Earlier this month, NPR reported that the Justice Department inspector general’s sprawling investigation into politicization at the Department included a probe of whether Monica Goodling had fired an attorney because she’d heard a rumor that the lawyer might be gay.
In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and ranking member Arlen Specter (R-PA) earlier this week, the inspector general Glenn Fine confirmed that his office was digging into such accusations.
It’s still anybody’s guess when that investigation, which Fine is conducting along with the Office of Professional Responsibility, will conclude. It launched more than a year ago, during the heat of the U.S. attorney scandal.