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Following a two-week absence, the Fort Hood attorney was back at it Friday despite a gag order, blogging on the perceived injustices suffered by his defense team in defending Major Nidal Hasan, the man charged in the shooting deaths of 13 people. Galligan was put under partial gag order, but is adamant that his public comments don’t violate any ethical or legal rules. In the latest post, he argues that his client was denied a “mitigation expert” — a key part of defending someone charged with a capital crime. Galligan explained that in order to push for the death penalty,...

Attorney General Eric Holder failed to tell the Senate about seven legal briefs he signed when lawmakers considered his nomination to his current job, according to a letter released on Friday.Two of the briefs involved appeals to the Supreme Court for Jose Padilla, who sought release from a military prison in South Carolina where he was being held after then-President George W. Bush designated him an "enemy combatant." Padilla was held in a military brig for three years before his case was moved to a criminal court in Miami, where he was convicted on charges of offering his services to...

A day after Republicans on Capitol Hill said they were "deeply concerned" over news that, during his confirmation process, Attorney General Eric Holder failed to disclose work on a terrorism-related legal brief, the Justice Department revealed Friday that the problem was wider than previously known. "It has come to our attention that some but not all briefs submitted to the Supreme Court by or on behalf of Attorney General Holder … [were supplied] in the course of his confirmation process last year," Assistant Attorney General Ron Weich said in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which vets judicial nominees....

During the Iran-Contra hearings of 1985, Americans were treated to brilliant National Security Advisor John Poindexter. Although everyone who had ever spent time with Poindexter agreed that he had a computer-like memory, he answered the same way to seemingly every question put to him by the boozy likes of Senator Ted Kennedy. "I don't recall," could have been Poindexter's nickname, and it was likely untrue. Later, in 1991 Poindexter was convicted for, among other things, obstruction of justice and perjury. Later, these convictions were overturned. At least Poindexter was a senior naval officer who was acting in the interests of...

During his confirmation last year, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. failed to notify the Senate that he had signed several briefs urging courts to reject President George W. Bush’s claim that he had the power to imprison an American citizen as an “enemy combatant,” the Justice Department acknowledged Thursday. The briefs should have been disclosed as part of the confirmation process,” said Matthew Miller, a Justice Department spokesman. “In preparing thousands of pages for submission, it was unfortunately and inadvertently missed. In any event, the attorney general has publicly discussed his positions on detention policy on many occasions, including...

During his confirmation more than a year ago, Attorney General Eric Holder failed to notify lawmakers he had contributed to a legal brief dealing with the use of federal courts in fighting terrorism, the Justice Department acknowledged on Wednesday. “The brief should have been disclosed as part of the confirmation process,” Justice Department spokesman Matt Miller said in a statement. “In preparing thousands of pages for submission, it was unfortunately and inadvertently missed.” Still, the “amicus brief,” filed with the Supreme Court in 2004, resonates years later as Holder finds himself defending the handling of some recent terrorism cases, particularly...

Senate Republicans pressed Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday afternoon over political appointees who'd previously defended suspects in terrorism cases. All seven members of the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote Holder, asking for more details about political appointees within the Department of Justice, who, Republicans say, may have conflicts of interest in the government's prosecution in terrorism cases. The GOP senators wrote Holder to complain that a response to an original request for information on those Justice Department personnel was "at best nonresponsive and, at worst, intentionally evasive." "It appears the Department has chosen to go another direction and refuse to...

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa is rightly unhappy that the Justice Department won't divulge the names of the nine Justice Department lawyers who directly represented suspected-terrorist detainees, or their cases. Grassley identified two himself, Neal Katyal (an aside: Katyal is a very impressive guy and very charming and level-headed) and Jennifer Daskal. Well, we've identified two more of them: Deputy AG counsel Eric Columbus and Office of Legal Counsel lawyer Jonathan Cedarbaum. (With reference to: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/25/identifying-the-gitmo-nine/)

The Obama administration bluntly urged the Congress Thursday to steer clear of directing where terrorism suspects should be prosecuted, pushing back against efforts to require military rather than civilian trials. A bipartisan group of senators has offered legislation aimed at forcing the administration to prosecute terrorism suspects, like the self-professed mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in special military commission trials instead of traditional criminal courts. Attorney General Eric Holder ordered Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators to be tried in a criminal court in Manhattan. But concerns by some lawmakers about security costs and granting full...

War On Terror: The Justice Department employs nine lawyers previously involved in the defense of terrorist detainees. This is a colossal conflict of interest. Just whose side are they on? From the dropping of a voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party to the decision to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Muhammed in a civilian court within blocks of where the World Trade Center once stood, the actions and attitudes of the Justice Department and Attorney General Eric Holder toward the thugs and terrorists who threaten us has grown curiouser and curiouser. We may now have a clue as...

