Wicker, Grassley Urge DOJ Inspector General to Investigate Abuses at the Commerce Department
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Roger Wicker, R-Miss., ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, yesterday sent a letter to Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz requesting that he lead a “root cause analysis” in furtherance of the Commerce Committee’s initial investigation into abuses at the Department of Commerce’s Investigations and Threat Management Service (ITMS). The Commerce Committee’s investigation uncovered a failure of the DOJ, U.S. Marshals Service, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to exercise appropriate oversight of ITMS activities, particularly the use of “special deputation” of ITMS employees by the Marshals Service, which enabled many ITMS abuses.