From: jeffrey E. <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2014 7:51 PM To: Kathy Ruemmler Subject: Re: I would be happy to sit with him, On Tue, Nov 18, 2014 at 3=50 PM, Kathy Ruemmler < > wrote= DO1 Watchdog Wants Gre=ter Attorney Ethics Oversight Zoe Tillman,=Legal Times November 18, 2014 Investigating a=legations of attorney misconduct—and giving transparency to the pr=cess—continue to pose challenges for the U.S. Department of Justic=, according to a new report <http://www.justice.gov/oig/challenges/2014.htm> by the de=artment's independent inspector general. Inspector General =ichael Horowitz urged Congress to adopt legislation that would give his of=ice more authority to investigate alleged misconduct by DOJ lawyers. That =unction is primarily carried out by the department's Office of Pro=essional Responsibility. "The OIG has long questioned the ca=ving out of this exclusive role for [the Office of Professional Responsibi=ityj as it is managed as a component of the department, has no institution=l independence, and lacks transparency in that it does not regularly relea=e its reports and conclusions to the public," Horowitz wrote in th= inspector general's annual report to Congress, which the office announced on Monday. The Just=ce Department has long faced criticism for the lack of transparency when i= comes to how officials handle complaints of attorney misconduct. The Offi=e of Professional Responsibility in most cases keeps information about its=investigations secret. It has occasionally releases public reports on high=profile matters, such as the firing of six U.S. attorneys in 2006 and the =otched prosecution of Ted Stevens in 2008. The office's most recent annual report said that in 2013 =he office determined that 93 of the 819 complaints it received were worth =dditional review, and launched full investigations into 33 of those matter=. Under federal regulations, the inspector general's office=can ask the deputy