Fast And Furious

DOJ: Issa's Move To Hold AG In Contempt 'Unprecedented'

Ryan J. Reilly | May 15, 2012, 6:16PM

Rep Darrell Issa (R-CA) confers with a staffer.

Rep. Darrell Issa's drive to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt is "unwarranted," "unprecedented" and "ill-advised," a top Justice Department official said in a letter to the California Republican, who is chair of the House Oversight Committee, on Tuesday.

Deputy Attorney General James Cole also wrote that the committee's "core questions" on the flawed gun trafficking operation known as Fast and Furious "have been answered."

Cole suggested that the lack of documents showing high-level discussions about the tactics used in Fast and Furious show the problem grew out of offices in Arizona and that top Obama administration were not aware that ATF agents were telling gun shop dealers to sell large quantities of weapons to individuals they suspected were "straw purchasers" for Mexican drug cartels.

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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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New Orleans Police Department

Federal Review Finds Systematic Problems In New Orleans Police Dept.

Ryan J. Reilly | March 17, 2011, 12:15PM

A federal review of the New Orleans Police Department has found the department used excessive force; made unconstitutional stops, searches and arrests; engaged in biased policing based on race, ethnicity and sexual orientation; failed to provide effective policing services to those with limited English proficiency; and systematically failure to investigate sexual assaults and domestic violence.

The review by the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division confirmed systemic failures in the notorious NOPD which they said "developed over a long period of time." The report comes after the Civil Rights Division has spent nearly a year virtually camped out in New Orleans monitoring the operation of the NOPD.

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James Cole

GOPers Attack DOJ Appointee Over Terror Trial Views; Holder Preps For Headaches

Ryan J. Reilly | December 30, 2010, 4:53PM

James Cole, the man whom President Barack Obama announced yesterday will be given a recess appoint to the Justice Department's No. 2 position, is quickly emerging as a top target of Republican members of Congress due to his support for the use of civilian courts in terrorism trials.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Eric Holder and DOJ staffers are gearing up for onslaught of criticism from the GOP on political hot topics like terrorism, immigration and what Holder called a "made-up controversy" over the department's handling of a two-year-old voter intimidation case against members of the New Black Panther Party.

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James Cole

Report: AIG Monitor To Get DOJ Number 2 Post

Zachary Roth | April 20, 2010, 10:08AM

Attorney James Cole

The corporate lawyer who acted as the Justice Department's inside man at AIG is reportedly set to take the number two spot at DOJ.

James Cole, an attorney with Bryan Cave, was placed as a government monitor inside AIG -- reporting back to DOJ and SEC -- as part of a 2004 deferred prosecution agreement after AIG had been charged with helping a client, PNC Bank, avoid taxes. AIG also paid an $80 million fine as part of that deal.

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