Attorney General

Jones Decision Spurs FBI to Disable 3,000 GPS Devices and to Consider Legality of Trash Can Trespass

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling on behalf of a defendant challenging GPS tracking has forced the FBI to change its procedures. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Jones, the FBI turned off about 3,000 GPS devices, many of them stuck underneath cars, according to FBI…

Feb 28, 2012 3:17 PM CST

Meet Donald Verrilli, the Lawyer Who Will Defend President Obama’s Health Care Law

Solicitor General Donald Verrilli isn’t talking about the challenge to the Obama administration’s health care law, but he does reflect on his transition from BigLaw to government service in a newspaper interview. Verrilli is a former Jenner & Block partner who oversaw the firm’s Supreme Court practice. He tells USA…

Feb 17, 2012 3:09 PM CST

9th Circuit Refuses to Edit Prosecutor’s Name Out of Opinion, Tells DOJ to Own Up to Error

A federal appeals court that criticized a prosecutor last month for a “half-truth” was unmoved and apparently irked by a request to remove his name from the opinion. In an amended opinion (PDF), the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals kept the referral to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jerry…

Feb 15, 2012 1:44 PM CST

DOJ Losses in Two High-Profile Bribery Trials Linked to Racy Texts by FBI Agents

Federal prosecutors failed to win any convictions in two high-profile foreign bribery trials after the defense used the words of FBI agents to attack their credibility. One trial of six defendants ended in Washington, D.C., federal court last month, the Washington Post reports. The jury foreman, a nonpracticing lawyer, told…

Feb 14, 2012 1:38 PM CST

Judge Demands DOJ Emails on Immigration Claim, Says SCOTUS May Have Been Misled

The federal judge in New York who challenged several settlements by the Securities and Exchange Commission is now questioning whether Justice Department lawyers misled the U.S. Supreme Court. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff has ordered the government to turn over Justice Department emails documenting how its lawyers developed a claim…

Feb 13, 2012 12:00 PM CST

Mob Murder Victims’ Relatives Seek Profits From Killer’s Daughter’s Memoir

Relatives of some of murderous Mob underboss Salvatore “Sammy the Bull’ Gravano’s victims are seeking a share of the profits from his daughter’s upcoming memoir, Mob Daughter. The victims’ kin are enlisting the Arizona attorney general’s help in going after Karen Gravano’s earnings from the sale of the book under…

Feb 10, 2012 8:15 PM CST

$26B Foreclosure Settlement Announced After Holdout AGs Join Pact

Updated: State and federal officials have announced a $26 billion foreclosure settlement with five of the nation’s largest banks that was reached after two holdout attorneys general supported the deal. The pact announced today is the largest since a multistate tobacco settlement was reached in 1998, the Washington Post reports.…

Feb 9, 2012 12:44 PM CST

Arnold & Porter Partner Nominated to Head DOJ’s Antitrust Division

William J. Baer, a partner with Arnold & Porter, was recently nominated to head the Justice Department’s antitrust division. The New York Times’ DealBook blog today notes that Baer’s law firm represented AT&T in its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA, which the Justice Department successfully nixed. Baer, a former director…

Feb 6, 2012 10:06 PM CST

Eric Holder Announces $2.4M in Grants to Help Improve Indigent Criminal Defense Services

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder today announced two new Justice Department programs aimed at helping to bolster indigent defense services at the state and local levels. Between them, the two programs will make up to $2.4 million in federal funding available to research projects studying the barriers that prevent criminal…

Feb 4, 2012 11:24 PM CST

ACLU Sues DOJ to See ‘Targeted Killing’ Legal Justification Memos

The American Civil Liberties Union has sued to compel the Justice Department release of memos disclosing the legal justification for strikes that have killed U.S. citizens abroad. A lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court Wednesday follows the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-Yemeni citizen and suspected al-Qaida militant who was…

Feb 3, 2012 5:48 PM CST

DOJ Racks Up $1.8M Bill Defending Prosecutors in Botched Corruption Case Against Sen. Stevens

The Justice Department has spent nearly $1.8 million defending prosecutors accused of breaking the law during a failed corruption case against former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens. The government’s case against the senator crumbled three years ago when the DOJ acknowledged attorneys had concealed evidence that could have helped the defense,…

Feb 3, 2012 11:46 AM CST

Scalia and Holder to Speak at ABA Midyear Meeting in New Orleans

The ABA Midyear Meeting returns to New Orleans today, six years after Hurricane Katrina forced the association to move its midyear gathering out of the city. To ABA President Wm. T. (Bill) Robinson III, the meeting has symbolic significance. “In returning to New Orleans, we hope the ABA will demonstrate…

Feb 1, 2012 11:45 AM CST

BofA Borrowers Sign Confidentiality Pacts Before Getting Loan Modifications, Ariz. AG Says

The Arizona Attorney General’s office is asking a judge to block confidentiality agreements signed by borrowers who get mortgage modifications from Bank of America. Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne says the agreements are impeding his office’s investigation of the bank’s Countrywide Financial unit, according to the Phoenix Business Journal and…

Jan 27, 2012 2:03 PM CST

Obama Calls for Quicker Judicial Nominee Votes, Mortgage Crisis Unit; Four Justices Skip Speech

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. stayed away from the State of the Union speech for the second year in a row after his well-publicized reaction to the 2010 speech. Alito was one of four justices who did not attend on Tuesday evening, according to The BLT: The Blog of Legal…

Jan 25, 2012 12:59 PM CST

ABA President Calls for Probe of Attorney-Client Privilege Violations at Guantanamo

ABA President Wm. T. (Bill) Robinson III is urging U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to reverse a new Guantanamo policy that appears to violate attorney-client privilege. In a letter to Panetta dated Dec. 21, Robinson says lawyers for detainees are reporting that their privileged attorney-client communications are being intercepted and…

Dec 22, 2011 6:36 PM CST