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A federal judge has ordered the Justice Department to release notes and summaries of former Vice President Dick Cheney's 2004 interview with Special Prosecutor Pat Fitzgerald in the CIA leak case, but is allowing the deletion of what may be some of the most interesting details in the documents. In a ruling issued Thursday morning, Judge Emmet Sullivan flatly rejected claims by both Bush and Obama appointees at DOJ that the entirety of the records should be withheld because their disclosure could discourage White House officials from cooperating in future investigations. The judge said the prospect of such inquiries was...

The Justice Department's inspector general has agreed to investigate whether ACORN has applied for or received any DOJ grant money, in the wake of bipartisan criticism of the community activist group's operation. And seven other inspectors general are being asked by two congressional members to take a look at their funding mechanisms.

Former Miss USA runnerup Carrie Prejean is firing back at California pageant officials with a lawsuit that claims the state organization discriminated against her religious beliefs, caused her emotional distress and engaged in slander, her lawyer confirmed to FOXNews.com Monday. The 22-year-old beauty queen filed a complaint Monday morning in Los Angeles Superior Court against K2 Productions (the franchise that operates the Miss California Organization) as well as co-executive directors Keith Lewis and Shanna Moakler and publicist Roger Neal. Prejean lost her crown three months ago for what state pageant officials claimed was a “breach of contract” and failure to...

Iran's trial of more than 100 people who it has linked to post-election unrest is a "sign of weakness" and shows that the Islamic republic "is afraid of its own people," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told CNN Thursday. "It is a show trial, there's no doubt about it," Clinton told CNN's Fareed Zakaria in a wide-ranging interview to be broadcast on his "GPS" program Sunday. "It demonstrates I think better than any of us could ever say that this Iranian leadership is afraid of their own people, and afraid of the truth and the facts coming out." Clinton...

History and social analysis of the Duke lacrosse case, retold in part from original documents; compared and contrasted with the social history of the Scottsboro trials.

Blood & CircusesI know this is an economy-oriented blog, and believe me I will get there in just a moment. But there is something going on that's starting to feel (once again!) like the magician telling us to 'look over here' while the heart of the trick is going on somewhere else. Diversion tactics. That's how the magician awes and amazes us. That's how the military gains the element of surprise. And that's how governments, like ancient Rome, diverted the population from their misery (unemployment, hunger, homelessness, etc.) by providing them with such riveting entertainment that everything else just fades...

Senators who served with Alaska Republican Ted Stevens, as well as the man who beat him last November, voiced relief at the Justice Department’s decision to throw out the case against him. Sen. Lisa Murkowski , R-Alaska, said she was pleased the charges against her former colleague would be dropped, “but I am deeply disturbed that the government can ruin a man’s career and then say ‘never mind.’ There is nothing that will ever compensate for the loss of his reputation or leadership to the State of Alaska.” Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska, the Democrat who narrowly defeated Stevens last...

I didn't see a thread- it's live now on C-Span 3. Geithner isn't appearing, Frank has said "we" should bring a lawsuit against AIG.

Mexico slams Border Patrol clemency. Criticizes commutation for former Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean. Plus, President Bush and Administration Corruption Exposed Part II 01.22.09 CNN Lou Dobbs Video: "Mexico Meddling" (Ramos-Compean, Bush Corruption Exposed Pt II) 01.14.09 CNN Lou Dobbs Video: President-Elect Barack Obama and Mexico's President Felipe Calderon met SEGMENT INTRO: New questions about Mexico's brazen meddling in the case against former border patrol agents Ramos and Compean who remain in prison tonight, we'll have special coverage of this continuing miscarriage of justice and the intervention of the Mexican government in the Bush administration's policy making. # And...

“Lou Dobbs Tonight: Transcript” Justice Delayed: (Because of Bush) Ramos & Compean could be in prison for 2 more months Outrageous President Bush, Administration, and Mexican government collusion and corruption against our border patrol agents January 21, 2009 # This was Lou Dobbs first broadcast this week. SEGMENT INTRO: Former Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean, their sentences commuted, but they may be in prison for another two months. There is rising anger at the continued imprisonment of former Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean two days after President Bush commuted their sentences. And there is outrage at the Mexican...

