certain point in time, the inspector generally stated that government officials carried out an analysis with expertise in such studies that showed that the state -run institutions with the worst key figures were not in the states that were targeted by Democrats.

Employees of the Ministry also expressed concerns about the claims that the leaders of the Ministry of Justice in Washington wanted to take in designs of press releases on various ministry measures. A draft of a press release that was supposed to announce an investigation of two institutions in New Jersey contained several statements that the officials of the New Jersey officer levied an objection, since they were misleading or speculative or lacking evidence, according to the inspector General.

The draft of the press release was finally taken back in parts, but ultimately it was not a publication of the ministry. Instead, a non-public letter, which informed the state officials that the ministry would initiate an investigation in New Jersey-as well as a separate letter that stopped certain data from nursing homes in New York-a report of the New York Post and later other journalists. The post report was published on October 27, more than 30 minutes before the Ministry of Justice sent the new Jersey letter to the governor's office, as the inspector General stated.

The CNN journalist Hannah Rabinowitz contributed to this report.