Ted Stevens

Judge Demands Report On Prosecutorial Misconduct In Ted Stevens Case Be Made Public

Ryan J. Reilly | February 8, 2012, 10:20AM

Former Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK)

A federal judge in D.C. ruled Wednesday that an unredacted copy of an independent report on prosecutorial misconduct during the federal investigation of the late Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens (R) has to be made public by March 15.

U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said the report written by Henry F. Schuelke "chronicles significant prosecutorial misconduct in a highly publicized investigation and prosecution brought by the Public Integrity Section against an incumbent United States Senator."

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Paul Clement

Why South Carolina's Voter ID Suit Could Be Bound For The Supreme Court

Ryan J. Reilly | February 8, 2012, 6:05AM

Paul Clement is the former Solicitor General of the United States and the guy conservatives go to when there's a Supreme Court case on the line.

So it's not surprising that it was Clement's signature that ended up on the complaint filed on behalf of the state of South Carolina this week, in a suit against Attorney General Eric Holder over DOJ's decision to block the state's voter ID law because of the disparate impact the state's numbers show it will have on minority voters.

It's a suit that supporters hope will not only enshrine South Carolina's voter ID requirement as the unquestioned law of the state, but that will also do away with federal restrictions placed on states like South Carolina because of their clear history of racial discrimination.

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Joe Arpaio

Sheriff Joe Arpaio Agrees To Cooperate On Discrimination Probe

Ryan J. Reilly | February 7, 2012, 9:55AM

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Updated Feb. 7 2:20PM

After claiming the allegations of civil rights violations by his Maricopa County Sheriff's Office were part of President Barack Obama's reelection bid, Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office said in a statement Monday that they had agreed to work together with the Justice Department to "develop a document that addresses any agreed upon improvements needed."

Both Arpaio and DOJ are "committed to avoiding unnecessary and expensive litigation by the creation of an enforceable agreement which will lead to sustainable reforms and positive results for all citizens of Maricopa County," according to a statement from the Sheriff's office.

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John Kiriakou

Feds Charge Former CIA Agent John Kiriakou For Illegal Leaks

Ryan J. Reilly | January 23, 2012, 12:50PM

Updated: Jan. 23, 3:20PM

"Heavens no."

That's what John Kiriakou, the former CIA officer who defended waterboarding as an effective technique used against al-Qaeda suspects, allegedly told an FBI agent when asked if he had anything to do with a story which disclosed the name of a CIA agent involved in the interrogation of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

But according to emails cited by an FBI agent in documents charging Kiriakou with repeatedly disclosing classified information (including the name of a covert CIA officer) to journalists, that wasn't quite the case.

A DOJ investigation led by U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald started after Guantanamo detainees were found to have photos of CIA personnel in their possession, information which hadn't been provided by the government through any officials channels. The defense teams who provided photos of CIA personnel to Guantanamo Bay detainees did not commit any criminal violations, the investigation found. Instead, the feds say that Kiriakou, who has worked as a paid consultant for ABC News and previously worked for the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, gave classified information to journalists, some of which ended up going to defense attorneys for the Guantanamo detainees.

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Doug Hampton

No Signs Doug Hampton Working With Feds On John Ensign Case

Ryan J. Reilly | January 13, 2012, 3:26PM

Former John Ensign aide Doug Hampton is now one step closer to going on trial on charges he broke an anti-revolving door lobbying law.

Hampton appeared at a pre-trial hearing in Washington, D.C. on Friday, his trip provided by the U.S. Marshals Service because he was financially unable to pay his own way, according to court records. He's due back in court on Sept. 5, with a trial likely in the fall.

Hampton's role in the Ensign debacle is at this point well know. He left Ensign's office in 2008 after learning the Senator had carried on an affair with his wife Cynthia Hampton. Hampton allegedly soon started lobbying Ensign's office in violation of the law. A Senate Ethics Committee report found there was "Substantial Credible Evidence That Senator Ensign Conspired to Violate, and Aided and Abetted" Hampton's alleged violations of the ban. Ensign resigned in April, just before the report was released.

