New Black Panthers

DOJ Ethics Office: No Evidence That Politics, Race Influenced New Black Panther Party Case

Ryan J. Reilly | March 29, 2011, 6:05PM

Members of the New Black Panthers Party outside a polling place in Philadelphia, PA during the 2008 elections.

The Obama Justice Department did not improperly let politics or the race of the defendants affect the handling of a high-profile civil voter intimidation case against members of the New Black Panther Party, a probe by DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) concluded after an extensive investigation.

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Ted Stevens

Ted Stevens FBI File Could Answer Questions On Botched Prosecution

Ryan J. Reilly | February 11, 2011, 8:47AM

Fmr. Alaska Senator Ted Stevens (R)

The FBI will post the bureau's file on the late Sen. Ted Stevens today, which could clear up some questions about the long serving Alaska Republican who was found guilty in a corruption trial but had his case tossed out due to prosecutorial misconduct.

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Office of Professional Responsibility

Report: Misconduct By Feds Led To Lighter Sentences For Defendants

Ryan J. Reilly | December 28, 2010, 1:12PM

Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C.

USA Today is out with another report critical of the actions of federal prosecutors. The newspaper found that, in at least 48 of the 201 cases since 1997 in which federal courts found that prosecutors violated laws or ethics rules, defendants were convicted but were given shorter sentences because of that misconduct.

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Robin C. Ashton

Reported Victim Of Bush-Era DOJ Politicization To Head DOJ's Internal Watchdog

Ryan J. Reilly | December 24, 2010, 2:30PM

Robin C. Ashton, the woman Attorney General Eric Holder just named to head of the Justice Department's internal ethics office, was reportedly herself a victim of improper politicization during the Bush administration at the hands of Regent University graduate Monica Goodling.

"As a veteran career prosecutor, Robin is uniquely qualified to serve as Counsel for Professional Responsibility, and I am confident she will lead the office with the highest standards of professionalism, integrity and dedication," Holder said in a statement.

Ashton, as the Washington Post reported, was denied a promotion at the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, where she worked from 2001 to 2005. Sources said she was told that she lost the promotion because of Goodling, who was eventually found to have improperly politicized hiring and promotion decisions.

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FBI

Report: High-Ranking FBI Official Under Investigation After Alleged Affair

Justin Elliott | March 19, 2010, 10:37AM

Joseph Demarest

The head of the FBI's New York office is under investigation by the Justice Department's internal watchdog in connection with an alleged affair with a lower-level employee, ticklethewire.com reports.

The Web site, which covers federal law enforcement, reports that investigators from the Office of Professional Responsibility are looking at whether Joseph Demarest lied when asked internally about an alleged affair with another employee.

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Jeff Sessions

Republicans Attack Justice Department Ethics Office

Justin Elliott | February 26, 2010, 10:55AM

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)

The two top Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee went after the DOJ's ethics office today, blasting the torture memo report produced by the Office of Professional Responsibility.

"The first report was filled with gaping holes, shoddy legal analysis .. and a clear desire to punish Mr. Yoo and Mr. Bybee even if the facts didn't support it," said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) in his opening statement.

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Eric Holder

Despite Harsh Criticism Of Torture Memos Report, Holder Has 'Utmost Confidence' In DOJ Ethics Office

Justin Elliott | February 24, 2010, 6:55PM

Attorney General Eric Holder and Associate Deputy AG David Margolis

Attorney General Eric Holder has "the utmost confidence" in the Justice Department's ethics office, despite the fact that it was recently overruled by a top Holder aide in its most high-profile case in years, a DOJ spokeswoman tells TPMmuckraker.

The 290-page torture memo report produced by the Office of Professional Responsibility, which is tasked with investigating misconduct by DOJ attorneys, found that Bush-era attorneys John Yoo and Jay Bybee had committed professional misconduct in writing the legal opinions that authorized torture.

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John Yoo

Yoo: 'Sure,' The President Could Order A Village Of Civilians Massacred

Justin Elliott | February 22, 2010, 10:10AM

In John Yoo's vision of executive power, the president can legally order a village of civilians "massacred," according to the internal Justice Department report released Friday.

But in a letter (.pdf) sent to the DOJ last October, Yoo's lawyer, Miguel Estrada, accused the DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility of ripping "out of context" Yoo's statement on the massacre question.

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Justice Department

Top DOJer Overruled Finding Of Misconduct For Torture Memo Authors

Justin Elliott | February 19, 2010, 5:28PM

John Yoo

The Justice Department has released the long-awaited report on the torture memos and the conduct of Bush Administration lawyers including John Yoo.

While the final report by the department's internal watchdog, the Office of Professional Responsibility, found that attorneys John Yoo and Jay Bybee engaged in professional misconduct, top DOJ official David Margolis overruled that finding in a memo to Attorney General Eric Holder.

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Justice Department

Reports: DOJ Torture Memo Probe Clears Yoo, Bybee

Justin Elliott | February 1, 2010, 9:21AM

John Yoo

A long-awaited internal Justice Department report will essentially clear the lawyers who crafted the legal justification for the Bush Administration's torture policies, reversing the tougher findings of a draft version of the report, according to Newsweek.

The draft version of the Office of Professional Responsibility report recommended that John Yoo and Jay Bybee -- who served in the Office of Legal Counsel and are now a law professor at Berkeley and a federal appeals court judge in Nevada, respectively -- be referred to state bar associations for potential discipline for their role in writing memos that concluded torture was justified.

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John Guandolo

Gaffney On Ex-FBI Agent Who Slept With Witness: He Was Fired For Opposing Sharia!

Justin Elliott | January 11, 2010, 11:00AM

Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy

Conservative columnist Frank Gaffney claimed in a recent op-ed that FBI agent John Guandolo lost his job because he was too fiercely opposed to radical Islamic ideology, when in fact Guandolo resigned after sleeping with the key government witness in a major congressional corruption trial.

And in an e-mail exchange with TPMmuckraker, Gaffney is standing by the column, while providing no information to back up his claim.

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John Guandolo

The Strange Case Of The Philandering, Muslim-Threat-Hyping FBI Agent

Justin Elliott | September 23, 2009, 2:01PM

John Guandolo

An FBI agent who worked on the corruption case of former Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson resigned after superiors found a list he wrote of his sexual conquests with agents and a confidential source, according to court documents.

The same agent, John Guandolo, who is married and who unsuccessfully solicited a $75,000 donation for an anti-terrorism group from a wealthy witness in the Jefferson case with whom he was having an affair, resigned from the FBI and appears to have landed on his feet on the speaking circuit playing up the threat of Islamic terrorism.

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