http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/doj/ en-us Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:06:25 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2047241/posts Former Atty. Gen. Testifies Today Former Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft answered questions about his role in the drafting of detainee interrogation rules. In his opening statement, Ashcroft admitted that he had "limited recollection" of the events pertinent to the committee's inquiry. Cspan http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2047241/posts#comment Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:06:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046764/posts WASHINGTON -- Failed lender IndyMac Bank is among nearly two dozen banks under scrutiny by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for possible mortgage fraud, U.S. officials said. The big Pasadena, Calif., bank was seized by regulators last week, the third-largest bank failure in U.S. history. It specialized in home loans to borrowers who lacked full documentation for their income or assets and have a higher default rate than other loans. The IndyMac investigation began shortly before the bank was seized last week, a law-enforcement official said. The Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046764/posts#comment Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:33:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046386/posts The U.S. Justice Department has asked a Seattle federal court to revoke the citizenship of a Washington state resident accused of serving the Nazis. Tuesday's complaint alleges that Yugoslavian-born Peter Egner, 86, in April 1941 joined the Nazi-controlled Security Police and Security Service in German-occupied Belgrade, Serbia, a Nazi mobile killing unit that participated in the mass murder of more than 17,000 Serbian civilians during World War II. According to the complaint, Egner has admitted volunteering to serve in the Security Police and Security Service and guarding prisoners as they were being transferred to concentration camps. Egner also admitted serving... JTA http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046386/posts#comment Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:48:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2045522/posts WASHINGTON: The name of the Justice Department's former top criminal prosecutor has turned up on the U.S. government's terror watch list. The former assistant attorney general, Jim Robinson, joined with the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday in calling for elimination of the list, which is designed to identify suspected terrorists. Critics say the list has caused thousands of innocent people to be questioned or searched. The rights organization estimates that one million records will have been added to the list by the end of July. Chad Kolton, a spokesman for the Terrorist Screening Center, which maintains the list, says... www.iht.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2045522/posts#comment Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:37:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2037665/posts WASHINGTON - A federal jury in Big Stone Gap, Va., convicted Daniel Dove, 26, formerly of Clintwood, Va., on one count each of conspiracy and felony copyright infringement, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich announced today. Dove was an administrator for EliteTorrents.org, an Internet piracy site that, until May 25, 2005, was a source of infringing copyrighted works, specifically pre-release movies. Elite Torrents used BitTorrent peer-to-peer (P2P) technology to distribute pirated works to thousands of members around the world. The jury was presented with evidence that Dove was an administrator of a small group of Elite Torrents members known as... DOJ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2037665/posts#comment Sat, 28 Jun 2008 06:35:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2037488/posts The Justice Department on Friday agreed to pay more than $5.8 million to Steven Hatfill, the former government scientist once branded by the Justice Department a person of interest in the deadly anthrax attacks of 2001. The legal settlement to Hatfill, in cash and an annual payments, signals the end of a civil lawsuit Hatfill brought against the Justice Department and FBI, accusing them of violating his privacy rights by improperly leaking sensitive information about the anthrax investigation to reporters. "I think it's a gratifying end to a very sad chapter in [Hatfill's] life and that of the FBI and... MSNBC http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2037488/posts#comment Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:48:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2035759/posts Audit: Justice Department Weeded Out Dems WASHINGTON, June 24, 2008(AP) A new audit concludes that rookie attorneys with Republican roots got interviewed for plum Justice Department jobs while their liberal-leaning counterparts got passed over. The Justice Department audit released Tuesday found that a screening program installed in 2002 weeded out job applicants who had liberal or Democratic ties. Improper use of the screening program peaked in 2006, when politics and ideology disqualified what the audit called a significant number of newly graduated lawyers and summer interns seeking jobs. The long-awaited report confirms widespread criticism last year that the once fiercely... CBS http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2035759/posts#comment Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:21:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2035825/posts A new audit concludes that rookie attorneys with Republican roots got interviewed for plum Justice Department jobs while their liberal-leaning counterparts got passed over. The Justice Department's Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility released the audit Tuesday, revealing that a screening program installed in 2002 weeded out job applicants who had liberal or Democratic ties. Improper use of the screening program peaked in 2006, when politics and ideology disqualified what the audit called a significant number of newly graduated lawyers and summer interns seeking jobs. The long-awaited report confirms widespread criticism last year that the once fiercely independent Justice... CBS http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2035825/posts#comment Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:44:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2033651/posts More than 400 people have been arrested since March as part of a sweeping Justice Department crackdown on alleged mortgage fraud schemes. Ex-Bear Stearns execs could face criminal charges for misleading investors. More Photos The FBI said the schemes — 144 mortgage fraud cases, resulting in 406 arrests between March 1 and June 18 — caused $1 billion in mortgage losses and have contributed to the nation's housing crisis. The arrests, dubbed operation “malicious mortgage,” were announced Thursday along with the separate indictments of two Bear Stearns hedge fund managers on fraud, conspiracy and insider trading charges — the first... http://abcnews.go.