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Voter Identification

Analysis: Minority Voters Overwhelmingly Rejected Mississippi Voter ID Law

Ryan J. Reilly | January 6, 2012, 1:48PM

Less than 25 percent of non-white Mississippi citizens voted in favor of a state constitutional amendment to require voter ID at the polls compared to about 83 percent of white voters, according to a newly released report.

An estimated 75 percent of the state's minority population rejected "Initiative 27," a constitutional amendment requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, while only about 17 percent of white voters went against the proposal, according to a report by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights.

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National Defense Authorization Act

Obama Administration Pushes Back On Liberal Criticism Over NDAA's 'Indefinite Detention'

Ryan J. Reilly | January 6, 2012, 9:30AM

President Barack Obama and Senior Adviser David Axelrod

The Obama administration thinks many in the liberal blogosphere are mistaken in their belief that the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) signed by the president on New Year's Eve authorizes the indefinite detention of citizens captured on U.S. soil.

Many progressive and libertarians have argued that the NDAA codifies the president's ability to detain a U.S. citizen captured on American soil until the war on terrorism is declared over. The administration believes that the NDAA doesn't specifically allow for the indefinite detention of American citizens, but concedes that it doesn't specifically ban the practice either.

A senior administration official maintained in an interview with TPM that the NDAA "changes nothing" about the legal question of whether the government could allow for the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens captured in the United States.

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Joe Arpaio

DOJ Is Sorry If Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Feelings Were Hurt When They Disclosed His Civil Rights Abuses

Ryan J. Reilly | January 5, 2012, 6:28PM

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio

You know how when you're trying to avoid apologizing to someone who's upset you throw in a qualifier like "sorry you're upset" or "sorry you feel that way"? That's the type of classic non-apology that a Justice Department official gave to officials representing Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio who were perturbed by the DOJ's press conference announcing the findings of an investigation into wide-spread civil rights abuses in Arpaio's office.

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FBI

Obama To Basically Ignore Congress' Terrorists-In-Military-Custody Mandate

Ryan J. Reilly | January 5, 2012, 5:44AM

Federal law enforcement officials had been worried about the "uncertainty" that a provision of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would create for agents dealing with a terrorist attack because of the plethora of qualifiers that would send a terrorist suspect into military custody. But the signing statement issued by President Barack Obama on New Year's Eve appears to indicate that it should be business as usual as the administration develops implementation rules for the new provisions over the next 60 days.

Officials like FBI Director Robert Mueller had worried that Section 1022 of the NDAA "lacks clarity" about how law enforcement officials should handle a suspected terrorist at the time of arrest. That section required individuals who weren't citizens or lawful U.S. residents who have had ties to al-Qaeda, the Taliban or "associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners" to be placed into the military system -- facts that could be difficult to determine right off the bat ("They don't wear al-Qaeda hats," one law enforcement official official told TPM.)

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South Carolina

BREAKING: Justice Department Blocks South Carolina's Voter ID Law

Ryan J. Reilly | December 23, 2011, 4:03PM

Updated: Dec. 23, 2011, 5:28PM

The U.S. Department of Justice will block the voter ID provisions of an election law passed in South Carolina earlier this year because the state's own statistics demonstrated that the photo identification requirement would have a much greater impact on non-white residents, DOJ said in a letter to the state on Friday.

The decision places the federal government squarely in opposition to the types of voter ID requirements that have swept through mostly Republican-controlled state legislatures.

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Fast And Furious

Obama DOJ Makes It Easier For Legal 'Aliens' To Get Guns

Ryan J. Reilly | December 22, 2011, 3:09PM

President Barack Obama

In the midst of the Fast and Furious scandal, the Obama administration just made it easier for immigrants in the United States legally to purchase weapons from licensed firearms dealers.

Under the Gun Control Act (GCA), individuals are generally prohibited from transferring firearms to "any unlicensed person who they know or have reasonable cause to believe does not reside in the State in which the transferor resides."

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National Defense Authorization Act

Holder: Obama Will Issue Signing Statement With NDAA Detention Rules

Ryan J. Reilly | December 21, 2011, 4:02PM

Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed speculation Wednesday that President Barack Obama would issue a signing statement when he makes the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and its controversial detention provisions law.

