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DOJ Tag

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on September 02, 2017 31 Comments
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.

Posted by Miriam Elman on August 27, 2017 9 Comments
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.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 19, 2017 12 Comments
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.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 10, 2017 26 Comments
People who tell the truth don't need to remember which story to tell. Loretta Lynch apparently needed to remember which story to tell about her secret tarmac meeting with Bill Clinton, whose wife was under investigation for possible violations of national security laws relating to handling of classified information. Lynch was the only DOJ official present with Clinton. (Lynch's husband also apparently was on the plane, though it's unclear whether he participated in all of the conversation.) That meeting preceded by just a few days the FBI clearing Hillary Clinton.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 07, 2017 35 Comments
While his city is spiraling out of control, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice over threats to cut funding to sanctuary cities. The Chicago Tribune reported:
“Chicago will not let our police officers become political pawns in a debate,” Emanuel said. “Chicago will not let our residents have their fundamental rights isolated and violated. And Chicago will never relinquish our status as a welcoming city.”

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on August 05, 2017 48 Comments
When former President Bill Clinton met with then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch at an Arizona airport, the gross impropriety of the "tarmac summit" was immediately evident.  Clinton's wife and 2016 Democrat presidential hopeful was then under FBI investigation for her server and email scandals.  The impropriety was pooh-poohed away by a defensive AG, a disinterested media, a complicit FBI, and the corrupt Clinton clan. The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) has released 413 pages of memos obtained from the DOJ that show the "tarmac summit" was planned and that the media was working with the Obama-Lynch DOJ to downplay and bury the entire incident.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 04, 2017 44 Comments
Earlier today, Attorney General Jeff Sessions held a press conference to announce that four people face charges for leaking classified information while other investigations have intensified. From Fox News:
Session [sic] said criminals who have leaked classified information are “being investigated and will be prosecuted.” He added that four people have already been charged with leaking classified material and related counts, and investigations have tripled.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 21, 2017 1 Comment
The FBI and Dutch authorities have successfully shut down AlphaBay and Hansa, two of the largest marketplaces on the dark web, which sold drugs, firearms, malware, and forged documents. AlphaBay, which the FBI seized, "allegedly serviced some 200,000 users and 40,000 vendors." It disappeared earlier this month with Attorney General Jeff Sessions describing the seizure as "one of the most important criminal investigations of the year."

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 21, 2017 12 Comments
The Department of Justice decided to eliminate the $3 million fine that Harley-Davidson received from President Barack Obama's administration to fight pollution. The money was supposed to go "to an American Lung Association project promoting cleaner-burning cook stoves." The company reached an agreement with the government last August to pay that fine along with a $12 million fine for the "manufacture and sale of around 340,000 illegal motorcycle tuners."

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 19, 2017 41 Comments
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has kept his word. The Department of Justice has expanded its asset forfeiture program that will allow authorities to seize a citizen's property even if they have not been charged with a crime. The DOJ's program can even apply in the fourteen states that have banned civil asset forfeiture without a criminal conviction.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 18, 2017 23 Comments
Just as states have finally taken steps to stop civil asset forfeiture, Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants to take the federal government a few steps back. In a speech to the National District Attorneys Association, Sessions announced that this week the Department of Justice hopes to issue "policies to increase forfeitures."

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on June 09, 2017 39 Comments
Under Eric Holder, the DOJ established a scheme by which the Executive could bypass Congress' power of the purse and funnel money to Obama's political allies. Companies targeted by the DOJ would agree to settlements, and part of the financial settlement was then ordered to be paid to left-wing interest groups such as La Raza. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has a put a stop to this "slush fund." Writing in 2015, the Wall Street Journal explained the slush fund scheme.
Republicans talk often about using the “power of the purse” to rein in a lawless Obama administration. If they mean it, they ought to use their year-end spending bill to stop a textbook case of outrageous executive overreach.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 08, 2017 24 Comments
The House Oversight Committee lashed out at former President  Obama and former Attorney General Eric Holder for obstruction over the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. A cartel member used a gun from the ATF and DOJ's Operation Fast and Furious to kill Terry in December 2010. From Fox News:
The House Oversight Committee also Wednesday released a scathing, nearly 300-page report that found Holder’s Justice Department tried to hide the facts from the loved ones of slain Border Patrol Brian Terry – seeing his family as more of a “nuisance” than one deserving straight answers – and slamming Obama's assertion of executive privilege to deny Congress access to records pertaining to Fast and Furious.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on May 27, 2017 20 Comments
In a move that is sure to go uncelebrated on the regressive left and to leave many Trump supporters scratching their heads, the State Department has lifted the limit on the number of refugees admitted to the U. S.   This change will result in almost twice as many refugees flooding into our country each day. It is not clear at this time if President Trump is aware of or has approved this change of policy, though it seems highly unlikely he would be unaware of such a substantive change.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 17, 2017 30 Comments
The Department of Justice has appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller III as special counsel to its investigation into possible Russian interference in our presidential election. The Wall Street Journal reported:
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the appointment because Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from any investigation related to the 2016 race. Mr. Rosenstein said in a statement that “I determined that it is in the public interest for me to exercise my authority and appoint a Special Counsel to assume responsibility of this matter.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 12, 2017 10 Comments
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has issued a memo to all 94 U.S. attorneys to advise them of a new charging and sentencing policy within the Department of Justice. This policy demands that the federal prosecutors "charge defendants with the most serious crime possible." He wrote:
First, it is a core principle that prosecutors should charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense. " This policy affirms our responsibility to enforce the law, is moral and just, and produces consistency. This policy utilizes the tools Congress has given us. By definition, the most serious offenses are those that carry the most substantial guidelines sentence, including mandatory minimum sentences.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 11, 2017 19 Comments
I was a guest on the Crane Durham Nothing But Truth  radio show on Wednesday night, May 10, 2017, talking about the firing of James Comey the prior Tuesday. My interview is almost 30 minutes, and is embedded at the bottom of this post. In the day since the interview there have been further developments which support many of the points I made. In particular, Donald Trump has been interviewed on NBC and focused heavily on Comey's media presence: "He’s a showboat, he’s a grandstander." That's a point I made in the interview in similar (but not identical) terms.
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