司法部高级官员任职于唐纳德·特朗普的根据司法部内部监督机构此前一份未披露的报告，第一届政府可能在2020年总统大选前违反了联邦法律，推动针对民主党州长的大流行相关调查，然后将有关这些调查的私人信息泄露给友好的媒体机构，试图影响选举。
美国广播公司新闻频道(ABC News)获得的监察长的报告得出结论说，对于其中一名官员——该部门公共事务团队的一名高级成员，该报告称他首先策划了所谓的泄露调查信息的计划——“即将到来的选举是激励因素。”
该报告特别指出了他在2020年10月中旬发送的一条短信，描述了一份关于纽约地区主要小报评论的泄露与冠状病毒肺炎相关的死亡据报道，他补充说，这是“我们在选举前的最后一次行动”——“但这是一次大行动”。
监察长的报告是在特朗普再次就职前几周发布的，特朗普两个月前赢得连任，部分原因是推动了拜登政府利用司法部推进其政治议程的可疑说法。
上周，监察长办公室发布了一份简短而模糊的报告摘要，只说三名前官员违反了司法部的政策，在“选举前几天”向“选定的记者”泄露了“非公开的DOJ调查信息”
该摘要称，这些官员甚至可能违反了《哈奇法》(Hatch Act)，这是一部禁止联邦雇员利用职务从事政治活动的非刑事法律。
该摘要没有说明所谓的违规行为是何时发生的，也没有说明哪场选举可能受到了牵连，但特朗普的一些支持者和至少一家主要的保守派媒体声称，这涉及拜登政府试图损害特朗普最近的连任竞选。
美国广播公司新闻通过信息自由法案的请求获得的部分编辑的报告显示，情况并非如此。
根据这份报告，2020年夏天，DOJ民权部门的领导人当时推动对几个州的政府运营的养老院进行审查，希望找到那里的死亡与州长指示养老院接受冠状病毒肺炎阳性患者的命令之间的任何联系。
报道称，2020年8月下旬，当司法部随后致函密歇根州、宾夕法尼亚州、新泽西州和纽约州的州长，寻求相关数据时，“尽管提供的数据表明，护理质量问题最严重的养老院在其他州”，司法部公共事务办公室发布了一份关于这一举措的新闻稿。
尽管监察长办公室表示，没有发现任何官员(甚至是职业官员)当时提出担忧的证据，但该报告称，现任和前任官员最近将该新闻稿描述为“不寻常和不适当的”。
该报告进一步详细说明了在接下来的几个月里，民权司的领导如何向该部民事司的官员施压，要求他们向纽约官员发送一封信，要求提供有关以下方面的数据与新冠肺炎相关的死亡报道称，在全州的私人疗养院中。报告称，民事庭官员不愿意这样做，但他们最终还是照做了，因为他们“被引导相信”，公开调查活动的指令“来自司法部长(比尔)巴尔”。
根据该报告，然后在2020年10月，在2020年总统竞选的最后几周，司法部公共事务办公室的高级官员提出了他的计划，要泄露有关这封信的信息以及有关新泽西州国营设施调查的其他信息。
2020年10月17日，这位高级公共事务官员给同事发短信说:“我正试图让(他们)分别给(新泽西和纽约)的养老院写信。我想把它们包装在一起，让(某家小报)来打破它。将是我们在选举前的最后一次行动，但这是一次大行动，”报道称。
报道称，在选举前一周，即2020年10月27日，调查信息被提供给了纽约地区的小报，该报当晚发表了一篇报道，指责纽约当局少报了养老院的死亡人数。监察长的报告指出，当时发布的官方统计数据实际上少算了实际死亡人数。
尽管如此，“这些高级官员的行为引发了严重的问题，即他们在2020年大选前夕的行动有党派政治动机，”监察长迈克尔·霍罗威兹在报告中说。
“接下来即将到来的2020年大选可能是这些行动的时间和方式以及向公众宣布这些行动的一个因素，”霍洛维茨补充道，并认为这三名官员违反了司法部的媒体接触政策。
Horowitz说，他的办公室已将其调查结果提交给美国特别顾问办公室，该办公室的任务是调查潜在的违反哈奇法的行为。
特别检察官办公室的发言人向美国广播公司新闻证实，他的办公室收到了转介，现在正在审查。
监察长的报告指出，巴尔拒绝接受与霍洛维茨调查有关的采访。
特朗普的代表没有立即回应美国广播公司新闻的置评请求。
Trump DOJ officials may have tried to influence 2020 election through media leaks: IG report
Senior Justice Department officials serving underDonald Trump'sfirst administration may have violated federal law in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election by pushing for pandemic-related investigations that targeted states with Democratic governors, and then leaking private information about those investigations to friendly media outlets in a potential attempt to influence the election, according to a previously-undisclosed report from the Justice Department's internal watchdog.