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Joe Arpaio

Sheriff Joe Arpaio: DOJ 'Sneak Attack' Is Just Part Of Obama's Reelection Bid (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | December 16, 2011, 3:35PM

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Friday that the Justice Department's extensive three-and-a-half-year probe of his Maricopa County Sheriff's Office was all just part of a bid for President Obama to win the Hispanic vote in 2012, even though the investigation began five months before Obama was even elected.

Responding to the Civil Rights Division's findings that Arpaio "promoted a culture of bias" within the MCSO where detention officers called Latino inmates "wetbacks" and "Mexican bitches," Arpaio took to Fox News on Friday afternoon to criticize Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez for opening up DOJ's Thursday press conference with the words "buenos dias."

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Fast And Furious

Republicans Buy Into NRA's 'Fast And Furious' Gun Control Conspiracy Theory

Ryan J. Reilly | December 16, 2011, 11:35AM

Out of the sound and fury of Attorney General Eric Holder's day before the House last week one thing was clear: Republican members of Congress are latching onto the conspiracy theory that the Obama administration let guns "walk" into Mexico in order to erode Americans' second amendment rights.

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Joe Arpaio

Arpaio Critics: Want Reform? Sheriff Joe Has To Go

Ryan J. Reilly and Jillian Rayfield | December 15, 2011, 5:12PM

The findings in DOJ's investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office didn't surprise many local longtime critics of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, many of whom said Thursday that his departure would be the only way to put a stop to his office's deep-seated bias.

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DOJ

DOJ Report: DEA Needs To Be More Covert About Their Undercover Airplanes

Ryan J. Reilly | December 14, 2011, 12:55PM

The Drug Enforcement Administration needs to keep their undercover aerial operations targeting narcotics trafficking along the Mexican border and in foreign countries a bit more hush-hush, according to a new report from the Justice Department's inspector general.

As of March, DOJ investigators searching the FAA aircraft registration database were able to find records of 25 domestically-based DEA aircraft that "should have been registered covertly to fictitious or cover organizations but that were not." As of Sept. 7, 13 DEA aircraft that should have been registered covertly still weren't (TPM found five planes registered still registered to the DEA in a search of the FAA's database on Wednesday).

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Congress

Mueller: Congress' Terror Detainee Deal Would Create 'Uncertainty' During Arrests

Ryan J. Reilly | December 14, 2011, 12:15PM

As of Tuesday, the federal government wasn't quite ready to render a verdict on the compromise reached by members of Congress on a provision of the National Defense Authorization Act which guides terrorist suspects into the military justice system. But FBI Director Robert Mueller indicated Wednesday that the administration still has concerns, though it's still unclear if the White House will make good on a previous veto threat.

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Eric Holder

Obama Administration Backs Bill Combating Voter Intimidation, Deception

Ryan J. Reilly | December 13, 2011, 6:05PM

United States Attorney General Eric Holder

The Obama administration is signaling support for a forthcoming Senate bill that would impose tough criminal and civil penalties on individuals who make and distribute campaign literature with false information intended to deceive voters and suppress turnout.

Attorney General Eric Holder will announce in a major speech on voting rights in Texas on Tuesday night that Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Ben Cardin (D-MD) will introduce the bill on Wednesday. The bill will be "narrowly tailored" to respect provisions of the First Amendment, according to Cardin's office. It will apply to "only a small category of false communications that occur during the last 90 days before an election, such as literature listing the wrong date or time for the election, giving inaccurate information about voter eligibility, or promoting false endorsements of candidates." A nearly identical bill was introduced by Schumer and then-Sen. Barack Obama back in 2007 but never passed.

