Attorney General

DOJ Sues Colorado Springs Police for Retaliating Against Officer

The U.S. Justice Department has sued the Colorado Springs police department for refusing to promote an officer who helped his wife in a successful disabilities suit against the police. The suit alleges the department did not promote Lance Lazoff in retaliation for helping his wife challenge its policy requiring the…

Dec 12, 2007 7:23 PM CST

AG Mukasey Backs Telecom Immunity in Editorial

In an editorial published today in the Los Angeles Times, Attorney General Michael Mukasey backs liability protection for telecommunications companies that cooperated in a terrorism wiretap program. Mukasey notes pending legislation to extend the government’s surveillance program and promotes a version passed by the Senate Intelligence Committee, which provides immunity…

Dec 12, 2007 4:28 PM CST

Lawyer: CIA Has Photos of Outsourced Torture of Gitmo Suspect

A lawyer for a Guantanamo Bay terrorism suspect allegedly tortured in Morocco when his interrogation was outsourced by the U.S. says the CIA was present and has photographs of the physical abuse of his client. Binyam Mohamed, a 27-year-old Ethiopian was sliced in the chest and penis by interrogators during…

Dec 11, 2007 6:43 PM CST

Prosecutors Bringing More Foreign Bribery Cases

Prosecutors and securities officials are increasingly targeting companies for paying bribes to obtain foreign contracts, bringing more than double the number of cases this year than the number filed in 2004. The government has already collected more than $100 million in penalties this year, the Washington Post reports. Prosecutions are…

Dec 5, 2007 4:17 PM CST

Number on Gun-Ban List Doubles

The number of people banned from buying guns because of mental health problems has more than doubled since the Virginia Tech shootings last April. Attorney General Michael Mukasey said in a Utah speech that the numbers have increased because of increased reporting by the states, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.…

Nov 30, 2007 3:54 PM CST

Judiciary Committee Chair Rejects Privilege Claims

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy says he is rejecting executive privilege claims in an investigation of the firing of U.S. attorneys. Leahy said President Bush was not involved with the firings, making illegal his claims of executive privilege for his chief of staff, Joshua Bolten, and former political adviser…

Nov 30, 2007 12:44 PM CST

DOJ Warns of E-Mail Hoax

The U.S. Justice Department is warning about spam e-mail messages that claim the recipient is the subject of a DOJ complaint. The e-mails say a case has been filed against the recipients or their businesses by a Mr. Henry Stewart and include an attachment purporting to be a copy of…

Nov 27, 2007 5:26 PM CST

An Ex-AG Asks Mukasey to Release Secret Opinions

A former attorney general has joined with another high-profile lawyer to ask Michael Mukasey to release the Justice Department’s secret legal opinions on torture and the war on terrorism. Former Attorney General Nicholas deB. Katzenbach and Frederick A. O. Schwarz Jr. wrote a New York Times op-ed asking the new…

Nov 20, 2007 4:15 PM CST

Minn. US Atty Steps Down, Amid More Rumored Resignations

CORRECTED: Amid rumors that two more top deputies were about to resign, an embattled U.S. attorney in Minnesota has accepted a job in Washington, D.C. Rachel Paulose, 34, announced today that she will move in January to a Justice Department job as a legal policy adviser to Attorney General Michael…

Nov 19, 2007 10:42 PM CST

Marchers Call for More Hate-Crime Prosecutions

Thousands of marchers circled the Justice Department’s headquarters today to urge the federal government to prosecute hate crimes more vigorously. The Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III led the protest, the Washington Post reports. Sharpton told the newspaper last week that march organizers were dismayed that no action…

Nov 16, 2007 6:53 PM CST

White House Announces Top DOJ Picks

Five new nominees were named today by the White House as desired appointees to top jobs at the U.S. Department of Justice. For the department’s No. 2 post, newly sworn-in U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey has selected a federal district court judge in Chicago, Mark Filip, to be his deputy…

Nov 15, 2007 6:52 PM CST

Legal Defense Fund Set Up for Gonzales

A friend of Alberto Gonzales has set up a legal defense fund to cover the former attorney general’s legal expenses in a probe related to congressional testimony about the Justice Department. David Leitch, who is general counsel of Ford Motor Co., asked for donations to the fund in an e-mail…

Nov 15, 2007 11:42 AM CST

Bush Promises New DOJ Appointments

Speaking today at a swearing-in ceremony for Attorney General Michael Mukasey, President Bush promised he will announce Thursday nominations to fill some of the dozen vacant Justice Department leadership positions. Mukasey was officially sworn in last week, and today’s occasion was ceremonial, the Associated Press reports. Former attorneys general John…

Nov 14, 2007 6:11 PM CST

FBI Finds at Least 14 Blackwater Shootings Unjustified

The FBI has concluded that Blackwater security guards were not justified in shooting at least 14 of 17 Iraqi civilians killed in a Sept. 16 incident, the New York Times reports. Government officials told the Times that the guards opened fire in the mistaken belief they were being attacked when…

Nov 14, 2007 1:56 PM CST

DOJ Reopens Domestic Wiretap Investigation

Updated: In a move seen as an indicator of where the Department of Justice may now be headed under the direction of a new U.S. Attorney General, the department has reopened a dormant investigation of whether the National Security Agency violated the law by engaging in a warrantless domestic wiretapping…

Nov 13, 2007 8:56 PM CST