Two Texas border guards sentenced each to about a dozen years in prison have had their sentences commuted by former President George W. Bush in one of last official acts. But the campaign on their behalf is not yet over. In 2005 Border Patrol agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos shot drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in the buttocks as he fled across the Rio Grande, away from an abandoned van load of marijuana, according to Associated Press reports. The two men, who did not report the shooting and tampered with evidence by picking up spent shell casings, were convicted...

The incoming Obama administration should launch a criminal investigation of Bush administration officials to see whether they broke the law in the name of national security, a House Democratic report said Tuesday. President-elect Barack Obama has been more cautious on the issue and has not endorsed such a recommendation. Along with the criminal probe, the report called for a Sept. 11-style commission with subpoena power, to gather facts and make recommendations on preventing misuse of power, according to the report by the Democratic staff of the House Judiciary Committee. The report covers Bush administration policies that Democrats have protested for...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Jurors in Ted Stevens' corruption trial discovered a mistake in the Alaska senator's indictment Monday, an embarrassing gaffe for Justice Department prosecutors that could benefit the senator. Stevens, the Senate's longest-serving Republican, is charged with lying on Senate financial documents about $250,000 in home renovations and gifts he received from a millionaire oil contractor. Among the seven charges in the indictment, prosecutors said that Stevens checked "no" on financial documents when asked whether he received any gifts in 2001. Actually, he checked "yes," — and jurors asked the judge what they should do about that. Prosecutors insisted...

A Christian publication already cleared by the Canadian Human Rights Commission on claims its reporting on issues involving homosexuality stem from "bigotry, discrimination and hate" will have to defend itself – again – from the same charges. Officials with Catholic Insight have confirmed homosexual activist Rob Wells, whose earlier allegations against the publication were rejected, has appealed to the Federal Court in Canada. "On Aug. 12, Toronto-based Catholic Insight and its editor Father Alphonse de Valk received notification that Wells had filed an appeal … with the Federal Court of Canada. Wells is requesting that the appeal be heard in...

Pelosi says House Judiciary may hold hearings on Kucinich impeachment resolution Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said this morning that the House Judiciary Committee may hold hearings on an impeachment resolution offered by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio). Kucinich is expected to offer a "privileged resolution" this afternoon calling on the House to look at whether President Bush should be removed from office for lying to Congress and the American public when he sought congressional approval back in 2002 for taking military action to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein.

HH: I want to begin with Mark Steyn, who has managed to leave the British Columbia courthouse wherein the British Columbia Human Rights tribunal is meeting to try him. He’s in the dock. He’s across the street from the courthouse. Mr. Steyn, welcome, how goes the affairs up there? MS: Well, I’m glad to be able to shake off the fellows from the British Columbia Sheriff’s department. It’s very bizarre to me. They said they’d had, they’d been following me around everywhere in the building I go because they say there are security concerns. And it’s not clear whether it’s...

After a two-year investigation into the killings of up to 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq, the Marine Corps has decided that none of the Marines involved in the incident will be charged with murder. Instead, two enlisted Marines and two Marine officers will face trial in coming months for the killings and for failing to investigate them. The most serious charges have been leveled against Marine Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, who is scheduled to be arraigned on charges of voluntary manslaughter in California next week, the last step before the case officially moves to trial. Initially called a massacre...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - An illegal immigrant who sought sanctuary in a Chicago church to avoid deportation has been arrested in Los Angeles. That word came this evening from the pastor of the Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago where Elvira Arellano (el-VEE'-ruh ah-ray-AH'-noh) had sought sanctuary. The Reverend Walter Coleman says he was with Arellano when she was detained this afternoon. But he says he couldn't immediately provide other details.

Marine Adviser Recuses Himself From Case By Associated Press 10:32 PM EDT, August 14, 2007 : CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - A top legal adviser at Camp Pendleton who was accused of making "inappropriate and imprudent" comments recused himself from the case against a Marine charged with murdering Iraqi civilians in Haditha. Lt. Col. Bill Riggs is a senior legal adviser to the general overseeing the prosecution of five Marines charged in the slayings. Riggs recused himself from the case against Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum, a military spokesman said Tuesday. His action came after he contacted Lt. Col. Paul Ware, the...