In his speech at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library And Museum in Austin, Holder will call for election systems "that are free from fraud, discrimination, and partisan influence" and will say that protecting the right to vote and combating discrimination "must be viewed, not only as a legal issue - but as a moral imperative." Holder's speech also offers a challenge:

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Indefinite Detentions

Civil Liberties Advocates See Political Shackles In Revised Detention Bill

Ryan J. Reilly | December 13, 2011, 2:47PM

President Barack Obama

The Obama administration is continuing to review a compromise struck between the House and Senate on the National Defense Authorization Act that congressional leaders believe solves the issues over the detention of terrorism suspects that caused the White House to issue a veto threat. But civil liberties groups have already given the proposal their assessment, and they don't like what they see.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) announced the changes Monday night, saying that the conference report "provides a number of additional assurances that there will be no interference with civilian interrogations or other law enforcement activities." A Justice Department spokesman told TPM they were still assessing the compromise, while a White House spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

Civil liberties groups, on the other hand, contend the changes aren't enough. Take this language, added to the bill last night:

'Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect the existing criminal enforcement and national security authorities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation or any other domestic law enforcement agency with regard to a covered person, regardless of whether such covered person is held in military custody.'

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Eric Holder

Holder: 'You Don't See Huge Amounts Of Voter Fraud Out There'

Ryan J. Reilly | December 13, 2011, 6:00AM

Attorney General Eric Holder

If you've been following the debate over restrictive voter ID laws, the fact that there aren't many instances of voter fraud out there (especially of the type that could be prevented by voter ID laws) isn't news. What's interesting is who's saying it.

"You constantly hear about voter fraud... but you don't see huge amounts of vote fraud out there," Attorney General Eric Holder told the Washington Post.

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Rick Perry

Election Lawyer: Supreme Court Hearing Texas Redistricting Case Shows Their Partisanship

Ryan J. Reilly | December 12, 2011, 1:20PM

Texas Governor and Presidential Candidate Rick Perry (R)

The nine (or is it eight?) members of the Supreme Court are set to decide whether redistricting maps drawn by a federal court (after separate maps signed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry were found to be discriminatory) can go into effect.

The Supreme Court's one paragraph order on Friday placed a stay on the implementation of the maps, tossing Texas's congressional and state legislature elections into chaos. Political observers and participants in the case are still trying to figure out exactly what it means for the election timeline. A hearing is set for Jan. 9.

Gerry Hebert, an election lawyer in D.C. who is working for intervenors in the redistricting case, told TPM that the Supreme Court's decision shows that they're "just another governmental institution in Washington that's highly partisan."

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Jason Chaffetz

Holder Squares Off With House Republicans At Fast And Furious Hearing

Ryan J. Reilly | December 8, 2011, 2:58PM

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) questions Attorney General Eric Holder during the House Judiciary Committee's hearing on Operation Fast and Furious on Capitol Hill on December 8, 2011.

Attorney General Eric Holder went toe-to-toe with House Republicans on Thursday over the Justice Department's handling of Operation Fast and Furious, the program which allowed weapons to flow over the border into Mexico.

The hearing was combative at times, with Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) bringing in posters and boxes of documents to hammer his points home.

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Fast And Furious

Obama Has 'Full Confidence' In Eric Holder Ahead Of 'Fast And Furious' Hearing

Ryan J. Reilly | December 8, 2011, 1:05AM

While House Republicans gear up to grill Attorney General Eric Holder about what-he-knew-when about ATF's botched Operation Fast and Furious at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday, the White House is signaling they're standing by the nation's top law enforcement officer.

"As the President has made clear, he believes Eric Holder is an excellent Attorney General who has his full confidence," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said in a statement to TPM on Wednesday.

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Fast And Furious

Emails Show DOJ Trusted ATF Denials Of Fast And Furious 'Gun Walking' Allegations

Ryan J. Reilly | December 5, 2011, 3:06PM

Attorney General Eric Holder testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee in a hearing examining the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms' botched gun-walking operation, Fast and Furious. November, 8, 2011.

It was early 2011. Reports that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had let guns "walk" across the border to Mexico were only just starting to emerge. Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to to the Justice Department on Jan. 27 asking if an assault rifle bought by a suspected "straw purchaser" during an ATF-authorized transaction with a firearms dealer was found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

If contemporaneous emails sent by Justice Department officials are any indication, they didn't have any clue what Grassley was talking about. And when officials in the U.S. Attorney's office in Arizona and at ATF headquarters assured them gun walking wasn't going on, they took them at their word and adopted that false position as the official stance of the Justice Department.

