JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/LEGAL: “The Justice Department has dropped its case against a woman who laughed out loud during the confirmation hearing for Attorney General Jeff Sessions, ending months of legal wrangling. The woman, Desiree Fairooz, was protesting with Code Pink, a progressive group whose activists are regularly seen around Washington. She was arrested by a Capitol […]
Category: Justice Department
11/6/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/LEGAL/LOBBYING/ROBERT MUELLER/RUSSIA: “Two prominent Washington lobbying firms are in the crosshairs of the Justice Department’s special counsel investigation as new details of their relationship with Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates were revealed in court filings. In the indictment of Manafort and Gates unsealed this week, the lobbying firms were described only as […]
11/6/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/LEGAL/POLITICAL FIGURES: “As the bribery case against Sen. Bob Menendez concludes, Senate Democrats could face a stark question — how long will they stick by the New Jersey Democrat if he’s convicted? Menendez’s lawyers have a final chance Monday [11-6-17] in their closing arguments to persuade the jury hearing his case in Newark that […]
11/3/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/LEGAL/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “In an extraordinary Supreme Court filing on Friday, the Justice Department accused the American Civil Liberties Union of misconduct in the case of an undocumented teenager known as Jane Doe. The teenager obtained an abortion last month over the government’s objection after an appeals court allowed it… David Cole, the A.C.L.U.’s […]
11/3/2017
2016 ELECTION/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump pressed the Justice Department again on Friday [11-3-17] to investigate his political opponents, lashing out at Democrats as he argued that they were the ones who acted corruptly during last year’s election and not his own campaign, which actually is under investigation. Shortly before leaving Washington for an […]
11/3/2017
2016 ELECTION/DEMS/FBI/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: “Pocahontas just stated that the Democrats, lead by the legendary Crooked Hillary Clinton, rigged the Primaries! Lets go FBI & Justice Dept.” -Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Nov. 3, 2017 06:55am […]
11/3/2017
FBI/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Everybody is asking why the Justice Department (and FBI) isn’t looking into all of the dishonesty going on with Crooked Hillary & the Dems… New Donna B book says she paid for and stole the Dem Primary. What about the deleted E-mails, Uranium, Podesta, the Server, plus, plus… People are angry. […]
11/2/2017
2016 ELECTION/CYBERWAR/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/LEGAL/RUSSIA: “The Justice Department has identified more than six members of the Russian government involved in hacking the Democratic National Committee’s computers and swiping sensitive information that became public during the 2016 presidential election, according to people familiar with the investigation. Prosecutors and agents have assembled evidence to charge the Russian officials and […]
11/1/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/NOMINATIONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday [11-1-17] announced his choices to lead U.S. attorney offices in California, Maryland, Connecticut, Texas, New Mexico and Louisiana, the White House said in a statement. The White House said Trump will nominate John Anderson for U.S. attorney for New Mexico; John Durham for Connecticut; Brandon […]
10/31/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/NOMINATIONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Senate on Tuesday [10-31-17] confirmed University of Notre Dame law professor Amy Barrett for a federal appeals court judgeship, closing for now a debate about whether it is appropriate for lawmakers to ask a nominee questions about their religious faith. Ms. Barrett was confirmed to the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court […]
10/30/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/LEGAL/LOBBYING/ROBERT MUELLER: “Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta is leaving the Washington firm he founded as the Podesta Group finds itself caught up in an investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to people familiar with the move. Mr. Podesta told employees of his lobbying firm at a companywide meeting on Monday [10-30-17] that he planned […]
10/26/2017
IRS/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Trump administration on Thursday [10-26-17] said it has agreed to pay between $1 million and $10 million to settle lawsuits against the Internal Revenue Service for targeting tea-party groups in the Obama era, saying in court documents that the IRS ‘admits that its treatment…was wrong.’ The Justice Department entered into […]
10/25/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/SEC: “The U.S. Justice Department is weighing whether a financial enforcement task force created during the Obama administration in the wake of the housing crisis is still relevant, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said Wednesday [10-25-17]. The department’s scrutiny of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force is part of a broader review by a […]
10/24/2017
CRIME/JEFF SESSIONS/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: “Attorney General Jeff Sessions Monday designated MS-13, the violent street gang, a target for a Justice Department task force that has traditionally attacked drug kingpins and cartels. The designation will allow the Justice Department to more aggressively target the gang for violating racketeering, gun and tax laws, Mr. Sessions said in a […]
10/21/2017
FBI/INTELLIGENCE/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: “Officials behind the now discredited ‘Dossier’ plead the Fifth. Justice Department and/or FBI should immediately release who paid for it.” -Donald Trump, Twitter.com, October 21, 2017 02:59pm […]