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2033651/posts#comment Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:06:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2030552/posts WASHINGTON - Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Friday the Supreme Court ruling on Guantanamo detainees would not affect the trials of enemy combatants. A divided court ruled decided suspected terrorists have the right to go to federal court to seek their release from indefinite detention. He added: "I think it bears emphasis that the court's decision does not concern military commission trials, which will continue to proceed. Instead it addresses the procedures that the Congress and the president put in place to permit enemy combatants to challenge their detention." http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2030552/posts#comment Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:04:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2028103/posts Nearly 60 House Democrats yesterday urged the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to examine whether top Bush administration officials may have committed crimes in authorizing the use of harsh interrogation tactics against suspected terrorists. In a letter to Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, the lawmakers cited what they said is "mounting evidence" that senior officials personally sanctioned the use of waterboarding and other aggressive tactics against detainees in U.S.-run prisons overseas. An independent investigation is needed to determine whether such actions violated U.S or international law, the letter stated. The Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2028103/posts#comment Mon, 9 Jun 2008 00:45:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2017705/posts HOW AN OUT-OF-CONTROL MEDIA INDICTED NIXON WITHOUT A TRIAL May 18, 2008 -- Swarmed by photographers, former Attorney General John Mitchell - once President Nixon's closest adviser, an awesome figure, with his wintry demeanor and trademark pipe, throughout the capital - emerged shaken and unsmiling from a three-hour grilling before the grand jury. It was April 20, 1973, and the Watergate cover-up was fast unraveling. Federal prosecutors and reporters smelled blood. "Mitchell had good reason to be grim," reported Daniel Schorr. "CBS News learns Mitchell admitted to the grand jury that he authorized payment of legal fees and expenses for... nypost.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2017705/posts#comment Sun, 18 May 2008 17:48:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2011163/posts I write to express my concern about the recent decision to eliminate the public corruption section in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. According to press reports, the 17 Assistant United States Attorneys assigned to the public corruption/environmental crimes unit in the Los Angeles office are being reassigned to other sections within the office. Public corruption cases will now apparently be mixed in with other types of cases and handled by a larger pool of prosecutors, rather than by a specialized section. Press articles have also mentioned the low morale and ill will that this decision... Senator Feinstein's website http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2011163/posts#comment Sun, 4 May 2008 21:19:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2008272/posts [WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Barack Obama (D-IL) today asked for a meeting with Justice Department officials and Illinois Congressional Delegation members to discuss including the Chicago metropolitan area in the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative – a program created in 2006 to enhance gang prevention, enforcement, and anti-recidivism efforts. The Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative has so far provided ten metropolitan regions with $2.5 million each for anti-gang efforts.“Chicago is home to some of the largest and most violent gangs in the country, but has been left out of one of the most highly touted... Senator Durbin http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2008272/posts#comment Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:03:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2008278/posts The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee on Monday threatened to serve subpoenas on former Attorney General John Ashcroft and two others associated with the Bush administration's interrogation policies if they don't agree to testify. If the three — including John C. Yoo, the former assistant deputy attorney general, and David Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff — do not reply by Friday, "I will have no choice but to consider the use of compulsory process," Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., wrote in letters to them. That's Washington-speak for issuing congressional subpoenas, tough talk that Conyers has leveled at... AP via SFGate http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2008278/posts#comment Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:09:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2007738/posts http://www.usdoj.gov/olp/colmconnollyresume.htm Court docket records and DOJ website http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2007738/posts#comment Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:54:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2006935/posts BROWNSVILLE -- Thirteen federal prosecutors are headed to South Texas to take on a growing number of immigration, drug trafficking and arms smuggling cases. The U.S. Department of Justice announced the new positions Wednesday as part of a plan to hire 64 new prosecutors and 35 support staff across the nation's entire Southwest border. The new staff members are expected to assist the five affected