The improper subordinate/supervisor relationship was so well-known that they arrived to work together, went to functions together, and weren't hiding it. To be clear, EOIR's ethics guidelines are super clear that this isn't allowed, but it happens all the time.
Multiple staff at the court walked in on the ACIJ and the subordinate to "reactions [that] suggested to the witnesses that they had interrupted something inappropriate." Gross!
The next two pages are redacted. They cite b6 and b7x, both of which involve protecting personal information. So, not clear why they couldn't just redact PII and leave the rest. Would be very helpful to know if either person is still employed by EOIR.
In a footnote, the OIG says that at the time of the misconduct, EOIR had no policy on whether supervisors could have romantic relationships with subordinates. They didn't put a policy in place until May 2022... That's really something
Now for the bit about sending a fictitious email purporting to be from the EOIR Director (presumably McHenry). Bro is emailing himself to make it look like it's an email from the EOIR Director and then forwarding that to other people. They found this when investigating the romantic relationship.
And oh boy the body of that email. It appears that the fake email from EOIR Director McHenry that this ACIJ was forwarding to his paramore was just praise about what a good job he was doing. Down bad, buddy.
When confronted with the email, he objected to OIG focusing on it because he thought the scope of their investigation should be limited to his inappropriate romantic relationship with a subordinate.
And, the DOJ's public integrity section declined to open a criminal investigation.
According to the public investigative summary from June 2024, the ACIJ resigned during the investigation. oig.justice.gov/sites/defaul...
I'll close with this article from over four years ago from from @talkopan.bsky.social. "Sexually inappropriate behavior runs rife in immigration courts. And the system allows it to flourish" www.sfchronicle.com/politics/art...