MINNEAPOLIS — The six Muslim leaders who were removed from a US Airways flight last fall after passengers thought they were acting suspiciously will not include those passengers in their lawsuit against the airline and police, an attorney for the imams said Wednesday. A motion to amend the complaint to include the names of airline employees and police officers was entered Tuesday in U.S. District Court, attorney Frederick Goetz said. "We've identified the people we think are responsible," he said. No passengers were named. The imams, who were handcuffed and questioned, say the airline discriminated against them and violated their...

Statement of Hillary Clinton on Libby Commutation Senator Clinton issued the following statement on President Bush’s decision to commute the sentence of Scooter Libby: "Today's decision is yet another example that this Administration simply considers itself above the law. This case arose from the Administration's politicization of national security intelligence and its efforts to punish those who spoke out against its policies. Four years into the Iraq war, Americans are still living with the consequences of this White House's efforts to quell dissent. This commutation sends the clear signal that in this Administration, cronyism and ideology trump competence and justice."

DURHAM, N.C. - A judge suspended District Attorney Mike Nifong effective immediately Tuesday after learning the prosecutor disbarred for his handling of the Duke lacrosse rape case intended to stay in office for another month. The sheriff immediately stripped Nifong of his badge and the keys to his office. There is probable cause to believe that Nifong "has engaged in willful misconduct in office and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, which brings the office into disrepute," Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson wrote in his order. Durham County Sheriff Worth Hill went to Nifong's house with a deputy to...

What happens when a dozen prominent law professors from across the legal spectrum - from Robert Bork to Alan Dershowitz - petition the judge in the Libby case to give credence to the concept that Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's constitutional authority in prosecuting the case is in question? U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton will have to address the issue next week when he has been asked by Libby's attorneys to consider releasing their client on bond pending appeal of his conviction for perjury and obstruction of an FBI investigation of the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's name to reporters....

Reported on Fox.

On Monday evening at Tufts University, I attended a long, grueling show trial -- the kind of show trial that doubtless will be repeated at campuses across the United States. This show trial was convened with the sole purpose of punishing The Primary Source, Tufts' lone conservative periodical. What was The Source's sin? On December 6, 2006, The Source printed a tasteless parody carol entitled "O Come, All Ye Black Folk." The carol was written from the perspective of an admissions officer, admitting students solely based on racially discriminatory stereotypes: "All come! Blacks, we need you, / Born into the...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) issued a subpoena Wednesday for all e-mails from White House adviser Karl Rove that relate to the firings of eight U.S. attorneys. “Attached please find a subpoena compelling the Department by May 15 to produce any and all emails and attachments to emails to, from, or copied to Karl Rove related to the Committee’s investigation into the preservation of prosecutorial independence and the Department of Justice’s politicization of the hiring and firing and decision-making of United States Attorneys, from any (1) White House account, (2) Republican National Committee account, or (3) other account,...

By the time he was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice on March 6 of this year, it had long been clear to opponents of the Bush administration that the trial of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby marked a defining moment. As Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, Libby had been a central figure in developing the President’s case for the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The lies he was accused of telling were wrapped up in the justification for that war, and with the administration’s attempt to discredit one of its critics. Thus, an acquittal of Libby would...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- A House committee voted Wednesday to grant immunity to Monica Goodling, a key aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales during the firings of eight U.S. attorneys. She had refused to testify, invoking her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. The 32-6 vote by the House Judiciary Committee surpassed the two-thirds majority required to grant a witness immunity from prosecution. A separate vote to authorize a subpoena for Goodling passed by voice vote. The House panel's action was part of a rapid-fire schedule Democrats have set to compel Bush administration officials, among them Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to...

Should Patrick Leahy himself be under oath? Who in the Senate does oversight of those charged with oversight when there has been a documented abuse and corruption of process by the committee chairman and some of his colleagues? Is it really Monica Goodling who needs to take the Fifth to protect herself against self-incrimination? Or is it Patrick Leahy?

Prosecutors fired for not backing Bush By LAURIE KELLMAN and LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writers 38 minutes ago Eight federal prosecutors were fired last year because they did not sufficiently support President Bush's priorities, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' former chief of staff says in remarks prepared for delivery Thursday to Congress. Separately, the Justice Department admitted Wednesday it gave senators inaccurate information about the firings and presidential political adviser Karl Rove's role in trying to secure a U.S. attorney's post for one of his former aides, Tim Griffin. In a letter accompanying new documents sent to the House and...

