DHSFormer DHS IG altered oversight reports, shared information
Charles Edwards, the acting DHS inspector general from 2011 through 2013, has been found to have routinely shared insider information with other department leaders, according to a new report from a the Homeland Security and Government Operations Committee published last week.
Charles Edwards, the acting DHS inspector general from 2011 through 2013, has been found to have routinely shared insider information with other department leaders, according to a new report from a the Homeland Security and Government Operations Committee published last Thursday.
TheWashington Post reports that Edwards “altered and delayed investigations at the request of senior administration officials, compromising his independent role as an inspector general.” Additionally, he “routinely shared drinks and dinner with department leaders and gave them information about the timing and findings of investigations.”
Further, “investigation by the panel also found that Edwards improperly relied on the advice of top political adviser to then-Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and acquiesced to their suggestions about the wording and timing of three separate reports.” This included investigations related to a controversial 2012 Secret Service incident involving the hiring of prostitutes by agents in Cartagena, Columbia.
Senator Ronald Johnson (R-Wisconsin), a member of the committee, told the newspaper, “We found that Mr. Edwards was compromised inspector general…who was not exercising real oversight. Any report generated out of his office would be suspect.”
Edwards, a 20-year federal employed, resigned from the office last December just a few days before he was supposed to appear to answer questions at a hearing from the committee.
Napolitano, now the president of the University of California system, has issued a statement via her office that, “Neither Secretary Napolitano nor her staff ordered that anything be deleted in the Inspector General’s investigative report. Any suggestion to the contrary is false.”
Additionally, the investigation “found that Edwards placed on administrative leave three people who questioned the Secret Service report deletions.”
Former federal prosecutor John Roth was confirmed by the Senate last month as the new DHS inspector general.
