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DOJ Tag

One of the mainstays of then-candidate Trump's campaign rallies was the attendees' "lock her up" chant, a reaction to his campaign promise to "jail crooked Hillary" Clinton. In late November of last year, President Trump shocked many of his supporters by announcing that he would not pursue charges against Hillary Clinton.  Instead, he said he was focused on bringing the country together and helping Hillary "heal." The Guardian reported at the time:
The president-elect told the New York Times on Tuesday that it would be “divisive” to pursue criminal investigations into the former secretary of state over her use of a private email server or conflicts of interest involving her foundation. His conciliatory tone provoked a backlash from some conservatives. “I don’t want to hurt the Clintons, I really don’t,” Trump said, according to a tweet by Times journalist Mike Grynbaum. “She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways.”

Last week, The Hill reported that an FBI undercover agent in Russia accused President Barack Obama's DOJ of blocking him from speaking to Congress “about conversations and transactions he witnessed related to the Russian nuclear industry’s efforts to win favor with Bill and Hillary Clinton and influence Obama administration decisions.” His lawyer Victoria Toensing, who served as a Reagan DOJ official and chief counsel of the Senate Intelligence Committee, explained she was trying to free her client of the confidentiality agreement. It worked. The DOJ and FBI freed the informant from his confidentiality agreement, which means he may now speak to Congress about what he witnessed.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, claims that he has a "smoking gun" email that proves the Department of Justice under President Barack Obama directed funds from settlements away from conservative groups. From Fox News:
“It is not every day in congressional investigations that we find a smoking gun,” Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said Tuesday. “Here, we have it.”

House Judiciary Committee Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) have announced an investigation into the handling of the Hillary Clinton email scandal by the FBI and Department of Justice. The two committees will also investigate why the FBI didn't announce its investigation into then-GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump's campaign associates. From The Washington Examiner:
The probe will be conducted by two congressional panels responsible for overseeing the Justice Department and government operations in general. The investigators will review then-FBI Director James Comey's various decisions pertaining to the Clinton investigation, such as his unusual announcement that she should not face indictment.

Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder gave the appearance of partisan hackery and outright corruption since early in his tenure at the Department of Justice.  According to Holder, we are a "nation of cowards" for not focusing on race and racial "justice," and we need to "brainwash" Americans to hate and fear guns.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has shocked a few people since he has decided to send a Department of Justice lawyer to help prosecute the alleged murderer of an Iowa transgender teen. From The New York Times:
“This is just one example of the attorney general’s commitment to enforcing the laws enacted by Congress and to protecting the civil rights of all individuals,” said Devin O’Malley, a spokesman for the Justice Department.

So it looks like the left has embraced the idea of using #TakeAKnee to show its opposition to President Donald Trump and his administration without taking into account the perception it gives. Georgetown Law School faculty and students decided to protest a free speech event by Attorney General Jeff Sessions by taking a knee. Yes, Sessions's speech was about how free speech has eroded on campuses and that the Department of Justice plans to provide protections for speakers.

In July, major national credit-reporting company Equifax was hit by a cyberattack that exposed personal information of about 143 million U.S. consumers. Three executives at the company sold shares that totaled $1.8 million only a few days after the company learned of the breach. However, Equifax didn't reveal details about the breach until September 7. Now the Department of Justice (DOJ) has reportedly opened an investigation to find out if those executives violated insider trading laws.

Friday, a federal judge granted Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel his request for an injunction on a Justice Department advisory. In March, Attorney General Jeff Sessions held a press conference where he reiterated current federal regulations requiring local law enforcement officials to communicate with federal officials on certain immigration matters. Failure to do so, he explained, could result in loss of federal funding. Last month, Emanuel requested an injunction on DOJ policy.

Disgraced former Democrat Rep. Anthony Weiner's lawyer told a court today that Weiner is not at fault for sexting with a 15-year-old female in North Carolina because she wanted to affect the 2016 presidential election. Weiner's estranged wife is Huma Abedin, failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's closest aide and confidant.

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed amendments to stop the Department of Justice's civil asset forfeiture program, which Attorney General Jeff Sessions introduced in July. The amendments received support from those within the House Freedom Caucus and some of the biggest liberals in Congress.

Lois Lerner was the IRS official at the center of the scandal over targeting of Tea Party and conservative groups. The evidence was overwhelming that Tea Party and conservative groups had applications for tax exempt status delayed or denied, while liberal groups did not, and that this targeting was deliberate. Documents and hard drives went missing, Lerner pleaded the 5th, and there were years of obfuscation and delay in producing documents and information. The House Oversight Committee produced this video in 2014 summarizing what had happened:

In February, The New York Times reported that agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) established a secret bank fund filled with millions from "a web of shadowy cigarette sales" before it closed in 2013. No one knows for sure how much entered the account because no one tracked it. New unsealed records revealed to the NYT that the scheme was more than just a few agents. Instead, it grew to "a highly unorthodox merger of an undercover law enforcement operation and a legitimate operation."

In a puzzling move, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced last month that the Department of Justice would be ramping up asset forfeiture. Mary wrote at the time:
Civil forfeiture remains a controversial issue in America since it’s “a process by which the government can take and sell your property without ever convicting, or even charging, you with a crime.” The procedures are civil, which means defendants do not receive the same protections given to criminal defendants. It’s one of the few issues that garners bipartisan support.
That bipartisan support is now even more evident as Congress moves to defund asset forfeiture.

Frimet and Arnold Roth’s 15-year-old daughter Malki was murdered in the August 9, 2001 Hamas terror attack at a busy Sbarro's Pizzeria in the center of Jerusalem. Now they’re requesting the public’s help in their effort to bring Ahlam Ahmad Al-Tamimi, the mastermind of the heinous crime, to justice in a U.S. court of law. (Sign up form here.) As we noted in a recent post, the Jordanian government has refused to extradite Tamimi.

The Justice Department has decided to end former President Barack Obama's Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's (FDIC) controversial Operation Choke Point, which wanted to put an end credit to shady businesses. Republicans fought against it because they claimed that the administration used the program to target legitimate businesses, including gun dealers.