Stewart Nozette

Prosecutor: Top Scientist Nozette Admitted Actual Spying For Israel

Justin Elliott | October 30, 2009, 11:32AM

Stewart Nozette

Did a federal prosecutor just make the inflammatory accusation that top government scientist Stewart Nozette has admitted to giving classified information to the Israeli government?

By our reading of this AP story, that's exactly what happened at a hearing in U.S. district court in Washington yesterday.

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Mary Beth Buchanan

U.S. Attorney Who Played Role In Firings Scandal To Step Down -- Congressional Bid Next?

Zachary Roth | October 30, 2009, 10:04AM

Mary Beth Buchanan

Mary Beth Buchanan, the Bush-appointed federal prosecutor who had a cameo in the U.S. attorney firings scandal and was charged with pursuing politically motivated prosecutions, is stepping down.

Buchanan, a Republican, is said to be mulling a run for Congress against incumbent Democrat Rep. Jason Altmire. In a statement yesterday, she said she was "looking forward to the next chapter of my professional career," without elaborating.

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Global Warming

Could Coal Lobby Chief Be Probed For Perjury?

Zachary Roth | October 29, 2009, 4:49PM

CEO of ACCCE Steve Miller

Could apparently false statements made by the head of a coal-industry lobby group before Congress this morning end up being referred to the Justice Department for a criminal perjury probe? Congressional investigators aren't ruling it out.

As we reported, Steve Miller, the director of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), appears to have twice misled Congress while under oath during his testimony this morning over those forged letters sent on the coal lobby's behalf by Bonner and Associates.

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Bill Allen

Docs: Feds Pressed Police To End Child-Sex Probe Of Bill Allen

Zachary Roth | October 28, 2009, 2:47PM

Bill Allen, former owner of VECO

Hat tip Alaska Dispatch...

Did U.S. prosecutors pressure police to end a child-sex-crimes investigation in order not to endanger the federal probe of corruption in Alaska politics, then withhold evidence about the episode? That's what court documents filed on behalf of a former state lawmaker convicted in the investigation are charging.

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Alaska

Bill Allen Gets Three Years For Role In Alaska Public Corruption Scandal

Justin Elliott | October 28, 2009, 2:40PM

Fmr. VECO chief Bill Allen outside of federal court today.

Bill Allen, the former chief of an Alaska oil services company who became the key government witness in the Ted Stevens trial last year, was sentenced to three years in prison today for his role in the wide-ranging public corruption scandal in the state.

Allen was also fined $750,000.

The Anchorage Daily News reports from the courtroom:

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Chris Christie

Did FOIA Request On Financial Ties To Christie Prompt Top Aide's Departure?

Zachary Roth | October 27, 2009, 1:16PM

Fmr. top aide Michele Brown (inset) and NJ Gov. Candidate Chris Christie (R)

Hat tip Marcy Wheeler at Firedoglake...

Did Chris Christie's top aide resign as a top prosecutor this summer in order to prevent information about her financial ties to Christie from becoming public? Let's look at the facts:

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Mary Beth Buchanan

New Allegations Against Bush-Appointed U.S. Attorney Linked To Firings Scandal

Zachary Roth | October 23, 2009, 2:00PM

Mary Beth Buchanan

The office of a top Bush-appointed federal prosecutor who played a role in the U.S. attorney firings scandal received improper recordings of telephone calls between defense lawyers and their clients, and appears not to have turned them over to authorities, as required by law.

On Wednesday evening, Lisa Freeland, a Pittsburgh-based federal public defender, sent a lengthy email to fellow defense lawyers, reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, exposing the episode. "I am incensed," Freeland wrote.

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Justice Department

Head Of DOJ Unit That Botched Stevens Case Steps Down

Zachary Roth | October 22, 2009, 4:39PM

Fmr. Sen Ted Stevens (R-AK)

The head of the Justice Department's beleaguered Public Integrity unit is stepping down.

William Welch, who supervised the department's botched prosecution of former Alaska senator Ted Stevens, will remain with DOJ but return to Massachusetts, the Washington Post reported yesterday.

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Voting

DOJ Vet: Plan For Panther Hearings Shows Key Voting-Rights Panel Is "Kind Of A Joke"

Zachary Roth | October 22, 2009, 3:24PM

USCCR Commissioner Todd Gaziano

Democrats and civil-rights advocates are slamming conservative members of a key federal voting-rights panel for a plan to hold hearings on the controversial "New Black Panthers" voter intimidation case, and are expressing intense concern that the commission is being shifted away from its traditional role as a protector of the rights of minority voters.

