A watchdog report has found that the kind of systemic failures that enabled the high-profile prison deaths of gangster Whitey Bulger and financier Jeffrey Epstein also contributed to the deaths of hundreds of other federal prisoners over the years.

Recent assaults on two notorious, high-profile federal prisoners have renewed concerns about whether the federal Bureau of Prisons is capable of keeping people in its custody safe.

The Justice Department’s watchdog says negligence, misconduct and job failures enabled Jeffrey Epstein to take his own life at a federal jail in New York City while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Sexual abuse in the nation’s federal prisons must be rooted out.

More than 1,000 people have pleaded guilty or have been convicted of federal charges of defrauding the myriad COVID-19 relief programs that Congress established in the early days of the pandemic.

Inspectors general need more authority to go after fraud in the COVID-19 relief programs, the independent committee overseeing federal pandemic relief spending said Tuesday.

The Justice Department’s internal watchdog has launched an investigation after revelations that former President Donald Trump’s administration secretly seized phone data from at least two House Democrats.

FILE - In this Dec. 18, 2019, file photo, Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. Horowitz is launching an investigation to examine whether any former or current department officials engaged in an improper attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, file)WASHINGTON – The Justice Department’s inspector general is launching an investigation to examine whether any former or current department officials “engaged in an improper attempt” to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Inspector General Michael Horowitz said Monday that the investigation will investigate allegations concerning the conduct of former and current Justice Department officials but will not extend to other government officials. Election officials across the country, along with Trump's former attorney general, William Barr, have confirmed there was no widespread fraud in the election.

(Al Drago/Pool via AP)WASHINGTON Government watchdogs are warning that legal decisions by the Trump administration could severely limit their ability to oversee more than $1 trillion in spending related to the coronavirus pandemic. In a letter to four congressional committees, a panel of inspectors general overseeing a sweeping economic rescue law said an ambiguity in the law could block the watchdogs from conducting independent oversight. This would present potentially significant transparency and oversight issues because (the spending in question) includes over $1 trillion in funding, the letter says. The agency has only provided general information, such as the total amounts of loans awarded in a given time period. A House subcommittee overseeing the coronavirus aid demanded Monday that the Trump administration and some of the nations largest banks turn over detailed information about companies that applied for and received federal loans.