10/19/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump has personally interviewed at least two potential candidates for U.S. attorney positions in New York, according to two sources familiar with the matter — a move that critics say raises questions about whether they can be sufficiently independent from the president. Trump has interviewed Geoffrey Berman, who is […]
10/18/2017
CRIME/DRUGS/JEFF SESSIONS/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/OBAMA ADMIN: “Former Obama administration Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday [10-18-17] slammed the Trump administration’s approach to crime and called on Congress to impose change. Holder, speaking at a Washington event for law enforcement supportive of criminal justice reforms — such as increasing mental health and drug treatment, federal support for community […]
10/18/2017
FBI/HILLARY CLINTON/JAMES COMEY/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: “Wow, FBI confirms report that James Comey drafted letter exonerating Crooked Hillary Clinton long before investigation was complete. Many…people not interviewed, including Clinton herself. Comey stated under oath that he didn’t do this-obviously a fix? Where is Justice Dept?” -Donald Trump, Twitter.com, October 18, 2017 05:21am and 05:27am […]
10/17/2017
CHINA/DRUGS/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: “The Justice Department said Tuesday [10-17-17] that it has indicted two Chinese nationals suspected of manufacturing and then distributing in the U.S. a synthetic opioid that officials say kills thousands of Americans every year. The two suspects, Xiaobing Yan and Jian Zhang, face a raft of charges, including conspiracy to distribute large quantities […]
10/17/2017
GOP/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/NOMINATIONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump has nominated 50 candidates to lifetime appointments to the federal bench — including a man who asserted transgender children were evidence of ‘Satan’s plan,’ one deemed unqualified by the American Bar Association and a handful of prolific bloggers. And the GOP has unanimously stuck by Trump’s judges. Senate […]
10/11/2017
GOP/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/NOMINATIONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, reiterated his authority to handle judicial nominations Wednesday [10-11-17], after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would end the practice of securing home-state senators’ approval before advancing judicial nominees. Mr. McConnell (R., Ky.) told The Weekly Standard he would no longer […]
10/10/2017
INTELLIGENCE/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: “The Justice Department put technology companies on notice Tuesday [10-10-17] that it intends to be more aggressive in seeking access to encrypted information on consumer devices, setting the stage for potential legal and legislative clashes in the tug of war between data privacy and public safety. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein issued the […]
10/9/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/NOMINATIONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is moving to head off a public fight with conservative outside groups that have become increasingly frustrated over the Senate’s sluggish pace in confirming President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees. The influential Judicial Crisis Network had planned on launching a $250,000 ad buy in Washington on […]
10/5/2017
JEFF SESSIONS/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/LGBTQ: “Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed an Obama-era reading of the Civil Rights Act in a memo this week, saying the Justice Department no longer considers workplace discrimination against transgender individuals to be covered by federal law. In a document dated Oct. 4, Mr. Sessions directed Justice Department lawyers to take the position […]
10/5/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/LEGAL/LGBTQ: “Justice Department lawyers shortly before midnight Wednesday [10-4-17] asked a federal judge to dismiss a challenge to President Donald Trump’s proposed transgender military ban, calling the challenge ‘premature several times over’ because the policy has yet to go into effect… Under the directive, the Pentagon and DHS are expected to halt the use […]
10/5/2017
JEFF SESSIONS/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/LGBTQ: “The U.S. Department of Justice has reversed course on whether federal law banning sex discrimination in the workplace provides protections for transgender employees, saying in a memo that it does not. The memo sent to U.S. Attorneys’ offices on Wednesday [10-4-17] by Attorney General Jeff Sessions says Title VII of the Civil […]
10/4/2017
IMMIGRATION/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: “Sending immigration judges to the border has resulted in thousands of more cases being handled, the Justice Department announced Wednesday [10-4-17], though a substantial backlog in the immigration courts remain. The Justice Department released new statistics on Wednesday touting the effects of reassigning more than 100 immigration judges to the southern border, saying […]
10/3/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/LEGAL/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP FAMILY: “The Justice Department has released a trove of decades-old internal legal memos concluding the President should be legally barred from appointing a relative to a position in the White House, shedding new light on just how sharp a departure the department’s more recent interpretation of federal law under the Trump […]
9/28/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/NOMINATION/RELIGION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “One of President Trump’s judicial nominees became something of a hero to religious conservatives after she was grilled at a Senate hearing this month over whether her Roman Catholic faith would influence her decisions on the bench. The nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, a law professor up for an appeals court seat, […]
9/27/2017
BUDGET/EPA/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/SCOTT PRUITT: “Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator who has aggressively pushed to dismantle regulations and downsize the organization, is threatening to reach outside his agency and undermine the Justice Department’s work enforcing antipollution laws, documents and interviews show. Under Mr. Pruitt, the E.P.A. has quietly said it may cut off a major […]
