Federal Government

White House Admin Office E-Mails Not Covered By FOIA, Federal Judge Says

Although the White House Office of Administration has for decades considered itself subject to the Freedom of Information Act, in fact FOIA doesn’t apply to White House e-mails held there because the office isn’t an agency under the statute, a federal judge said today. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly reached…

Jun 16, 2008 9:15 PM CDT

Supreme Court Agrees to Decide Immunity of Former Attorney General

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether former Attorney General John Ashcroft and other past government officials have immunity from a lawsuit claiming religious discrimination against Sept. 11 detainees, SCOTUSblog reports. The suit by Pakistan citizen Javaid Iqbal claims he was discriminated against on the basis of religion…

Jun 16, 2008 2:39 PM CDT

Claimed China Hack Attack Targets: US Gov’t, Business and Utilities

After news that China may have secretly copied information in the U.S. commerce secretary’s laptop last year, a Congressman says that’s far from the only intrusion for which computer hackers there may be responsible. China also seems to have been hacking into computers in Congressional offices, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.)…

Jun 11, 2008 7:19 PM CDT

Most Gitmo Prisoners at Psychological Risk, Report Says

Held under conditions even more stringent than those in “supermax” prisons in the U.S., many detainees at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba are at least at risk of psychological breakdown, a human rights group reports. Of 270 prisoners at Gitmo, 185 are held in solitary confinement for 22…

Jun 10, 2008 4:00 PM CDT

20 Ex-Prosecutors Back House in Suit Seeking to Enforce Firings Subpoenas

A group of 20 former U.S. attorneys has filed an amicus brief supporting the House of Representatives in its lawsuit seeking to enforce subpoenas in its probe into the firings of nine federal prosecutors. President Bush has cited executive privilege to protect chief of staff Joshua Bolten and ex-White House…

Jun 2, 2008 5:01 PM CDT

Logjam

Politicians can’t agree who should fill vacancies on the nation’s most reliably conservative appellate court. If the logjam lasts past November, the court may take a turn to the left.

Jun 1, 2008 1:15 PM CDT

Did China Copy U.S. Commerce Secretary’s Laptop Computer?

A U.S. investigation is under way to determine whether China secretly copied a top American official’s government laptop computer during a trip late last year, subsequently using the information in attempts to hack into Commerce Department computers. “Surreptitious copying is believed to have occurred when a laptop was left unattended…

May 30, 2008 12:34 AM CDT

Our Client: Osama bin Laden’s Ex-Driver—and the Rule of Law

A 2004 telephone call from a law professor and a military lawyer in 2004 led to a startling shift in practice for two Seattle business litigators at Perkins Coie. Soon Harry Schneider, 54, and Joe McMillan, 48, were representing a terrorism suspect in an extremely high-profile case that has already…

May 27, 2008 3:01 PM CDT

DOJ Memo Said FISA’s ‘Exclusive’ Provisions Didn’t Always Apply

A sentence in a Justice Department memo helps explain how the administration justified domestic wiretaps of overseas terrorism suspects despite a law establishing a special court to hear surveillance requests. Two senators criticized the legal interpretation in a Washington Post story that examines the memo’s legal argument. The sentence was…

May 23, 2008 10:36 AM CDT

Tired of Waiting, House Subpoenas Karl Rove to Testify in US Atty Probe

The House Judiciary Committee today subpoenaed Karl Rove, the ex-White House political adviser. He’s being called to testify as part of the committee’s continuing probe of whether the White House was overly involved with the Justice Department. The Judiciary Committee is looking into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys and…

May 22, 2008 7:26 PM CDT

Ashcroft, Chertoff Among Those Who Raised Concerns About Interrogations

Among the Justice Department officials who raised concerns about harsh interrogations of al-Qaida suspects were Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security chief who was at the time the assistant attorney general in charge of the criminal division, and the attorney general himself, John Ashcroft. Sources told the Washington Post that Ashcroft…

May 22, 2008 11:59 AM CDT

Supreme Court Shot for Hillary Clinton?

As Barack Obama slowly but surely takes a definitive lead in the Democratic primary, there’s another option he could pursue to put opponent Hillary Clinton on his team as she gamely continues her seeming losing battle for the presidential nomination. “It’s likely that the next president will face at least…

May 22, 2008 12:36 AM CDT

New Watergate Book Praises John Mitchell, Blames John Dean

A much-awaited revisionist book about Watergate is being released. But, while it shifts the blame a bit between some of President Richard M. Nixon’s men concerning their responsibility for the 1972 political break-in that eventually forced Nixon from office in 1974 and put top aides in prison, the bottom line…

May 19, 2008 7:13 PM CDT

Federal Judge to Review Claimed 2002 U.S. Torture Memo

A federal judge has ordered the U.S. government to turn over to him for in camera review by Monday a secret memorandum described by the American Civil Liberties Union as one of the most important documents concerning the treatment of terrorism suspects that hasn’t yet been made public. The ACLU…

May 8, 2008 11:01 PM CDT

Ashcroft & Yoo to Testify in Hearings; House Panel Subpoenas Top Cheney Aide

A House panel is moving ahead with efforts to force testimony by those believed to have played leading roles in helping the Bush administration craft aggressive interrogation policies for terrorism suspects. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft and John Yoo, a former Justice Department lawyer who wrote an interrogation memo that…

May 6, 2008 6:12 PM CDT