Report: Justice Dept. lawyer mishandled government records

The department's inspector general opened an investigation into the lawyer two years ago amid FBI concerns that the unidentified assistant U.S. attorney may have disclosed sensitive but unclassified information that she obtained through her government job.

Investigators determined that though the attorney had not improperly shared information, she nonetheless admitted sending work documents — specifically draft pleadings — from her government computer to her personal email account in violation of Justice Department policy that prohibits transmitting sensitive information over the Internet unless encrypted.

According to the report, when questioned by the inspector general's Dallas office, the lawyer told investigators that she sent work documents to her Yahoo! email account "all the time" so that she could work from home and that she believed her supervisors were aware of the practice and had even encouraged co-workers to send correspondence to her private address when she was out sick.

Department policy states that personally owned hardware and software cannot be used for work purposes, and that sensitive information or copyrighted documents cannot be transmitted over the Internet unless encrypted.