Trump DOJ officials may have leaked probe details to tilt 2020 election: report

A new report from the Department of Justice's inspector general shows that three of Donald Trump's officials may have worked to influence the 2020 election from their posts in the department.

Top officials at Trump's Justice Department may have tried to influence the election by pressing investigations into Democratic governors and then leaking private details about those investigations to right-wing news, ABC News reported Tuesday.

The internal DOJ watchdog "concluded that for one of the officials -- a senior member of the department's public affairs team who the report said first hatched the alleged plan to leak investigative information -- 'the upcoming election was the motivating factor,'" said ABC after obtaining the report.

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The report revealed text messages the individual sent in mid-October 2020 detailing a possible leak to a major New York tabloid. The leak detailed reviews of COVID-related deaths at nursing homes in New York and New Jersey. The text message read: "Our last play on them before [the] election, "but it's a big one."

One prominent tabloid in the city, owned by conservative Rupert Murdoch, is the New York Post. Though it didn't specify that outlet, the website published a report on Oct. 27, 2020, titled "DOJ seeks more NY nursing home data after finding COVID death undercount," which cited "according to federal sources."

ABC News reported that the IG office released a "vague summary" of the report last week, citing only the officials who had violated DOJ policies by leaking "non-public DOJ investigative information" to "select reporters days before an election."

While the summary suggested violating the Hatch Act, there are no consequences for breaking the law, and the president has the discretion to do so. ABC News then filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the DOJ asking that the full report be revealed. The 55 pages contain multiple redactions.

Among the revelations is the detail that leaders in the Civil Rights Division pressured those in the Civil Division to send the letter to New York for the data. The Civil Division revealed that they were reluctant but were "led to believe" that the demand was "coming from Attorney General [Bill] Barr."

"The conduct of these senior officials raised serious questions about partisan political motivation for their actions in proximity to the 2020 election," wrote Inspector General Michael Horowitz in the document.

"[T]he then upcoming 2020 election may have been a factor in the timing and manner of those actions and announcing them to the public," Horowitz also said.

Barr refused to be interviewed for the investigation.

Read the report here.