Waxman and Democratic colleagues did not ask these pertinent questions: Had not Plame been outed years ago by a Soviet agent? Was she not on an administrative, not operational, track at Langley? How could she be covert if, in public view, she drove to work each day at Langley? What about comments to me by then CIA spokesman Bill Harlow that Plame never would be given another foreign assignment? What about testimony to the FBI that her CIA employment was common knowledge in Washington? Instead of posing such questions, Waxman said flatly that Plame was covert and cited Hayden as...

Just the Truth? Why the Republicans Have Changed Their Tune Over the years, Republicans have held hearings on Bill Clinton’s Christmas card list and called for answers on Socks the Cat’s fan mail. Yet they continue to stonewall attempts to question key players in the scandal surrounding the apparently politically-motivated firing of eight U.S. Attorneys. Despite emails showing that top White House advisers such as Harriet Miers and Karl Rove were involved in the decision, the White House has cited executive privilege and placed restrictions on their cooperation with Congress such as demanding closed-door hearings with no transcripts and even...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A House panel on Wednesday approved subpoenas for President Bush's political adviser, Karl Rove and other top White House aides, setting up a constitutional showdown over the firings of eight federal prosecutors. By voice vote and without dissent, the House Judiciary subcommittee on commercial and administrative law decided to compel the president's top aides to testify publicly and under oath about their roles in the firings. The White House has refused to budge in the controversy, standing by embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and insisting that the firings were appropriate. White House spokesman Tony Snow said that...

A couple of days ago, Shane Gibson, the Bahamian immigration minister, resigned. The Tribune in Nassau had published front-page pictures of him in bed with Anna Nicole Smith. Could happen to anyone. Riding high in February, shot down in March. And, in fairness to the minister, both parties were fully clothed. Indeed, Anna Nicole was more fully clothed than she usually was out of bed. My point here is that this is a classic scandal in the Westminster parliamentary tradition: On Monday, you're blandly denying vague rumors; on Tuesday, they're all over the front page; on Wednesday, you're photographed alongside...

Breaking on MSNBC

CIA leak jury's notes suggest confusion By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer 19 minutes ago Juror notes in the CIA leak case suggest some jury room confusion about what exactly former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is accused of doing. After completing their ninth day of deliberations without a verdict Monday, jurors passed U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton three questions. All related to what Libby told the FBI regarding his 2003 telephone conversation with Time magazine's Matt Cooper about CIA operative Valerie Plame. Libby is accused of lying about what he told Cooper. Cooper says Libby confirmed...

Patrick Fitzgerald has finally unearthed an illogical and thoroughly unethical reason to jail someone that Mike Nifong hadn’t already trademarked. He now thinks he can get Scooter Libby sent to jail because a jury of Libby’s peers won’t be sending Dick Cheney any fan mail. In essence, that’s what Fitzgerald’s case has oxidized down to. He waxes metaphorical, in his description of Dick Cheney’s reputation. “"There's a cloud over the vice president," Mr. Fitzgerald told the jury. "We didn't put that cloud there. That cloud's there because the defendant obstructed justice. That cloud is something you just can't pretend isn't...

The lawyers defending I. Lewis Libby Jr. against perjury charges rested their case today, but not before suffering a series of defeats in legal rulings by the presiding judge. The judge, Reggie B. Walton, expressed in the strongest terms yet that he had been misled by the defense team about whether Mr. Libby would take the stand in his own defense ....Judge Walton said he “believed all along in the process that Mr. Libby was going to testify” and that his lawyers were now “playing games with the process.” The juror said that they were wearing the T-shirts (red with...

Judge: Defense Misled Court About Libby Feb 14 2:13 PM US/Eastern By MATT APUZZO Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense attorneys misled the court into thinking that former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby would testify in his CIA leak trial, a federal judge said Wednesday, as he blocked Libby from using some classified evidence in the case. Libby is accused of lying and obstructing an investigation into the 2003 leak of a CIA operative's identity. His attorneys have said for months in court papers that Libby would testify that he had important national security issues on his...

