Tag Archives: DOJ

The Texas Tribune reports: The U.S. Department of Justice is throwing its weight into the legal fight over Texas’ newly drawn maps for Congress and the state House. The Biden administration on Monday announced it has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Texas, joining what’s expected to be a protracted fight over the political boundaries the state will use …

CNN reports: Justice Department prosecutors say they have evidence that an alleged rioter who brought a gun to the US Capitol on January 6 was targeting both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. According to a filing Thursday, Guy Reffitt, a member of the Texas Three Percenter militia, “specifically targeted at least two lawmakers — the Speaker …

From the Department of Justice: Jonathan M. Cuney, age 38, and a part-time resident of East Greenbush, New York, was sentenced today to 87 months in prison, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release, for unlawfully possessing firearms including “ghost guns,” and ammunition. The announcement was made by United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and John B. DeVito, …

From the Department of Justice: Ryder Winegar, 34, of Amherst, was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison for six counts of threatening members of Congress and one count of transmitting interstate threatening communications, Acting United States Attorney John J. Farley announced. According to court documents and statements made in court, in the early morning hours of December 16, 2020, …

South Carolina’s The State reports: A top nurse at a Columbia skilled nursing and rehabilitation center has been indicted on federal charges of creating false COVID-19 vaccination cards. Tammy McDonald, 53, a registered nurse and director of nursing at the rehabilitation center, also lied to agents with the FBI and U.S. Health and Human Services Department when confronted about the …

From the Department of Justice: A Texas man was sentenced today to 110 months in prison for his scheme to fraudulently obtain and launder proceeds from more than $1.6 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. According to court documents, Lee Price III, …

The Washington Post reports: Two alleged Iranian hackers were indicted by the U.S. Justice Department Thursday and accused of engaging in a hacking and disinformation campaign targeting American voters in the run-up to the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Seyyed Kazemi, 24, and Sajjad Kashian, 27, allegedly sent threatening emails to try to scare voters, attempted to break into several states’ …

The Christian Post reports: The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans has agreed to pay more than $1 million as part of a settlement over allegations of falsified Hurricane Katrina aid claims. The settlement came in response to allegations that the archdiocese had violated the False Claims Act by knowingly submitting false claims to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) …

From the Department of Justice: Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that MALIK SANCHEZ, a/k/a “Smooth Sanchez,” pled guilty to making a hoax threat to detonate a bomb at a restaurant in the Flatiron neighborhood in New York, New York, on or about February 13, 2021. SANCHEZ pled guilty before United …

Bloomberg News reports: Hackers compromised the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s external email system on Saturday. The hackers sent out tens of thousands of emails from an FBI email account warning about a possible cyberattack, according to the Spamhaus Project, which tracks spam and related cyber threats. The FBI said it, along with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, is “aware …

Politico reports: Each of the two counts Bannon was hit with Friday is punishable by up to a year imprisonment, with a minimum sentence of one month in jail. One charge covers Bannon’s refusal to testify, while the other applies to his refusal to produce documents in response to the committee’s subpoena. Bannon is expected to make his initial court …

From the Department of Justice: A federal jury has found Frank Anthony Pezzuto (73, Venice) guilty of transmitting in interstate commerce three separate threatening communications to injure certain members of Congress. Pezzuto faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set. Pezzuto had been indicted on September 22, 2020. According to …

The Texas Tribune reports: The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Texas over its new voting law, passed earlier this year in the Legislature. The Texas voting law will “disenfranchise eligible Texas citizens who seek to exercise their right to vote, including voters with limited English proficiency, voters with disabilities, elderly voters, members of the military deployed away from home, …

NBC News reports: Social Security survivors benefits will now be available to same-sex spouses and partners who had been denied access due to previous bans on gay marriage. The Department of Justice and the Social Security Administration on Monday announced that they dismissed appeals filed by the then-Trump administration in two class-action lawsuits related to Social Security survivors benefits for …

CBS News reports: A 20-year-old Irvine man has been federally charged with attacking a flight attendant aboard an American Airlines flight from New York to Orange County last week, forcing the plane to be diverted to Denver. The U.S. Attorney’s Office reported Monday that Brian Hsu has been charged with interference with a flight crew and assault within the special …

From the Department of Justice: U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang today sentenced two members of the racially motivated violent extremist group “The Base” each to nine year in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release for firearms and alien-related charges arising from federal charges in Maryland and Delaware. Judge Chuang found that, based on additional evidence presented …

CNN reports: Federal prosecutors on Wednesday pushed back against claims of mistreatment at a Washington, DC, jail where dozens of US Capitol rioters are being held — allegations that led a federal judge to refer the jail for an investigation into potential civil rights violations after holding its officials in contempt of court. The Justice Department’s disclosures came in the …

The Macon Telegraph reports: A man in Georgia used more than two-thirds of his COVID-19 relief loan to pay for a Pokemon card, according to federal prosecutors. Vinath Oudomsine was charged by criminal information on Tuesday with one count of wire fraud after the government said he lied about how many employees he had and the revenue his business generated …

Law & Crime reports: A federal judge who imposed the highest possible fine — but no prison time — as punishment for breaching the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6 said that he wanted the sentence to send a message. “I want the sentence to hurt,” U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said during a sentencing hearing for Lori and Thomas …

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department has added two top prosecutors from Washington to the child sex trafficking investigation of Representative Matt Gaetz, according to two people briefed on the matter, a sign of the complex and high-stakes nature of the inquiry into Mr. Gaetz. The prosecutors — one a public corruption investigator with an expertise in child …