Under federal law, a vast majority of lawyers working in the executive branch are subject to oversight and accountability by inspectors general in their respective departments. The office claims independence, but in practice it can be overruled — as when the Justice Department ignored an O.P.R. conclusion that the two lawyers who wrote the Bush-era torture memos had committed “professional misconduct.”Under this anomalous regime, allegations of misconduct by the F.B.I. But similar allegations of wrongdoing against lawyers in the F.B.I.’s general counsel’s office or line prosecutors bringing cases in federal court — like those in Mr. Bartko’s case — would be shielded from Mr. Horowitz’s purview. In effect, this means there are two tracks of justice at Justice: one for prosecutors and other lawyers and another for every other employee.

Source: New York Times December 26, 2018 00:00 UTC