If you believe prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's case against Scooter Libby, you must also be ready to grasp the "evidence" for catastrophic man-made global warming over the next thousand years. Because in both cases you're looking for a needle in a haystack --- one that is so nanoscopically tiny that only the eye of faith can pick it out. The only way Fitzpatrick can believe his own legal charges is if he is dreadfully naive. (I don't even want to think about the idea that he is acting in bad faith.)

An FBI agent acknowledged Monday that some of her testimony could not be backed up by notes, an admission that attorneys for former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby seized on in an effort to undercut perjury and obstruction charges. Agent Deborah Bond testified last week that, in his FBI interview Libby adamantly denied discussing a CIA operative's identity with White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. Under cross-examination Monday, however, Bond conceded that FBI notes contain no record of such a denial. Rather, they say he may have discussed it but couldn't recall. “Adamantly might not be the perfect word,”...

Audio recordings of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's secret grand jury testimony will be released publicly after they are presented at his trial, the judge at Libby's trial ruled Monday. In a victory for the news media, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said he had little choice but to make them public under the law as applied in the federal court system in Washington, D.C, even though he has concerns about releasing the recordings while the case is under way. Libby is charged with perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI in an indictment that focuses in...

Fleischer: Plame came up over lunch By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer 39 minutes ago Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer testified Monday that then-colleague I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby told him over lunch that the wife of a prominent war critic worked at the CIA. Fleischer said the conversation happened June 7, 2003, days before Libby told investigators he was surprised to learn about the CIA operative from a reporter. That discrepancy is at the heart of Libby's perjury and obstruction trial. Fleischer, who was the chief White House spokesman for the first 2 1/2 years of President Bush's...

Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff who is on trial for perjury and obstruction of justice, claims he doesn’t remember, or mis-remembers, some of the conversations he had with reporters concerning the former CIA employee Valerie Plame Wilson. That, Libby says, accounts for the differences between his testimony about talks with journalists like Tim Russert and Matthew Cooper and the accounts of Russert and Cooper themselves. -snip-

Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage originally leaked Plame's identity. Armitage says the leak was inadvertent, and he is not being prosecuted.......Federal prosecutors are trying to show that Libby lied to investigators about conversations he had with reporters regarding Plame. Libby has denied lying and says he has a faulty memory........ Former Cheney Chief of Staff on Trial for Allegedly Lying to a Grand Jury, Not Outing CIA Agent: .Jan. 16, 2007 — Jury selection begins today in the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. Libby is charged with...

EL PASO, Texas -- One man and two women on the jury that convicted two former El Paso Border Patrol agents of shooting a drug smuggler in the buttocks last year said they were misled into agreeing with a guilty verdict, according to a motion filed Tuesday. Mary Stillinger, the lawyer for one of the agents, Ignacio Ramos, thought the jurors' statements should be grounds for setting the verdict aside and having a new trial for Ramos and fellow agent Jose Alonso Compean.

One of the stories going around Democrat Party circles is that party operatives like Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and American Family Voices weren't quite ready for primetime with the opposition research materials they had gathered for the 2006 election cycle. According to one political consultant with ties to the DNC and other party organizations, "I'm hearing the Foley story wasn't supposed to drop until about ten days out of the election. It was supposed the coup de grace, not the first shot." So why the rush? According to another DNC operative: bad polling numbers across the...

Information compiled from the Washington Post, “Congressional Sex Scandals in History,” and other sources. 10. Sen. Daniel Inouye. The 82-year-old Hawaii Democrat was accused in the 1990s by numerous women of sexual harassment. Democrats cast doubt on the allegations and the Senate Ethics Committee dropped its investigation. 9. Former Rep. Gus Savage. The Illinois Democrat was accused of fondling a Peace Corps volunteer in 1989 while on a trip to Africa. The House Ethics Committee decided against disciplinary action in 1990. 8. Rep. Barney Frank. The outspoken Massachusetts Democrat hired a male prostitute who ran a prostitution service from Frank’s...

Update: More on Mike Rogers. He edits this site, which used to be affiliated with Raw Story. Interestingly enough, one month before that small site that broke the news showed up, Rogers closed down his old blogger site “Blogactive” and started a new one under a new URL. More on this later if I find something of interest. Update: Well, folks should have known I would turn an eye on the blog site that was used to “expose’ Folely’s problems. One thing to note is it would not be impossible for the Dems to know of Folely’s issues. So let’s...