There was an important part of the Gonzales hearing yesterday that was kind of confusing, so I wanted to unpack it here. It appears that Senator Whitehouse believes Gonzales tried to bury DOJ's internal investigation into the USA Purge.
Towards the end of the hearing, Whitehouse started schooling Gonzales on the appropriate office to conduct an internal investigation, Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) or Office of the Inspector General (OIG). What appears to have happened is that, as part of his attempt to claim to be trying to get to the bottom of the USA scandal, Gonzales ordered the OPR to conduct an investigation. Then, the OIG started an investigation on its own accord. Only after an acting Chief of Staff (and note--this is Chuck Rosenberg and not Kevin O'Connor, whom Gonzales has since picked to be his real COS) suggested OIG investigate the firings did Gonzales think of encouraging the OIG to do an investigation. But at that point, OIG was already investigating on their own accord. So the question Whitehouse wants to ask is why Gonzales chose OPR and not OIG to conduct the internal investigation.
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