The inspector general's report, obtained by ABC News, concluded that for one of the officials -- a senior member of the department's public affairs team who the report said first hatched the alleged plan to leak investigative information -- "the upcoming election was the motivating factor."
The report specifically pointed to a text message he sent in mid-October 2020, describing a proposed leak to a major New York-area tabloid about reviews ofCOVID-related deathsat nursing homes in New York and New Jersey as "our last play on them before [the] election" -- "but it's a big one," he added, according to the report.
The inspector general's report comes just weeks before Trump takes office again, after winning reelection two months ago in part by promoting questionable claims that the Biden administration had used the Justice Department to further its own political agenda.
Last week, the inspector general's office released a brief and vague summary of its report, saying only that three former officials had violated Justice Department policies by leaking "non-public DOJ investigative information" to "select reporters, days before an election."
The summary said the officials may have even violated the Hatch Act, a non-criminal law that prohibits federal employees from using their positions to engage in political activities.
The summary did not say when the alleged violations occurred or which election may have been implicated, but some of Trump's supporters and at least one major conservative media outlet claimed that it involved the Biden administration trying to harm Trump's most recent reelection bid.
The partially-redacted report, obtained by ABC News through a Freedom of Information Act request, shows otherwise.
According to the report, in the summer of 2020, leaders of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division at the time pushed for reviews of government-run nursing homes in several states, looking to find any connections between deaths there and orders from governors directing nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients.
In late August 2020, when the Justice Department then sent letters to the governors of Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York seeking relevant data -- "despite having been provided data indicating that the nursing homes with the most significant quality of care issues were in other states" -- the Justice Department's public affairs office issued a press release about the move, the report said.
Though the inspector general's office said it did not find evidence that any officials, even career officials, raised concerns at the time, the report said current and former officials more recently described the press release as "unusual and inappropriate."
The report further details how over the next few months, leadership in the Civil Rights Division pressured officials in the department's Civil Division to send a letter to New York officials seeking data regardingCOVID-19-related deathsin private nursing homes throughout the state, the report said. The Civil Division officials were reluctant to do so, but they ultimately complied because they were "led to believe" that the directive to make the investigative activity public was "coming from Attorney General [Bill] Barr," the report said.
Then in October 2020, in the final weeks of the 2020 presidential campaign, the senior official with the Justice Department's Office of Public Affairs proposed his plan to leak information about the letter and other information about an investigation of state-run facilities in New Jersey, according to the report.
On Oct. 17, 2020, the senior public affairs official texted colleagues: "I'm trying to get [them] to do letters to [New Jersey and New York] respectively on nursing homes. Would like to package them together and let [a certain tabloid] break it. Will be our last play on them before election but it's a big one," according to the report.
A week before the election, on Oct. 27, 2020, the investigative information was provided to the New York-area tabloid, which published a story that night, accusing New York authorities of undercounting deaths in nursing homes, the report said. The inspector general's report noted that official statistics released at the time did in fact undercount the actual number of deaths.
Nevertheless, "the conduct of these senior officials raised serious questions about partisan political motivation for their actions in proximity to the 2020 election," inspector general Michael Horowitz said in his report.
"[T]he then upcoming 2020 election may have been a factor in the timing and manner of those actions and announcing them to the public," Horowitz added, concluding that the three officials violated the Justice Department's media contacts policy.
Horowitz said his office has referred its findings to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which is tasked with investigating potential violations of the Hatch Act.
A spokesperson for the Office of Special Counsel confirmed to ABC News that his office received the referral and is now reviewing it.
The inspector general's report noted that Barr declined to be interviewed in connection with Horowitz's investigation.
A representative for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
