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DOJ Tag

Posted by Mike LaChance on February 18, 2017 29 Comments
Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, fired for insubordination after she told DOJ not to defend Trump's immigration Executive Order, is being held up as a new hero by the left for doing so. She attended an event on race in Atlanta this week and got a standing ovation. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported:
Sally Yates gets hero’s welcome at Atlanta race panel discussion:

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 08, 2017 28 Comments
The Senate has confirmed Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) as the next attorney general. The Democrats attempted to persuade their colleagues with a 24 hour debate, but they lost one of their own. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) voted yes for Sessions. Therefore, Sessions won with 52 yes votes and 47 no votes. Sessions voted as present. The Democrats have tried to cast Sessions as a racist and an enemy of the gay community. They also don't believe he would stand up to President Donald Trump. But the Republicans, including Sen. Tim Scott (SC), have taken Sessions's side and rebuked all of those claims.

Posted by New Neo on February 01, 2017 47 Comments
In his pre-presidential life, Trump was famous for saying, "You're fired!" to people on his TV reality show. But Trump's firing of acting AG Sally Yates was no reality show. In real life, an AG advises a president on the law, but if that AG refuses to enforce an order that has been "approved as to form and legality by the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel," then a likely consequence would be that the AG could be fired. The NY Times reports Yates' motivation this way:
Ms. Yates, like other senior government officials, was caught by surprise by the executive order and agonized over the weekend about how to respond, two Justice Department officials involved in the weekend deliberations said. Ms. Yates considered resigning but she told colleagues she did not want to leave it to her successor to face the same dilemma.
But I would imagine that Ms. Yates understood that her successor would almost certainly face the same dilemma, whether Yates resigned or was fired. And although I grant that Yates and other government officials may indeed have been surprised by the speed of Trump's executive order, if they were surprised by the content of the order then they hadn't been paying much attention to Trump's campaign.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 30, 2017 54 Comments
Acting Attorney General Sally Yates was fired by President Donald Trump after she instructed the Department of Justice not to defend the recently signed executive order issuing a moratorium on immigration from seven countries presenting significant terror threats.
Taking action in an escalating crisis for his 10-day-old administration, Mr. Trump declared that Sally Q. Yates had “betrayed” the administration, the White House said in a statement. The president appointed Dana J. Boente, United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, to serve as acting attorney general until Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama is confirmed.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 30, 2017 57 Comments
We have seen this picture before. A political position by the Department of Justice which abandons its obligation to defend a law or action of the government, as in the Defense of Marriage Act, in court. The issue is not that personally DOJ attorneys have to agree with the law, or action of the government, but that DOJ is the government's attorney and needs to provide the best representation possible. In the DOMA case, the House of Representatives had to go out and find private counsel. That is happening again with regard to Trump's Executive Order on visas and refugees, according to multiple reports.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 10, 2017 6 Comments
Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) faced an all day confirmation hearing for attorney general in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The senators had a blast asking Sessions the same questions over and over. Some asked valid questions while others asked obscure questions that made you scratch your head. But overall, Sessions promised he would uphold all the laws, even those he opposed as a senator. He promised he would stand up to President-elect Donald Trump and keep politics out of his decisions.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 10, 2017 33 Comments
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) has begun his confirmation hearing for attorney general. We have a live stream in this post. This is expected to be one of the most tense confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet. The Democrats will ask Sessions about his record on civil rights and female rights. However, the GOP holds the majority in the Senate so more than likely he will receive confirmation.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 02, 2016 13 Comments
Not only does the media collude with Hillary Clinton, but a Department of Justice official leaked information to the campaign about the investigation. Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik, who is also involved with the probe into emails found on Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner's devices, warned John Podesta, Hillary's campaign chair, when the State would release the emails and on hearings: https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/793831278382428164

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 01, 2016 9 Comments
No wonder the Clintons get away with everything! They have people scattered across the government to help them out. It turns out Assistant Attorney Peter Kadzik at the Department of Justice is also extremely close to John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign chair. Kadzik is also one of the DOJ attorneys involved with the reopening of Hillary's email scandal after new evidence emerged on devices belonging to Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her husband Anthony Weiner.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on October 29, 2016 73 Comments
Loretta Lynch's Department of Justice just can't seem to leave alone the FBI's investigation of Hillary Clinton for her private email server and its ramifications for national security.  The "tarmac summit" between Lynch and Bill Clinton was grossly improper, leading FBI agents to suggest the meeting was to broker "an inside deal."  And now we are learning that "senior Justice officials" warned the FBI against Comey updating Congress regarding an email stash found while investigating Hillary's top aide Huma Abedin's disgraced husband Anthony Weiner. The Washington Post reports:
Senior Justice Department officials warned the FBI that Director James B. Comey’s decision to notify Congress about renewing the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server was not consistent with long-standing practices of the department, according to officials familiar with the discussions.

Posted by Hans Bader on October 27, 2016 25 Comments
The Obama administration is turning a blind eye to racial harassment – because the victims are white students. The harassment, which occurred at the University of California at Berkeley, was captured on video on October 21, and nationally publicized. As the Daily Caller reported:
“A video of Friday’s protest shows a large group of protesters preventing white students from passing over a bridge while allowing access to students of color. In addition to blocking access to Berkeley’s Sather Gate, a key bridge on the route to many classes, the wall of protesters also prevented white students from studying in the Student Union and stopped traffic at the main intersection in the front of campus.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 21, 2016 13 Comments
Earlier this month, the United States District Court in Baltimore charged ex-NSA contractor Harold Thomas Martin III with removal of classified documents and theft of government property. Officials have revealed that Martin took over 500 million pages of records and secrets over two decades. The Justice Department will probably charge Martin with other crimes, "including violating the Espionage Act." The latest DOJ document does not say if Martin shared this information, but made it known he had the ability to do so.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on October 13, 2016 11 Comments
The Department of Justice (DOJ) will not prosecute an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employee who had a hand in last year’s massive spill of toxic mine waste that contaminated Colorado's Animas River.
A year-long investigation by the EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that the unnamed employee may have broken federal water pollution law and may have made false statements to law enforcement officials regarding the Gold King Mine spill. But after the OIG referred its findings for potential prosecution, the United States Attorney for Colorado, headed by acting U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer, declined last week to pursue the charges, OIG spokesman Jeffrey Lagda said Wednesday. The decision by the Troyer’s office means that no one will be prosecuted as a result of the OIG’s investigation into the incident.

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 13, 2016 24 Comments
The decision by the FBI and the Department of Justice not to pursue charges against Hillary Clinton has thrown both federal agencies into a tailspin. James Comey and Loretta Lynch can spin all they want, but average people know they gave Hillary Clinton special treatment, including those average people who work beneath the directors. FOX News reports:
FBI, DOJ roiled by Comey, Lynch decision to let Clinton slide by on emails, says insider The decision to let Hillary Clinton off the hook for mishandling classified information has roiled the FBI and Department of Justice, with one person closely involved in the year-long probe telling FoxNews.com that career agents and attorneys on the case unanimously believed the Democratic presidential nominee should have been charged.

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 12, 2016 39 Comments
On the day before early voting began in Arizona, Obama's Department of Justice decided to pursue charges against Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a widely known opponent of illegal immigration. This is nothing short of stunning. The Associated Press reports, via NBC News:
Feds to Pursue Contempt Charges Against Sheriff Joe Arpaio Prosecutors said Tuesday they will charge Sheriff Joe Arpaio with criminal contempt-of-court for defying a judge's orders to end his signature immigration patrols in Arizona, exposing the 84-year-old lawman to the possibility of jail time and clouding his political future as he seeks a seventh term.
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