Gonzales Resigns

Updated: Calling Alberto Gonzales “a man of integrity, decency and principle,” President Bush announced this morning that he has reluctantly accepted the attorney general’s resignation.

U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement will serve as acting attorney general after Gonzales’ resignation on Sept. 17, Bush said.

Gonzales has been buffeted by allegations that the U.S. Justice Department engaged in politically motivated hiring and firing. Critics also questioned whether Gonzales testified truthfully before Congress about controversy surrounding a National Security Agency surveillance program.

Bush said Gonzales endured “months of unfair treatment” and his “good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons.”

The controversy was impeding Gonzales’ work, he said.

Aug 27, 2007 3:58 PM CDT

MI Lawyer Fieger Indicted

Controversial Michigan lawyer Geoffrey Fieger has been indicted on charges he conspired to make about $127,000 in illegal campaign contributions to the 2004 campaign of John Edwards. The indictment claims Fieger’s law firm reimbursed employees and contractors who made individual $2,000 contributions to Edwards, the legal limit, according to the…

Aug 27, 2007 11:02 AM CDT

Another DOJ Official Leaves

The revolving door at the U.S. Justice Department continues to spin. The latest person to leave is Wan J. Kim, the head of the civil rights division. DOJ officials said the departure is not related to the controversy over political influence within the department, the New York Times (reg. req.)…

Aug 24, 2007 2:16 PM CDT

Wiretap Law Gives Broad Power

Lawmakers may have given the government more authority to search Americans than they realized when they quickly passed a terrorism wiretap law before the end of the congressional session. Some experts told the New York Times the new law may give the government power in certain situations to seize Americans’…

Aug 19, 2007 8:34 PM CDT

ABA Prez Calls Attempts to Sway US Attys a ‘Corruption of Justice’

For the past several months, as public debate swirled over the alleged political firings of nine U.S. attorneys, the ABA has remained fairly quiet. But this week, the association’s policy-making body spoke out, and so did its new president. At a news conference, newly installed ABA President William H. Neukom…

Aug 15, 2007 2:12 PM CDT

ABA Speaks Out on Status of U.S. Attorneys

The ABA remained largely silent as Congress and the Bush administration wrangled during the past several months over whether the firings of nine U.S. attorneys were politically motivated or simply internal personnel decisions by the Department of Justice. But today, the ABA’s policy-making House of Delegates weighed in on the…

Aug 14, 2007 8:30 PM CDT

ABA Critical of US Atty Firings

Updated: A watered-down resolution on the controversial firing of nine U.S. Attorneys by the Justice Department has passed the ABA’s policy-making House of Delegates, which wound up its final day of business today in San Francisco. Plus, Alabama lawyer Tommy Wells was picked to head the ABA in 2008. On…

Aug 14, 2007 5:21 PM CDT

Reporters Ordered to Reveal Sources

A federal judge has ordered five reporters to reveal their law enforcement sources in a lawsuit filed by a bioterrorism expert once identified as a person of interest in the 2001 anthrax attacks. Steven J. Hatfill claims the government violated the Privacy Act by leaking information about him. He has…

Aug 14, 2007 12:04 PM CDT

Smut Review Yields No Prosecutions

An outsourced Justice Department program to review adult Web sites for obscene materials has not resulted in a single prosecution. It’s not for a lack of referrals, the New York Times reports. The review program, run for two years under an annual grant of about $150,000, has passed along 67,000…

Aug 10, 2007 2:13 PM CDT

DOJ Aides Attended Political Briefings

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says his top aides have attended at least a dozen political briefings at the White House and another at the Department of Agriculture. Gonzales revealed the briefings in a letter clarifying earlier testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Washington Post reports. On July 24 Gonzales…

Aug 6, 2007 11:02 AM CDT

Bush Signs Wiretap Law

President Bush has signed a law that allows the government to eavesdrop on phone calls and e-mails of terrorism suspects overseas without a warrant, even when the suspect is communicating with someone inside the United States. The attorney general and the director of national intelligence have the authority to approve…

Aug 6, 2007 10:40 AM CDT

WH Aide Offers BlackBerry Excuse

The showdown between the administration and the Senate Judiciary Committee took another turn yesterday, as a White House aide refused to answer questions. J. Scott Jennings was called to testify about the firings of nine U.S. attorneys. But in response to each question about the firings, he said he could…

Aug 3, 2007 12:41 PM CDT

DOJ Confession Didn’t Help Chiquita

Chiquita International Brands met with a top Justice Department official in April 2003 to disclose paying protection money to a Colombian paramilitary group on a U.S. list of terrorist organizations. Then the company waited for a response. And waited. The official was Michael Chertoff, sources told the Washington Post. At…

Aug 2, 2007 6:36 PM CDT

Expanded Wiretap Powers Proposed

Updated: Democrats have proposed temporary legislation to expand government powers to wiretap suspected foreign terrorists for the next six months. Currently, the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approves wiretaps of foreign terrorism suspects who have conversations with people in the United States. The Democratic proposal would authorize the court to…

Aug 2, 2007 2:05 PM CDT

Gonzales Explains Testimony

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has declined to alter his Senate testimony in a letter that defends his statements about the controversy surrounding surveillance programs. “I am deeply concerned with suggestions that my testimony was misleading and am determined to address any such impression,” Gonzales wrote in the letter to…

Aug 2, 2007 1:02 PM CDT