9/26/2017
CRISIS/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: “The Justice Department is directing U.S. attorney’s offices around the country to improve efforts to target fraud in the disaster-relief efforts that arose after a series of devastating hurricanes pummeled the United States. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, in a memo dated Sept. 22, directs each office to log and track all disaster […]
9/25/2017
CONFLICT OF INTEREST/ETHICS/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: “On Sept. 28, 2016, three members of the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the Justice Department suggesting that the drug company Mylan was violating Medicaid laws. Nine days later, the Justice Department reached a massive $465 million settlement with the firm. In between, another action happened almost invisibly: A […]
9/21/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/NOMINATIONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Justice Department’s antitrust efforts is facing an extended limbo in the Senate, prolonging uncertainty for potential mergers, including AT&T Inc.’s bid to acquire Time Warner Inc. The delay in Makan Delrahim’s nomination is due in part to objections raised by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., […]
9/18/2017
IMMIGRATION/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/LEGAL/SANCTUARY CITIES/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The U.S. Justice Department on Monday [9-18-17] said it would appeal a court order blocking President Donald Trump’s executive order that sought to restrict federal funds for so-called sanctuary cities. U.S. District Judge William Orrick III of San Francisco earlier this year ruled that Trump’s sanctuary cities order was likely […]
9/14/2107
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/NOMINATIONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Senate Judiciary Committee approved four of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees on Thursday [9-14-17], amid a stir caused by a recent back-and-forth over the relationship between a nominee’s religious beliefs and her potential performance as a judge. At a hearing last week, the committee heard from several nominees including Amy […]
9/12/2017
JAMES COMEY/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/LEAKS/LEGAL: “Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said on Tuesday [9-12-17] that the Justice Department should ‘certainly look at’ charging James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director whom President Trump fired, for what she described as leaks of classified information… Ms. Sanders did not answer the question directly, but she said that […]
9/10/2017
FOREIGN POLICY/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/MALAYSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump will host Malaysia’s premier this week, in a visit that shows how hard his administration is working to court Asian allies to pressure North Korea over its nuclear-weapons program. Tuesday’s [9-12-17] visit by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak comes as a U.S. Justice Department investigation into the […]
9/8/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/LEGAL/LGBTQ: “The Trump administration told the Supreme Court Thursday [9-7-17] that the First Amendment entitles a Colorado baker to turn away gay couples seeking wedding cakes, despite state law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. While businesses that sell off-the-shelf goods may be bound by antidiscrimination laws, those that make custom products, like the […]
8/15/2017
DHS/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/RACISM/TERRORISM: “When an alleged white supremacist rammed a car into a crowd of people Saturday [8-12-17] in Charlottesville, Virginia, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and members of Congress from both parties were quick to call it an act of terrorism. But U.S. law enforcement officials, who enjoy sweeping powers to investigate and prosecute suspected foreign […]
8/14/2017
CALIFORNIA/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/LEGAL/SANCTUARY CITIES: “Intensifying California’s standoff with the Trump administration over immigration policy, the California attorney general sued the Justice Department on Monday [8-14-17] over the administration’s plans to cut off millions of dollars in federal funding to so-called sanctuary cities unless they begin cooperating with federal immigration agents. The state’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra, […]
8/14/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/LEGAL/PROTESTS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “A Los Angeles-based tech company is resisting a federal demand for more than 1.3 million IP addresses to identify visitors to a website set up to coordinate protests on Inauguration Day — a request whose breadth the company says violates the Constitution… The request also covers emails between the site’s organizers […]
8/7/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: “Prosecutors notched a victory Monday [8-7-17] over academics and defense attorneys in the long-running debate about what qualifies as sound crime-scene evidence versus ‘junk science’ used to wrongly convict defendants. Guidelines for the use of forensic evidence in court, previously developed by a partnership between the Justice Department and a panel of scientists, […]
8/7/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/LEGAL/SANCTUARY CITIES: “Mayor Rahm Emanuel sued the Justice Department on Monday [8-7-17] over President Trump’s threat to cut off federal grants for so-called sanctuary cities like Chicago, calling it an attack against public safety and the city’s conscience. Hours later, Attorney General Jeff Sessions struck back, describing street violence in Chicago as horrific and […]
8/2/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/RACISIM: “The Justice Department is seeking attorneys to investigate racial bias in college admissions as the agency prepares to review a 2015 complaint that claims Harvard University discriminates against Asian-American applicants. An internal job posting calls for employees to work on ‘investigations and possible litigation related to intentional race-based discrimination in college and university […]
