Obama Administration

'Disappointed' Siegelman: Obama Justice Dept. Virtually The Same As Bush DOJ

Justin Elliott | November 25, 2009, 10:42AM

Don Siegelman with Obama and Bush (inset)

When the Obama Administration argued in a filing earlier this month that the Supreme Court should not consider an appeal by Don Siegelman, the former Alabama governor wasn't surprised, even though the Obama filing maintained the Bush-era stance in Siegelman's controversial corruption case.

"There's really been no substantial change in the heart of the Department of Justice from the Bush-Rove Department of Justice," Siegelman tells TPMmuckraker in an interview.

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Alan Mollohan

Dem Rep Controls DOJ Budget While Under DOJ Investigation

Justin Elliott | November 24, 2009, 2:44PM

Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV)

Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV) has his hands on the reins of the Justice Department budget at the same time the Feds are investigating his personal finances and allegations he steered taxpayer dollars to non-profits Mollohan himself created.

The Washington Post today reports on the conflict, which led Mollohan to recuse himself from voting on certain DOJ budget items, including for the FBI, according to his office. He is the chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science.

But Mollohan's recusal hasn't mollified one conservative critic of the lawmaker:

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Doug Hampton

Hampton: 'Crystal Clear' That Ensign Payment Was Severance

Zachary Roth | November 20, 2009, 10:05AM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

Doug Hampton's campaign to bring down the man who slept with his wife continues.

Hampton's latest blast at Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) came in a sit-down with ABC News's Nightline. In excerpts teased on the ABC News site, Hampton doubles down on his contention that the $96,000 he and his wife received from Ensign's parents, after the affair was discovered, was a severance package, not a gift as Ensign has claimed. A severance payment would have violated campaign-finance laws.

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Jay Bybee

Legal Defense Fund For Torture Memo Author

Zachary Roth | November 19, 2009, 2:35PM

Jay Bybee

One of the authors of the Bush Justice Department's notorious memos approving torture has set up a legal defense fund to help pay anticipated lawyers' fees in connection with the episode.

A website for the Bybee Legal Defense Fund "explains how contributions may be made to help Judge Jay S. Bybee pay costs and expenses he is incurring or may incur in connection with claims, investigations or proceedings relating to his service as Assistant Attorney General for the Office Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice or his service on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit."

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John Ensign

Will Ensign Escape Criminal Probe?

Zachary Roth | November 19, 2009, 12:03PM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

Is the Justice Department leaning towards laying off Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)?

That's the direction in which Politico's reporting seems to point. According to the new site, DOJ officials "signal that the case is a low-priority matter for them." It adds that "no one close to Ensign or the Hamptons has been contacted by any federal investigators." And it notes that the Senate Ethics committee, which usually stands down when Justice is involved, has been forging ahead with its probe of the philandering Nevada senator.

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William Jefferson

Feds Want Jefferson To Serve Up To 33 Years

Zachary Roth | November 9, 2009, 4:05PM

Fmr. Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA)

Federal prosecutors want former congressman William Jefferson to serve up to 33 years in prison.

Court documents filed by the Feds today, and reported by Roll Call, state: "The Probation Office has calculated the Sentencing Guidelines for Congressman Jefferson ... in a guideline range of 324 to 405 months or approximately 27 to 33 years of imprisonment."

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Obama Administration

Obama Adopts Bush's State Secrets Position -- And Exact Language -- In NSA Spying Case

Justin Elliott | November 2, 2009, 6:03PM

Pres. Obama and Fmr. Pres. George W. Bush

Here's a good catch from Michael Isikoff on the new blog Declassified at Newsweek:

It looks like the Obama Administration is invoking the state secrets privilege in a lawsuit alleging illegal surveillance by the National Security Agency -- and it's using the exact wording used by the Bush Administration two years ago in the very same case.

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Alberto Gonzales

Iglesias: Evidence Of Politicization By Arizona Sheriff "Felt Very Familiar"

Zachary Roth | November 2, 2009, 2:37PM

Fmr. US Attorney (NM) David Iglesias

David Iglesias is comparing Sheriff Joe Arpaio's alleged targeting of political foes to the notorious Rove-Gonzales politicization of DOJ, which led to Iglesias's own improper firing.

The evidence against the Arizona sheriff was "very similar to what was going on at the Department of Justice under the Bush administration," Iglesias said in an interview with TPMmuckraker. "It unfortunately felt very familiar."

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Joe Arpaio

Report: FBI Probing Controversial Arizona Sheriff For "Investigating" Political Foes

Zachary Roth | November 2, 2009, 1:12PM

Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the hard-line anti-immigration Arizona sheriff, is being probed by the FBI for allegedly using his authority to retaliate against political adversaries, sources tell a local TV station. One of the key cases cited by Phoenix-based KPHO is one we told you about recently, in which a husband-and-wife team of big-name Washington GOP lawyers was briefly recruited to try to build a case against a local official who had clashed with Arpaio.

In response to the KPHO report, Arpaio bizarrely lashed out at ... David Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney who had dared offer an expert opinion to the station.

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