Free Republic

President Bush is reportedly expected to nominate longtime prosecutor Noel Hillman to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals less than a week after a congressional report criticized the then-justice Department official for "incomplete and misleading" assurances to the court during Sandy Berger's 2005 plea bargain for taking classified documents. Noel Hillman Hillman, a newly appointed federal judge in New Jersey, most recently served as lead Justice Department prosecutor against Jack Abramoff in the Capitol Hill lobbying scandal. During his tenure with Justice, Hillman oversaw the investigation of Hillary Clinton's 2000 campaign finances, indicting and prosecuting her finance director, David...

Jersey judge up for circuit court post Hillman is expected to be Bush's nominee Tuesday, January 09, 2007 BY ROBERT COHEN STAR-LEDGER WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- President Bush is expected to nominate Noel Hillman, a longtime prosecutor and a newly appointed federal judge in New Jersey, to an opening on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

A Virginia man was sentenced yesterday to two years in prison for stealing more than 100 Civil War-era documents from the National Archives, including some he tried to sell on eBay. Howard Harner, 68, took letters authored by Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and other historical figures. Federal prosecutors sought a lengthy sentence to help discourage trafficking in stolen American history. Harner, of Staunton, pleaded guilty in March to hiding the documents in his clothing and smuggling them out of a National Archives research room from 1996 to 2002. Prosecutors said he made $47,314 by selling the documents to a...

Sentencing for former Clinton National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, who pleaded guilty in April to stealing and destroying top secret terrorism documents from the National Archives, has been delayed, NewsMax.com has learned. Asked why Berger wasn't sentenced as scheduled on Friday, July 8, a Justice Department spokesman told NewsMax on Tuesday that Berger's sentencing has been postponed till September. The spokesman declined to offer an explanation for the delay. Repeated calls asking about the postponement to Berger's lawyer, Washington, D.C., attorney Lanny Breuer, went unreturned. Federal District Court's U.S. Magistrate Deborah Robinson, who is presiding over the Berger case, also...

The investigation into Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist, took a provocative new turn when the Justice Department said that the chief prosecutor in the inquiry would step down this coming week because he had been nominated to a judgeship by President George W. Bush. The prosecutor, Noel Hillman, is chief of the department's Office of Public Integrity, and the move ends his involvement in an investigation that has reached into the administration as well as into the top ranks of the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill. Democrats swiftly questioned the move's timing, and called for a special prosecutor as Bush...