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Pardons

Pardon Applicants Benefit From Friends in High Places

December 5, 2011, 9:00AM

by Dafna Linzer ProPublica

Second of two parts. Part one here. This story was co-published with The Washington Post.

Dale Critz Jr. had millions riding on his bid for a presidential pardon. Scion of a prominent family in Savannah, Ga., Critz was poised to inherit the luxury car dealerships his grandfather had built in one of America's most historic cities.

But Critz's past blocked his way. Years earlier, while learning the ropes at an unrelated dealership in Florida, he took part in a scheme to falsify loan documents for low-income car buyers. He pleaded guilty in 1989 to a felony -- a conviction that could have prevented him from owning the family business. Many automakers do not let felons run their franchises.

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Barack Obama

White House Still Threatening Veto Over Terrorists In Military Custody Mandate

Ryan J. Reilly | December 2, 2011, 12:00PM

Administration officials are continuing to express concern that section 1032 of the National Defense Authorization Act passed by the Senate Thursday night will present big problems for counterterrorism officials in their efforts to stop future attacks. The Senate killed an amendment that would have explicitly said U.S. citizens can't be held in custody indefinitely but passed language that said the law on the mater hasn't changed.

The White House confirmed to TPM on Friday morning that their veto threat still stands. They believe that the "unnecessary, untested, and legally controversial" restrictions that would mandate certain terrorist suspects go into military custody would "disrupt the Executive branch's ability to enforce the law and impose unwise and unwarranted restrictions on the U.S. Government's ability to aggressively combat international terrorism."

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Utah

Obama Justice Department Sues Utah Over Immigration Law

Ryan J. Reilly | November 22, 2011, 5:40PM

Updated: Nov. 22, 6:10PM

Add Utah to the list of states the federal government has sued over their controversial immigration laws.

In a suit filed in federal court in Utah late Tuesday, Justice Department officials argue that the government "has preeminent authority to regulate immigration matters."

"Utah's adoption of its own immigration policy disrupts the federal government's ability both to administer and enforce the federal immigration laws including as set forth in the Immigration and Nationality Act ("INA"), and to establish and pursue federal policies and priorities pertaining to, inter alia, the identification, apprehension, detention and removal of aliens unlawfully in the United States," the suit claims.

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Jack Johnson

Feds Recommend Significant Sentence In Jack Johnson Corruption Case

Ryan J. Reilly | November 22, 2011, 12:45PM

Former Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson (D) should get a sentence of up to 14 years in prison for his "audacious behavior" which "understandably captured the public's attention and harmed the reputation of Maryland's second-largest county and its 850,000 residents," federal prosecutors said in a sentencing memo this week.

According to the memo, obtained by TPM from the U.S. Attorney's office (it wasn't available in electronic court system), a stiff sentence would be a "deterrent message" and "will resonate significantly with other public officials tempted to engage in similar conduct." They're recommending a judge stay within the recommending sentencing guidelines, which could send Johnson to jail for up to 14 years.

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FBI

FBI Was Concerned NYPD's 'Lone Wolf' Case Raised Issues Of Entrapment

Ryan J. Reilly | November 21, 2011, 3:35PM

Jose Pimentel wasn't exactly hiding.

The 27-year-old accused of plotting to attack New York with pipe bombs was operating a website that espoused his beliefs in committing terror against the U.S. and was relatively well known in law enforcement circles.

Federal authorities passed on the case -- with one source telling TPM on Sunday night that the FBI passed several times, and an official telling the Associated Press on Monday that Pimentel "didn't have the predisposition or the ability to do anything on his own." That's leaving observers wondering what exactly the feds didn't like about the case and setting up another squabble in the long-running turf war between the New York Police Department and the FBI.

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Voting Rights Act

DOJ: Texas Has Provided 'Incomplete' Information In Probe Of Rick Perry Signed Voter ID Law

Ryan J. Reilly | November 16, 2011, 5:45PM

Governor Rick Perry (R-TX)

Texas provided "incomplete" information that does not enable federal officials to determine whether their proposed voter ID law would be discriminatory, the Justice Department said in a letter Wednesday.