Yesterday, Main Justice reported that the commission, dominated by Bush appointees, planned to hold hearings on the New Black Panther case, which the Justice Department dismissed earlier this year. In a now-famous incident from Election Day 2008, a member of a group called the New Black Panther Party was caught on camera clad in combat boots and brandishing a night stick at a Philadelphia polling station.

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Chris Christie

Lautenberg To DOJ: Christie-Brown Ties Raise "Serious Concerns"

Zachary Roth | October 21, 2009, 5:27PM

Fmr. top aide Michele Brown (inset) and NJ Gov. Candidate Chris Christie (R)

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) has released a letter he sent today to the Justice Department calling for an investigation into the possible politicization of the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey in the service of Chris Christie's campaign for governor.

In the letter to Mary Patrice Brown, who runs DOJ's internal ethics unit, Lautenberg, the chair of the Jon Corzine campaign, focuses on ties between Christie, a Republican, and his former top aide Michele Brown, which Lautenberg says raise "serious concerns." We laid out many of those ties here.

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David Safavian

Former DOJ Prosecutor: Ring Case Was "Extremely Problematic" From The Start

Zachary Roth | October 16, 2009, 3:17PM

Kevin A. Ring

A former prosecutor with the Justice Department's Public Integrity unit has called the case against Kevin Ring "an extremely problematic prosecution," since the favors that Ring was accused of doing for public officials weren't in themselves illegal.

A mistrial was declared in the case yesterday, after jurors deadlocked on the charges against the former Team Abramoff lobbyist.

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Kevin Ring

Judge Will Declare Mistrial In Kevin Ring Case

Justin Elliott | October 15, 2009, 2:08PM

Kevin A. Ring

A federal judge in Washington, D.C. plans to declare a mistrial on seven of eight counts in the case of top Jack Abramoff operative Kevin Ring, the Legal Times reports.

Ring was indicted last year on charges of bribing government officials and members of Congress with meals and event tickets in return for help for clients of Abramoff's lobbying firm.

The Legal Times reports:

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John Ensign

Criminal Probe Of Ensign Seen As Likely

Zachary Roth | October 14, 2009, 1:40PM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

Could the worst be still to come for John Ensign?

An expert consensus may be forming that the Justice Department will likely launch a criminal investigation into the philandering Nevada senator and his relationship with Doug and Cynthia Hampton.

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Gale Norton

Gale Norton Subpoenaed By Grand Jury: Report

Zachary Roth | October 9, 2009, 5:32PM

Fmr. US Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton

Gale Norton is being investigated by a federal grand jury for allegedly talking to Shell about a job, while she was Interior Secretary in 2006, reports National Journal. Both Norton and Shell are said to have received subpoenas.

The existence of the federal investigation was first reported last month by the Los Angeles Times. In a nutshell, the Feds have been looking at an episode in which Norton's Interior Department awarded three oil shale leases on federal land in Colorado -- potentially worth hundreds of billions -- to a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell. Two months later, Norton resigned, saying she had no job lined up. But later that year, she was hired by Shell as in-house counsel.

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Joe Arpaio

'America's Toughest Sheriff' Teams With Beltway GOP Power Couple In 'Inquisition' Of Arizona Official

Zachary Roth | October 7, 2009, 3:41PM

Republican lawyers Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing

Notorious anti-immigrant sheriff Joe Arpaio is working with a husband-and-wife GOP lawyer team that was one of Bill Clinton's biggest tormentors during the 90s, to go after a local Arizona official. But critics are calling the effort a politically motivated fishing expedition. And the defense lawyer on the case knows something about politicized justice: he was one of the US attorneys improperly fired by Alberto Gonzales.

Here's the back-story. It's got a few twists and turns. But stay with us -- it's worth it:

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John Ensign

Ensign: I Followed Ethics Laws When I Helped Clients Of Mistress's Husband

Zachary Roth | October 6, 2009, 3:18PM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

The John Ensign story is back on the front-burner, thanks to last week's New York Times report that the philandering Nevada senator actively helped Doug Hampton, the husband of his former mistress, get set up as a lobbyist, then acted to benefit Hampton's new clients.

Today brought several new developments:

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