War On Terror: The Justice Department employs nine lawyers previously involved in the defense of terrorist detainees. This is a colossal conflict of interest. Just whose side are they on? From the dropping of a voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party to the decision to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Muhammed in a civilian court within blocks of where the World Trade Center once stood, the actions and attitudes of the Justice Department and Attorney General Eric Holder toward the thugs and terrorists who threaten us has grown curiouser and curiouser. We may now have a clue as...

The White House wants to play Transparency Olympics with the Tea Party movement. President Obama's Chief Technology Officer Andrew McLaughlin dared Tea Party activists and conservatives last week to "push the administration to make its policies more open" and make it a "political competition … to see who can be more radical in their openness," The Hill reported. So, let's start by knocking down Attorney General Eric Holder's national security stonewall at the Department of Justice, shall we? Let the sun shine in. For more than a year, I've been writing about the looming national security and conflict-of-interest problems posed...

Attorney General Eric Holder says the corralling of Afghan native Najibullah Zazi before he could bomb New York subways proves the Justice Department is well equipped to combat terrorism. Not so fast. Yes, Zazi pleaded guilty Monday in a Brooklyn federal court to assorted terrorism charges -- including conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction. The "martyrdom operation" -- a suicide bombing set for last Sept. 14-16 -- was interrupted when Zazi realized the feds were on to him. Now Holder says Zazi coughed up valuable intelligence -- demonstrating that the Justice Department belongs on the front lines in the...

A number of lawyers who work on terrorist issues at the Justice Department represented terrorist detainees before joining the Obama administration. At a hearing three months ago, Sen. Charles Grassley raised the possibility of a conflict with Attorney General Eric Holder. Grassley, a senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, posed three simple questions: Who are they, who did they represent, and what are their duties at the Justice Department today? At the time, Grassley knew from press reports that two high-ranking department officials now working on detainee issues had previously worked for detainees: Principal Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal...

How do you fast track your chances to work for the Department of Justice? Defend terrorists. After months of stalling, Attorney General Eric Holder has finally (sort of) admitted that at least nine of President Obama's appointees have either represented or advocated for Guantanamo detainees But Mr. Holder is still refusing to name any of the now DOJ lawyers who worked on behalf of terrorists except for two who were already known.

Poisoning is latest vogue terror trend... Are Obama-lies and coverups effectively "supporting" ongoing mass poisoning, amongst other terror hits, which he also denies are terror hits?? Who can possibly say this guy is even on our side? --Janet Napolitano lied to Congress concerning the Flight 253 fiasco --Obama has been lying non stop as has Eric Holder and the entire bunch KNEW this mass murder attack was attempted by food poisoning at Fort Jackson (and there was Obama flying off to Hawaii and he said absolutely nothing). We do not know where these 5 Islamic terrorists are, whose custody they...

How much time, do you suppose, has Eric Holder spent as attorney general of the United States explaining that he meant no harm by all the harm he's done? His not very acceptable explanations began even before he was confirmed as attorney general. That's when he was quizzed about his role in approving a pardon for Marc Rich, international fugitive and big giver to various political causes. Mr. Rich was but one of various dubious types Bill Clinton pardoned just before he left the White House, and The Hon. Eric Holder cleared the whole, smelly deal. Having earned his stripes,...

Here is video of Democrat Sen. Arlen Specter admitting that Terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab shoud NOT have been read his "Miranda Rights" following his attempt to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day. Specter said they should have tried to get all information possible from Abdulmutallab in order to prevent future attacks. Specter said it was unnecessary to read him his "Miranda warnings" even if you intend to try him in civilian court because "you had that guy dead to rights" without anything he might say following his capture. . . . (VIDEO)

Holder's decision to Mirandize the Christmas bomber was bad enough. Telling the world he was talking again waseven worse Security: The administration says the Christmas bomber is now cooperating with authorities. We thought they got all the information he had in a 50-minute chat. So just why are we letting our enemies know he's talking? In any war, it's vitally important that you know what your enemy is planning and doing, just as it's important that your actions and plans remain secret. And when you know about your enemy's plans it's important they don't know that you know. We were...

Andrew C. McCarthy February 5, 2010 Holder on Holder AG is unconvincing about ‘his’ decisions on Christmas bomber.  Attorney General Eric Holder has responded to criticism of the Obama administration’s handling of the Christmas bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, with an “all’s well that ends well” letter to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell. Holder’s missive vigorously defends what he says was his decision to treat Abdulmutallab as a criminal defendant, to impose peacetime law-enforcement protocols on his interrogation, and to charge him in civilian court. He argues that the use of the criminal-justice system has been vindicated because the terrorist is...