But more importantly is this stuff a crime? Let's review here. He pulled someone over, impersonated a police officer, represented that in court, and that was known in May 2021. So despite all that he kept his job until February 2023. Solid work there Federal government. He also used government money and bought a family vehicle. And that was just in the reporting. I'm sure the report has other fun tidbits.
The IG report called it theft and referred it out to FBI and DOJ. I mean it sounds like criming to me. The FBI decided it wasn't worth an investigation - perhaps the report was enough on its own. But what would we know because the DOJ "quickly" (for them) decided it wasn't crime. Cool. It's a hardly a wonder that public trust in this crooked, corrupt system has collapsed. But at least he got fired 3 years after his crime spree began.
Washington Post
Blanton, a Trump appointee who was earning more than $172,000 a year in 2020, committed “administrative, ethical and policy violations,” according to the Oct. 26 report by the Office of Inspector General, which said it also identified “evidence of criminal violations throughout the investigation.”
The report said: “Blanton misled and provided false information to investigators on multiple occasions. Blanton used taxpayer dollars to fund an additional personal vehicle for his family. … Blanton’s actions have violated every pillar the OIG operates under including theft, fraud, waste and abuse against not only the AOC but also the taxpayer.”
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In one instance, the report said, Blanton used his government Jeep Cherokee in June 2020 to chase a car that struck his daughter’s boyfriend’s vehicle near their home. The suspect’s lawyer said Blanton made “an affirmative action” when asked if he was “law enforcement” while the hit-and-run was under investigation, according to the report. The Fairfax County police report identified Blanton as an “off-duty D.C. police officer,” and the OIG report said Blanton told people he’d “activated the emergency equipment” of his government SUV when pursuing the driver who hit his daughter’s boyfriend’s car.
“Interviews confirmed that, based on Blanton’s statements, affirmative movements, use of a law-enforcement-equipped vehicle and credentials, the Fairfax County Police Officers, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney and defense counsel for the suspect all believed Blanton was an off-duty law enforcement officer throughout the entire court proceedings,” the inspector general’s report said. “When the Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney and defense counsel were advised by the OIG in May 2021 that Blanton was not law enforcement, immediate steps were taken by the defense attorney to advise his client of the potential implications of an untruthful witness. … He misrepresented himself as law enforcement and did not object or correct the Fairfax County Police Department, the Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney or the suspect’s defense counsel.”
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The inspector general’s report said its office took its findings to the U.S. attorney’s office, which then brought in the FBI, the report said. But after five months of “discussion and collaboration,” the bureau declined to investigate. The U.S. attorney’s office then assigned “an internal criminal investigator,” and after 10 months, opted to forgo a federal prosecution.