Essentially, the letter from DOJ Civil Rights Division Voting Section Chief T. Christian Herren Jr. restarts the clock on when the Department has to make a decision about whether the law signed by Gov. Rick Perry complies with the Voting Rights Act. They have 60 days from when Texas sends them complete information.

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Rahm Emanuel

Rahm Emanuel Used His Gmail Account to Message Administration Officials

November 15, 2011, 12:50PM

John Cook and Ryan Tate | Gawker

Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel used his private Gmail account to communicate with Attorney General Eric Holder during his time in the White House, according to the results of Freedom of Information Act request we filed.

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Jack Johnson

AUDIO: Ex-Councilwoman Stuffs Cash In Bra, Flushes Check As FBI Knocks On Door

Ryan J. Reilly | November 15, 2011, 5:52AM

FBI agents arrested former Prince George's County, Maryland Executive (and Golden Duke nominee) Jack B. Johnson and his wife Leslie Johnson over a year ago in a corruption plot involving development deals. Thanks to a federal wiretap, transcripts told us that Jack and Leslie chatted about flushing dirty money down the toilet and stuffing cash in her "panties." Now there's audio.

Ahead of Leslie's sentencing on Dec. 9, federal prosecutors have disclosed tapes of Johnson and Johnson discussing -- as FBI agents knocked on the door of the couple's home -- about where to hide cash they acquired though corrupt relationships with developers.

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Ted Stevens

Senators Press Holder On Probe Of Ted Stevens Trial

Ryan J. Reilly | November 10, 2011, 6:00AM

Former Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK)

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens (R) died 15 months ago. Two-and-a-half-years earlier, the federal corruption case against him was dropped due to allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. Now Attorney General Eric Holder says DOJ's internal investigators are "in the last stages of their examination" of what went wrong in the case and that a multi-hundred page report is on its way.

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Fast And Furious

NRA: Obama Let Guns Walk To Mexico To Crackdown On Gun Rights

Ryan J. Reilly | November 7, 2011, 1:56PM

Just how dedicated does the National Rifle Association think the Obama administration is to destroying the Second Amendment? The director of the organization thinks that DOJ gave weapons to Mexican drug cartels during Operation Fast and Furious in an effort to churn up support for changing gun laws.

National Rifle Association Director Wayne LaPierre -- who has also suggested that the fact that Obama has not cracked down on guns is just part of a long term scheme to actually crack down on guns -- has been recently floating the conspiracy theory that Fast and Furious was a way to impose stricter guns laws.

"It's the only thing that makes any sense," LaPierre told Newsmax. "Over a period of two or three years they were running thousands and thousands of guns to the most evil people on earth. At the same time they were yelling '90 per cent... of the guns the Mexican drug cartels are using come from the United States.'"

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FOIA

Justice Department Pulls Proposal Allowing Government To Lie About FOIA Requests

Ryan J. Reilly | November 3, 2011, 3:50PM

Updated: Nov. 3, 4:05PM

The Justice Department is withdrawing a proposed rule to the Freedom of Information Act which would have allowed federal agencies to say that certain law-enforcement and national security documents didn't exist, even when they do.

"If the proposed regulations can be improved [in terms of transparency], we will work to improve them," the Justice Department explained in a letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA). "We believe that Section 16.6(f)(2) of the proposed regulations fall short by those measures, and we will not include that provision when the Department issues final regulations."

The regulation in question would have instructed agencies to "respond to the request as if the excluded records did not exist." Agencies will still continue using the phrase "there exist no records responsive to your FOIA request" when records in question are exempt from FOIA, as spelled out in a 1987 memo issued by Attorney General Ed Meese.

"When a citizen makes a request pursuant to the FOIA, either implicit or explicit in the request is that it seeks records that are subject to the FOIA; where the only records that exist are not subject to the FOIA, the statement that 'there exist no records responsive to your FOIA request' is wholly accurate," the letter said.

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The Colbert Report

Stephen Colbert Isn't Giving Up On 'Muffingate' (VIDEO)

David Taintor | November 3, 2011, 11:30AM

Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert on Wednesday took on the final chapter of "muffingate," the saga of the Justice Department allegedly spending $16 per muffin at a conference.

