Attorney General

Mukasey, Legal Ethics Debate on Tap at Delegates Meeting

U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey will give his first—and no doubt only—address to the ABA House of Delegates on Tuesday during the association’s annual meeting in New York City. The House convenes Monday. After adjourning Tuesday, the House will next meet in February during the 2009 midyear meeting in Boston.…

Aug 10, 2008 5:29 PM CDT

Why NBC’s Legal Reporter is Feuding With Karl Rove

From his perch as chief legal correspondent for NBC News, Dan Abrams has developed opinions on everything from the politicization of the Justice Department to news coverage of Barack Obama. At a luncheon speech at the ABA Annual Meeting on Friday, he was happy to share. Abrams began with criticism…

Aug 8, 2008 7:11 PM CDT

Ohio AG’s Husband Resigns from Vorys Amid Conflicts Issues

The husband of a law school dean who was named Ohio’s attorney general has retired from his law firm after questions about potential conflicts of interest. Douglas Rogers is retiring from Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease, which does more than $1 million in business with the state of Ohio, the…

Aug 6, 2008 1:36 PM CDT

Supreme Court Permits Execution of Killer in International Law Dispute

A convicted killer whose appeal over treaty obligations sparked several international law rulings has been put to death. Jose Medellin was executed after the U.S. Supreme Court said in a 5-4 opinion that it would not impose a stay, the Houston Chronicle reports. He had been convicted in the strangulation…

Aug 6, 2008 10:57 AM CDT

How Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson Worked the System

Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson were able to inject politics in Justice Department hiring decisions partly because they rewrote the rules governing the process, a recent report reveals. In January 2006, Goodling had been a staff counsel for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for only three months when she set out…

Aug 5, 2008 6:04 PM CDT

Judge Rejects Absolute Immunity Claim by Bush Aides in Prosecutor Firing Probe

Updated: A federal judge has rejected claims of absolute immunity asserted on behalf of former White House counsel Harriet Miers and former chief of staff Josh Bolten in an investigation into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys. U.S. District Judge John Bates “strongly rejected the administration’s legal arguments,” the Associated…

Jul 31, 2008 3:51 PM CDT

Panel Cites Rove for Contempt for Refusing to Testify in DOJ Hearings

Former White House political adviser Karl Rove has been cited for contempt by the House Judiciary Committee for refusing to testify about political influence in the Justice Department. The committee cited Rove for refusing to testify at a July 10 hearing, the Associated Press reports. The committee wanted to know…

Jul 31, 2008 12:47 PM CDT

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens Indicted on Charges of Lying on Disclosure Forms

Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska has been indicted on seven counts of lying on Senate financial disclosure forms, the U.S. Justice Department announced in a press conference this afternoon. The indictment charges that, from 1999 to 2006, Stevens accepted gifts from the oil services company Veco valued at more than…

Jul 29, 2008 5:19 PM CDT

Report Finds Politics Influenced Hiring of DOJ Officials, Immigration Judges

Updated: A new report claims concludes the Justice Department illegally considered politics in the hiring of some assistant U.S. attorneys, career officials and immigration judges, and puts the blame for the decisions on two aides to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The report says former White House liaison Monica Goodling…

Jul 28, 2008 3:15 PM CDT

DOJ Memo Allowed Severe, But Short-Term, Mental Pain in Interrogations

Newly released documents confirm that a secret Justice Department memo authorized waterboarding by the Central Intelligence Agency in 2002, according to a press release by the American Civil Liberties Union. The memo allowed harsh interrogation techniques causing severe mental pain that is not long-lasting. The August 2002 Justice Department memo…

Jul 24, 2008 5:38 PM CDT

Mukasey Calls on Congress to Set Rules for Gitmo Habeas Cases

Attorney General Michael Mukasey called on Congress yesterday to craft ground rules for federal appeals filed by detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. Mukasey outlined his recommendations for legislation in a speech to the American Enterprise Institute, Legal Times reports. If Congress doesn’t act, he said, judges will set the rules,…

Jul 22, 2008 11:41 AM CDT

Is Attorney General Mukasey Playing Caretaker or Terrorism Fighter?

Some had hoped Attorney General Michael Mukasey would fire a number of Justice Department insiders from the regime of his predecessor and investigate officials who approved harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects. Instead the former judge is leaving questions about terrorism interrogations and past political hiring for the federal courts and…

Jul 21, 2008 1:18 PM CDT

Top Deputy in US Watchdog Agency Quits, Objects to ‘Political Agendas’

The top deputy to the chief of a government watchdog agency has resigned and accused his boss of putting “political agendas and personal vendettas” ahead of his mission. James Byrne is resigning effective tomorrow from his post as deputy to Scott Bloch, chief of the Office of Special Counsel, the…

Jul 18, 2008 2:53 PM CDT

Some Federal Courthouses Swamped With ‘Crimmigration’ Cases

Federal courthouses in Texas and other border states are swamped with prosecutions for illegal border crossings. Immigration cases accounted for 58 percent of new federal prosecutions in April, the Dallas Morning News reports. The new cases are the result of a zero-tolerance policy designed to reduce the flow of illegal…

Jul 17, 2008 4:58 PM CDT

White House Rejected Clement to Lead Office of Legal Counsel, Backed Yoo

In 2003 then-Attorney General John Ashcroft recommended five candidates to head the Office of Legal Counsel, and administration officials rejected all of them, the Washington Post reports. Among the rejected candidates were Paul Clement, who later became solicitor general, and Brett Kavanaugh, now a federal appeals judge, the story says.…

Jul 17, 2008 10:49 AM CDT