The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Ranking Republican member is questioning why the Justice Department decided not to prosecute an Assistant U.S. Attorney after investigators found child pornography on the attorney’s work computer.
In a press release issued by his office Thursday, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa expressed concern over the decision to drop the case, even after the DOJ’s Inspector General found at least one image of child pornography and the attorney acknowledged spending a “significant amount of time” viewing adult content during work.
Grassley sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder questioning the decision not to prosecute and asked him to provide information on the types of cases the attorney handled.
“This report contained what appears to be an inexcusable mishandling of serious allegations against an Assistant United States Attorney which calls into question the DOJ’s internal controls and prosecutorial discretion,” Grassley wrote.
The OIG investigation of the attorney lasted from October 2010 to March 2011, and the office released its report two months later.
The attorney remained employed by the government for at least two months after the OIG investigation concluded, according to the release.
“This is simply unacceptable and compounds the questions raised by the fact that this AUSA was found to have ‘at least one image of child pornography’ on his government computer and yet he was not charged with a crime,” Grassley said, quoting the OIG report.
He has also asked the department to detail what steps it has taken to update its computers and keep pornography off limits.