judicial districts in carrying out government initiatives aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration and hindering cross-border crime, said Deputy Attorney General Mark R. Filip during a trip to Nogales, Ariz. "There is no one-size-fits-all... The Monitor/AP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2006935/posts#comment Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:55:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2003898/posts Clearly, the Justice department believes there is reasonable cause to think US law has been violated by the Bandar payments. Since the money actually came from a British government account, it could be argued that the UK state - rather than BAE as such - was the actor, and thus should be denied the export permit it is asking for.It appears that the British government's application to export American tech on 72 Eurofighters to the desert princes is the subject of some debate both among Capitol Hill politicos and at the Departments of State and Justice.Now the US State Department... theregister.co.uk http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2003898/posts#comment Sat, 19 Apr 2008 11:17:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2003680/posts WASHINGTON -- The FBI is grappling with growing numbers of public corruption cases and a surge in mortgage fraud investigations, FBI Director Robert Mueller said Thursday, wondering aloud whether Americans are "becoming more crooked." In a speech to the American Bar Association, Mueller asked the assembled defense lawyers for help in "creating a culture of integrity" by reporting evidence of wrongdoing by politicians and corporate executives alike. "Anyone who follows the news these days and sees repeated references to corporate fraud and public corruption might think the nation is in the midst of a moral crisis," Mueller told the defense... Seattle Post-Intelligencer/AP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2003680/posts#comment Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:09:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2002957/posts The Senate moved yesterday toward asking the Justice Department for a criminal investigation of a $10 million legislative earmark whose provisions were mysteriously altered after Congress gave final approval to a huge 2005 highway funding bill. Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2002957/posts#comment Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:43:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2000927/posts On Friday, the government filed this statement of the facts in its memorandum in support of its motion for summary judgment in a civil rights and Privacy Act lawsuit brought by Dr. Steve Hatfill. “The anthrax attacks occurred in October 2001. Public officials, prominent members of the media, and ordinary citizens were targeted by this first bio-terrorist attack on American soil. Twenty-two persons were infected with anthrax; five died. At least 17 public buildings were contaminated. The attacks wreaked havoc on the U.S. postal system and disrupted government and commerce, resulting in economic losses estimated to exceed one billion dollars.... US DOJ and FBI Memorandum In Support of Motion For Summary Judgment (Statement of Facts) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2000927/posts#comment Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:20:52 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1997314/posts ATF added another weapon to its gang-fighting arsenal Nov. 28 with the formal opening of a new facility in Northern Virginia that will house 80 intelligence analysts, agents, prosecutors and support personnel — all from different agencies — and all working together to investigate and dismantle the most violent gangs in the United States. “Coordination has brought us success in the past, and can yield even more in the future,” said ATF Acting Director Michael Sullivan, speaking during the formal opening of the new facility. The new site brings together two separate gang deterrence units — the National Gang Intelligence... BATFE Press Release http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1997314/posts#comment Sat, 5 Apr 2008 21:27:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1996493/posts ASHCROFT, CRITICS FACE OFF Former U.S. attorney general peppered with questions in wide-ranging talk at Skidmore College By MARC PARRY, Staff writer SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Nobody threw eggs. The crowd didn't walk out in protest. But John Ashcroft was treated to a verbal grilling Wednesday as a guest speaker at largely liberal Skidmore College. An overflow assembly of more than 600 people questioned Ashcroft, President Bush's former attorney general, about the war in Iraq, abortion, torture, surveillance, drugs and immigration. A gay student asked him about gay marriage. "You can have a relationship, you just can't have the special status,"... Times Union http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1996493/posts#comment Fri, 4 Apr 2008 03:16:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1994674/posts The Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to review a federal appeals court decision limiting the Navy's use of sonar off the Southern California coast because of potential harm to dolphins and whales. In a petition filed Monday, the Justice Department argues that the decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco jeopardizes the Navy's ability to train sailors and Marines for service in wartime. AP via SFGate http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1994674/posts#comment Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:23:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1994649/posts WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Monday refused to step into a high-stakes legal fight between the Justice Department and indicted Rep. William Jefferson over the unprecedented raid on the lawmaker's Capitol Hill office. The Justice Department said the court's action would not impede the bribery case against the Louisiana Democrat. The justices declined to review an appeals court ruling that said that, while the office search itself was legal, the FBI reviewed legislative documents in violation of the Constitution. Other documents seized in the raid were provided to prosecutors and were used to support a 16-count indictment of Jefferson... AP on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1994649/posts#comment Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:55:35 GMT