Justice Department

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Justice Department Narrows Inquiry Into CIA Tactics

Lead investigator will probe only a handful of cases

(Newser) - Eric Holder continues to take heavy flak from critics who think he should leave the CIA alone, and the Washington Post has news that should give them at least a bit of satisfaction: The Justice Department's preliminary investigation will be smaller than anticipated. The lead investigator will look at only...

Feds Probe BofA-Merrill Deal

FBI, Justice Department investigate timing of bonus payments: source

(Newser) - Bank of America's acquisition of Merrill Lynch is the focus of an ongoing investigation by the FBI and Justice Department, sources tell the Charlotte Observer, the bank's hometown paper. The SEC and the AGs of New York and North Carolina have already launched civil probes of the timing of huge...

Bush Cabinet Member in Criminal Inquiry

Interior secretary gave Shell big contracts, then took job with firm

(Newser) - The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into whether Gale Norton illegally used her power as secretary of the Interior to obtain three oil contracts for Royal Dutch Shell—which only months later hired her as a legal counsel. The 2006 decision to award Shell leases on oil-rich federal...

Obama Supports Extending Patriot Act Provisions

Administration tells Congress it wants to renew surveillance laws

(Newser) - The Obama administration supports extending three controversial provisions of the Patriot Act that are due to expire at the end of the year,  AP reports. The Justice Department tells Congress in a letter they will back preserving the post-9/11 law's authority to access business records, monitor so-called "lone...

Court: Ashcroft on Hook in Post-9/11 Detention Case

Bush attorney general slammed for imprisonment without charges

(Newser) - Former Bush attorney general John Ashcroft can be held personally responsible in a lawsuit brought by a US citizen who was detained on suspicion of being a material witness to terrorism but was never charged with a crime, an appellate court ruled today. Abdullah al-Kidd alleged the detention, begun in...

Gonzales Changes Tune on 'Legitimate' CIA Probe

Ex-AG compares torture to speeding (really)

(Newser) - Alberto Gonzales did not mean to endorse Eric Holder’s probe of alleged CIA torture during the Bush administration by calling it “legitimate,” the former AG tells the Washington Times, which broke the story. “I don't support the investigation by the department because this is a matter...

Pfizer Pays Record $2.3B Fine for False Marketing

(Newser) - Pfizer will shell out $2.3 billion—a record for a health care fraud settlement—over deceptive marketing of its drugs, the Los Angeles Times reports. Pfizer and one of its subsidiaries marketed four drugs based on off-label uses specifically prohibited by the FDA. The settlement with the Justice Department...

3 Busted in Cambodian Kid Sex Face US Trial

Justice-Immigration program extradites molesters to federal court

(Newser) - Three Americans arrested in Cambodia for sexually exploiting boys and girls as young as 10 are being returned to the US for trial, CNN reports. They were snagged by a joint program by the Justice Department and immigration authorities, known as Operation Twister Traveler, designed to combat sex tourism. The...

Holder to Crank Up Civil Rights Enforcement

Holder restoring Civil Rights Division to pre-Bush status

(Newser) - The Obama administration plans to revitalize the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and beef up efforts against racial discrimination, the New York Times reports. Attorney General Eric Holder has been working to redirect the focus to tackling discrimination in high-impact areas like housing, voting rights, employment, and bank lending, where...

In Obama White House, Justice Trumps CIA
 In Obama White House, Justice Trumps CIA 
ANALYSIS

In Obama White House, Justice Trumps CIA

Eric Holder carves a new, powerful role as attorney general

(Newser) - The appointment of a federal prosecutor to investigate CIA interrogations exposed a long-running turf war between the intelligence agency and the Department of Justice—and demonstrated the substantial clout of AG Eric Holder, who prevailed in almost every dispute with CIA Director Leon Panetta. The New York Times and Washington ...

Freed Gitmo Detainee to Sue US for Damages

(Newser) - A Guantanamo inmate recently released to his native Afghanistan after almost 7 years of detention plans to sue the US for damages, the AP reports. Mohammed Jawad is considered one of the youngest prisoners held at the Cuban base—he claims he was 12 at the time he was captured,...

CIA Manipulated Every Detail of Interrogation Sessions

Top-level approval of interrogation techniques could complicate Justice probe

(Newser) - As the CIA discloses internal reports concerning “enhanced” interrogation techniques on detainees at secret prisons, the ugliest details—threats of execution and harm with a power drill—have grabbed headlines. But the documents also reveal an intriguing level of control that the CIA and Department of Justice maintained over...

Fed Judge Tosses DoMA Suit
 Fed Judge Tosses DoMA Suit 

Fed Judge Tosses DoMA Suit

(Newser) - A federal judge in California dismissed a lawsuit challenging the Defense of Marriage Act yesterday, supporting the Obama administration's claim that a gay couple had not suffered "an injury in fact." The Justice Department filed a brief agreeing with the plaintiffs that DoMA is discriminatory, but said it...

Just What Obama Didn't Need: a CIA Probe
 Just What Obama 
 Didn't Need: a CIA Probe 
ANALYSIS

Just What Obama Didn't Need: a CIA Probe

(Newser) - The White House was busily waging a do-or-die battle to pass health reform when it was suddenly handed exactly what it wanted to avoid: a polarizing battle about Bush-era tactics that President Obama has already condemned. Obama is attempting to remain above the fray as the administration insists that AG...

Where's the Lefty Outrage Over Outing CIA Ops Now?

(Newser) - During the Valerie Plame scandal, the left acted as if there was no greater sin than disclosing the name of a CIA operative. But there is no such outrage at current initiatives that could potentially disclose the names of several agency officers, writes Bret Stephens in the Wall Street Journal....

Holder Launches Probe Into CIA Torture Allegations

(Newser) - AG Eric Holder today named a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of torture against CIA operatives who interrogated terror suspects during the Bush administration, the Washington Post reports. John Durham, who is currently probing the destruction of interrogation tapes, will look into fewer than 12 cases detailed in a CIA...

Mock Executions Among CIA Torture Tactics

(Newser) - A report long suppressed by Bush administration officials set to be released next week says the CIA used mock executions as part of post-9/11 interrogations, Newsweek reports—though federal law prohibits threatening prisoners with “imminent death,” and the practice wasn’t authorized by the Justice Department, unlike other...

White House Calls Marriage Law Unfair to Gays

...but it's still defending DOMA in court

(Newser) - The Obama administration wants to give the Defense of Marriage Act the boot, the Justice Department said in court filings today, but that won’t stop the department from defending the law in court. The administration believes DOMA, which prevents federal recognition of gay marriage and denies gay federal employees...

US Settles Tax Evasion Suit With UBS, Swiss

(Newser) - Swiss bank UBS AG has agreed to a settlement with the US to resolve a lengthy tax evasion probe, the Wall Street Journal reports. The details are currently under wraps, as the final documents await signatures. UBS will likely hand the IRS the names of  8,000 to 10,000...

Emails Show Rove Knee-Deep in Attorney Firings

(Newser) - Karl Rove was intimately involved in the firing of at least three of the US Attorneys sacked for purportedly political reasons during the Bush administration, emails obtained by the Washington Post show. One note mentions a senator who “asked that we remove the US Atty” and “couldn’t...

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