"Why would the government spend $16 on a muffin when they can go to Starbucks and get one for $14," Colbert asked.

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Georgia

Feds: Four Members Of Georgia 'Fringe Militia Group' Plotted Biological Attack On Citizens, Government Officials

Ryan J. Reilly | November 2, 2011, 6:30AM

Four Georgia men who belonged to a "fringe militia group" were arrested by FBI agents on Tuesday and charged with plotting an attack against U.S. citizens and federal employees using the biological toxin ricin.

Authorities say 73-year-old Frederick Thomas of Cleveland; 67-year-old Dan Roberts; 65-year-old Ray H. Adams; and 68-year-old Samuel J. Crump, all of Toccoa, Ga. began meeting in March 2011 as part of a covert group that called itself, well, the "covert group."

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Lucchese Family

Feds: Mafia Affiliates Took Over, Looted $12 Million From Texas Mortgage Company

Ryan J. Reilly | November 1, 2011, 2:55PM

Federal authorities charged Tuesday that affiliates of the La Cosa Nostra and Lucchese organized crime families gave a "new meaning" to the term "corporate takeover" when they looted a publicly traded mortgage company, with one member threatening that if someone were to "rat," their "wives will be f**ked... and your kids will be sold off as prostitutes."

Law enforcement officials charged 13 people -- including an alleged member and another associate of the Lucchese family -- on racketeering and related offenses in an alleged scheme to take over and loot the Texas-based FirstPlus Financial Group Inc. (FPFG) through extortion. Ten defendants are already in custody, one is expected to surrender and two are still at large.

Federal officials allege that Nicodemo S. Scarfo Jr. -- also known as "Nick Promo," "Mr. Apple" and Mr. Macintosh" -- became a "made" member of the Lucchese family after an attempt on his life in 1989. They say Lucchese family boss Vittorio Amuso, while in federal prison in Atlanta, arranged for Scarfo to become a member of the Lucchese family as a favor to former Philadelphia La Cosa Nostra boss Nicodemo D. Scarfo Sr. Both Amuso and Scarfo are named as unindicted co-conspirators in the case.

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Justice Department

E-Mails Detail DOJ Concern Over ATF 'Gun Walking' Well Before 'Fast & Furious'

Ryan J. Reilly | October 31, 2011, 10:56PM

Chinese-made SKS rifle on counter at A & A Guns in Fairfax, Virginia.

A high-ranking Justice Department official was "stunned" when he learned in 2010 that agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) allowed weapons to "walk" across the Mexican border during the Bush administration, according to recently disclosed documents.

Documents show that Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein, a career federal prosecutor in a leadership position within the Obama DOJ's Criminal Division, and other officials worked to keep the attention of the press away from the Bush-era "gun walking" tactics long before the problems with Operation Fast and Furious went public.

"Been thinking more about 'Wide Receiver I'," Weinstein wrote in an email on April 12, 2010. "ATF HQ [headquarters] should/will be embarrassed that they let this many guys walk -- I'm stunned, based on what we've had to do to make sure not even a single operable weapon walked in [undercover] operations I've been involved in planning -- and there will be press about that."

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South Carolina

DOJ Files Suit Against South Carolina Immigration Law, Says Others Could Come Soon

Ryan J. Reilly | October 31, 2011, 5:10PM

The Justice Department filed suit on Monday to block South Carolina's immigration law, saying that the law interfered with the federal government's supremacy on the issue of immigration.

South Carolina's statute, enacted on June 27, criminalizes the presence of an illegal immigrant in the state. DOJ's complaint says that the Constitution and federal law "do not permit the development of a patchwork of state and local immigration policies throughout the country." South Carolina's law, DOJ officials claimed, "clearly conflicts with the policies and priorities adopted by the federal government and therefore cannot stand."

"Pushing undocumented immigrants out of one state to another is simply not a solution to our immigration problems," DOJ Assistant Attorney General Tony West said in a press call on Monday. "We believe South Carolina's law... crosses the constitutional line."

West mentioned that DOJ has had discussions with the Attorney Generals of Utah, Georgia and Indiana about their immigration laws.

"The United States will decide whether and when the bring lawsuits challenging particular state laws," West said.

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