WASHINGTON, JULY 31, 2025 – The Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General has slowed, or outright stopped, its investigations into critical whistleblower submissions according to a new report in The New York Times today. This includes the disclosure submitted by a Whistleblower Aid client raising the alarm on misconduct by Emil Bove and other senior DOJ officials, which went uninvestigated for nearly three months. Then, on July 28th, the eve of Bove’s confirmation to a lifetime seat on the federal bench, the DOJ Office of Inspector General told Whistleblower Aid that the file was located. Three days prior, on July 25th, a Senate office was told by the DOJ Office of the Inspector General that the OIG had no such submission – only to “find” it when presented with proof of delivery.
Liu issued the following statement today:
“We need to know how this happened. The DOJ Office of Inspector General’s inaction on whistleblower submissions is now more than a series of bureaucratic slip-ups, it is a systematic failure.
It is shocking that an office with such a critical mandate did not even look at whistleblower evidence by a former DOJ attorney while the subject of the disclosure, Emil Bove, was confirmed to a lifetime federal appointment amid controversy. If the Inspector General couldn’t investigate a disclosure this important, what else has been languishing behind closed doors in that office?
Inspector Generals need to do their jobs regardless of how hard that job is. As more and more inspector generals across the federal government are axed by the Trump Administration, and the ones who remain don’t do their jobs, our elected leaders act with impunity. Without public accountability and transparency, our democracy starts to look a lot like the worst autocracies around the world. The Inspector General’s inaction feeds our worst fears: having brave whistleblowers speak truth into a black hole even while they are bludgeoned by reprisals and personal attacks.”
Whistleblower Aid calls for an investigation into why this disclosure was ignored and the role politics may have played in this failure.
