“In the years since the financial crisis of 2008, the Justice Department has been regularly questioned about a lack of criminal prosecutions related to the mortgage mess.

“Its responses have just about always been the same, whether in public speeches by Eric H. Holder Jr., the attorney general, or in interviews with Lanny A. Breuer, its former criminal division chief. Believe us, they would say, we’ve been working overtime on these matters; if there had been cases to make, we would have made them.

“Mr. Breuer was especially vocal with these talking points. But last week, a report from the inspector general of the Justice Department, Michael E. Horowitz, set the record straight. Sure enough, the report told us how hard the nation’s law enforcement officials had been investigating these cases. That is, hardly at all.”

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