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Who investigates leaks of information?

Among other things, this means the Inspector General may investigate leaks of information widely disseminated within the government. The Justice Department prefers investigations where it will be easy to pinpoint the leaker.

Who can oversee leaks?

Because the FBI derives its existence and mandates from the Attorney General’s authority to create investigative agents for the enforcement of federal laws, the Attorney General may oversee and stop the leak investigation, as with any other FBI investigation.

What does the Inspector General do?

The Inspector General sometimes gets involved in investigating leaks that come from within the Justice Department. For example, in January the Inspector General announced that it will review how the Justice Department and FBI handled the Clinton email investigation, and part of that review includes looking into leaks. In 2016, the Inspector General investigated a self-reported leak by an FBI agent, and in 2013, the Inspector General investigated a U.S. Attorney’s leak to Fox News. But Inspector General-led leak investigations are relatively rare.

What is the new law that gives the Inspector General the power to investigate?

That could change. In December 2016, Congress enacted a new law, the Inspector General Empowerment Act of 2016 (amending the Inspector General Act of 1978, 5 U.S.C. App. § 6), which granted greater power to the Inspector General by ensuring the office full and prompt access to agency records. This law was enacted in response to years of conflict between agencies and their Inspectors General. It empowered the Inspector General to ramp up investigations by evaluating Justice Department and FBI documents, including those that might trace the Flynn leak.

Why is the Inspector General so popular?

The Inspector General has continued to be politically popular during this time of partisan divide because it is considered “ our eyes and ears within the executive branch ,” as Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) has suggested. Its mission is to increase government accountability by allowing the public to peer into the inner workings of the government and identify official misconduct. It would be ironic if that office now spearheads efforts to root out the Flynn leakers—whose leaks did exactly that.

Why do we ask the Justice Department to answer crimes reports?

Because the Justice Department cannot pursue an investigation in response to every referral, it asks agencies to provide in the crimes report specific information that can help the Department prioritize the leaks. To guide the agencies, the Justice Department has issued a questionnaire for the agencies to answer and attach to the crimes reports when referring a disclosure made to the news media. These have come to be known as “the 11 questions .” Although the questions can vary slightly on a case-by-case basis, the goal of the questions is to get the referring agency to identify the leaked information, explain whether the leaked information is accurate, assess the harm of the leak, and evaluate how far the leaked information spread and whether the information could have been disclosed by lawful means. Even though these questions focus on disclosures to the news media, none of the questions ask whether an investigation would require surveilling or otherwise targeting a journalist. The questions instead are geared toward allowing the Department to estimate the difficulty of finding and prosecuting the leaker.

What is the role of the Inspector General in the Justice Department?

The Office of the Inspector General is the watchdog of the Justice Department: it has independent oversight of the department’s programs and personnel, and it can review activities by divisions such as the FBI.

How many investigations are there into classified leaks?

The Justice Department is conducting 27 investigations into classified leaks of information, a sharp increase from recent years, according to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. At a House oversight hearing on Tuesday, Sessions sought to emphasize that his department is taking the leak "epidemic" seriously. "Members of the committee, we had about nine ...

Who is the editor of the Washington Post?

Marty Baron, the executive editor of the Washington Post, told CNN last month that he thought the August announcement was "an effort to try to intimidate the press from doing its job.".

Did Sessions answer CNN's report about the so-called Trump dossier?

Later on in the hearing on Tuesday, Sessions was asked if CNN's reporting about the so-called Trump dossier is the subject of one of the 27 leak investigations. Sessions declined to answer. The first ten months of the Trump administration have coincided with a rise in the number of leaks from government sources to reporters.