Attorney General

Antitrust Chief Set to Announce Stronger Predatory Behavior Rules

Christine Varney, the chief of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, will announce today a tougher antitrust stance supporting smaller companies that complain of aggressive tactics by market-dominating rivals. Varney will call for aggressive action against dominant companies that engage in predatory behavior in two speeches, the first today at the…

May 11, 2009 1:46 PM CDT

Experts See Discipline Hurdles for Interrogation Memo Authors

Justice Department lawyers who wrote memos approving harsh interrogation techniques for terrorism suspects are unlikely to be disciplined for the legal advice, ethics experts say. Law professors and ethics experts tell the Washington Post that obstacles to ethics sanctions include difficulties in gathering witnesses and evidence and the lack of…

May 7, 2009 12:32 PM CDT

Former Bush Officials Seek Changes in DOJ Report Critical of Bybee and Yoo

As the U.S. Department of Justice gets ready to release a legal ethics report on two government attorneys involved in the drafting of what some term “torture” memos authorizing the use of harsh interrogation methods after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, former Bush administration officials reportedly are lobbying for…

May 5, 2009 8:53 PM CDT

Sen. Leahy Asks Judge Bybee to Testify About ‘Torture’ Memos

In the latest development in an ongoing controversy over internal government memos about permissible interrogation techniques in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has asked a government attorney who approved them to testify. A U.S. Department of Justice lawyer when…

Apr 29, 2009 11:04 PM CDT

Bybee Colleague Says So-Called Torture Memo Just ‘Got Away from Him’

Federal appeals judge Jay Bybee had been a popular law professor at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas before his stint in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, winning professor of the year in 2000. Now Bybee’s colleagues at UNLV and elsewhere are theorizing why he signed an…

Apr 27, 2009 12:14 PM CDT

Holder and Craig Supported Releasing DOJ Interrogation Memos

As administration officials debated whether to release Justice Department memos authorizing harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects, two lawyers argued for their disclosure: Attorney General Eric Holder and White House counsel Gregory Craig. The debate is detailed in a Washington Post story. Craig had warned that a federal court case seeking…

Apr 24, 2009 1:24 PM CDT

SG Urges High Court to Overrule Case Restricting Police Questioning

The solicitor general is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule a 1986 decision that restricts police questioning of suspects who have asked for a lawyer. The Supreme Court decision, Michigan v. Jackson, generally bars police from questioning suspects who have asserted a right to legal counsel, unless a lawyer…

Apr 24, 2009 12:20 PM CDT

Ex-AG Reportedly Intervened for Lawmaker to Stop Wiretap Story

Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales reportedly delayed disclosure of a lawmaker’s wiretap to Congress in an effort to protect the government’s secret terrorism spy program. A wiretap of a suspected Israeli agent allegedly caught the lawmaker, U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., promising to lobby the Justice Department to reduce charges…

Apr 24, 2009 11:53 AM CDT

Lawyer Claims Texas AG Fired Her for Complaint About Christian Holidays

A former lawyer in the Texas Attorney General’s office claims in a lawsuit that she was fired after complaining about sex bias and a policy that showed a preference for Christian holidays. The plaintiff, Rhonda Pressley, has worked in the office for 18 years, Texas Lawyer reports. She claims her…

Apr 23, 2009 5:13 PM CDT

75 Former Attys General Ask Holder to Launch Probe of Siegelman’s Prosecution

Emboldened by Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to drop its case against former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, a group of 75 former state attorneys general from across the country is asking for an investigation into whether former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman’s corruption prosecution should stand. The effort is bipartisan, the…

Apr 23, 2009 5:01 PM CDT

Ashcroft, Other Top Bush Officials, OK’d Waterboarding in 2003

Top officials in the Bush administration, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, were briefed on and approved, by 2003, the controversial use of waterboarding on terrorism suspects by the Central Intelligence Agency, reports the Washington Post. Rice gave a key early approval at a…

Apr 23, 2009 12:13 AM CDT

Congresswoman Blasts Government for Taping Her Phone Calls

U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., is demanding Justice Department transcripts of her wiretapped phone calls, telling the DOJ in a letter that she is outraged to learn of the secret eavesdropping in 2005 or 2006. Harman’s demands follow a report in Congressional Quarterly that said Harman was recorded making a…

Apr 22, 2009 4:46 PM CDT

Former AG Ashcroft Forms Nationwide Law Firm with Ex-Prosecutors

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft is teaming up with former federal prosecutors to open a nationwide law firm that will affiliate with his consulting business. Ashcroft’s law firm is expected to open offices in several cities in the next several weeks, the St. Louis Business Journal reports. The former Missouri…

Apr 22, 2009 12:41 PM CDT

Obama Won’t Rule Out Prosecution of ‘Torture’ Memo Authors

President Obama says he wants to look forward rather than backward in the controversy over harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects—but he’ll also look to his attorney general for a decision on whether to prosecute Department of Justice lawyers who wrote memos authorizing the tactics. Obama didn’t rule out the possibility…

Apr 21, 2009 6:40 PM CDT

Congressman Calls for Impeachment of Bybee over Torture Memos

A Democratic congressman is calling for the impeachment of a federal appeals judge for his Justice Department memos approving harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects. U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, is the first member of Congress to call for the impeachment of…

Apr 21, 2009 11:32 AM CDT