8/2/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/LEGAL: “The Justice Department on Wednesday [8-2-17] said it was searching for Civil Rights Division lawyers to investigate a single complaint involving Asian-American students in a college admissions affirmative-action case. In a statement, the department sought to play down its recruitment of Civil Rights Division lawyers for what it had billed in an internal […]
8/1/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said morale at the Justice Department remains ‘pretty good,’ despite concerns by current and former prosecutors that President Donald Trump’s rebukes of the department’s leader are unsettling and have made it harder to do their jobs. Mr. Trump last week chastised Attorney General Jeff Sessions […]
8/1/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Trump administration is preparing to redirect resources of the Justice Department’s civil rights division toward investigating and suing universities over affirmative action admissions policies deemed to discriminate against white applicants, according to a document obtained by The New York Times. The document, an internal announcement to the civil rights division, […]
7/26/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/LGBTQ/LEGAL: “The US Justice Department on Wednesday [7-26-17] argued in a major federal lawsuit that a 1964 civil rights law doesn’t protect gay workers from discrimination, thereby diverging from a separate, autonomous federal agency that had supported the gay plaintiff’s case. The Trump administration’s filing is unusual in part because the Justice Department isn’t […]
7/25/2017
ATTORNEY GENERAL/GOP/JEFF SESSIONS/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Republicans and former Justice Department officials rallied around Attorney General Jeff Sessions as he continued to weather public criticism from President Donald Trump over his decision to recuse himself from investigations into Russia’s election interference, and other concerns. The defenders voiced their support in response to a flurry of […]
7/25/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/NOMINATIONS/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump’s nominee for a top Justice Department post defended his work for a Russian bank Tuesday [7-25-17] and he said Mr. Trump’s tweets attacking Attorney General Jeff Sessions were ‘difficult’ for him to hear. Brian Benczkowski, a lawyer who served in the George W. Bush Justice Department, appeared before […]
7/25/2017
ATTORNEY GENERAL/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, defended the promises President Donald Trump made in his inaugural address even as the President himself has accused the Justice Department of leading a ‘witch hunt’ against him. During his short, tepidly received speech at the NAACP’s annual convention here, Rosenstein quoted from the […]
7/24/2017
IMMIGRATION/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/SANCTUARY CITIES: “The highest court in Massachusetts dealt a fresh legal blow Monday [7-24-17] to the Trump administration’s effort to compel local authorities to assist in its crackdown against illegal immigration. The state’s Supreme Judicial Court ruled that Massachusetts court officials can’t hold people in jail simply because the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement […]
7/24/2017
ATTORNEY GENERAL/HILLARY CLINTON/JEFF SESSIONS/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump turned up the pressure on his own attorney general on Monday [7-24-17], calling him ‘beleaguered’ in a tweet questioning why the Justice Department is not investigating Hillary Clinton. Mr. Trump’s comments are remarkable because if the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, is beleaguered of late it is […]
7/13/2017
ATTORNEY GENERAL/JEFF SESSIONS/JUSTICE DEPT/LEGAL: “The Justice Department on Thursday [7-13-17] announced charges against 412 people for $1.3 billion in health-care fraud, the largest such takedown in U.S. history. Many of the charges were related to doctors unnecessarily prescribing opioids, which then ended up on sale on the street, the department said. One fake rehab facility […]
7/6/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/LEGAL/VOTER FRAUD: “The Justice Department is fighting a lawsuit filed by a privacy group to stop President Donald Trump’s Advisory Commission on Election Integrity from collecting voter information across the country, hoping to persuade a federal judge Thursday [7-6-17] that the Trump administration is taking adequate steps to protect the data. Last week, the […]
3/20/2017
CONFLICT OF INTEREST/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/TRUMP PEOPLE/KELLYANNE CONWAY/GEORGE CONWAY: “President Trump is expected to nominate the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, to run the Justice Department’s civil division, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to CNN. If confirmed by the Senate, George Conway would lead an office that would handle legal challenges to major […]
2/9/2017
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/TRUMP EXEC ORDERS: ” ‘Providing an Order of Succession Within the Department of Justice’ Two weeks after Trump fired Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, this order changes the order of succession for Sessions, who won approval as attorney general last week. The sequence is: the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, the […]
2/9/2017
CRIME/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/POLICE/TRUMP EXEC ORDERS: ” ‘Preventing Violence Against Federal, State, Tribal, and Local Law Enforcement Officers’ The order calls on the Justice Department to ‘enhance the protection and safety’ of law enforcement by increasing penalties for crimes committed against officers. The attorney general is also instructed to review and determine whether existing federal laws adequately […]
2/6/2017
JUSTICE DEPT/TERRORISM: “The threat from radical Islamic terrorism is very real, just look at what is happening in Europe and the Middle-East. Courts must act fast!” – Donald Trump, Twitter.com, Feb. 6, 2017 09:49pm […]