Tag Archives: DOJ

NBC News reports: The head of the branch of the Justice Department that prosecutes election crimes resigned Monday hours after Attorney General William Barr issued a memo to federal prosecutors to investigate “specific allegations” of voter fraud before the results of the presidential race are certified. Richard Pilger, who was director of the Election Crimes Branch of the DOJ, sent …

CNBC reports: Attorney General William Barr has authorized federal prosecutors across the U.S. to pursue “substantial allegations” of voting irregularities before the 2020 presidential election is certified, despite little evidence of fraud. Barr’s action comes days after Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump and raises the prospect that Trump will use the Justice Department to try to challenge the …

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department told federal prosecutors in an email early on Wednesday that the law allowed them to send armed federal officers to ballot-counting locations around the country to investigate potential voter fraud, according to three people who described the message. The email created the specter of the federal government intimidating local election officials or …

Via press release from the Justice Department: The Justice Department today announced its plans for voting rights monitoring in jurisdictions around the country for the Nov. 3, 2020 general election. The Justice Department historically has monitored in jurisdictions in the field on election day, and is again doing so this year. The department will also take complaints from the public …

The New York Times reports: A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that President Trump can be personally sued for defamation in connection with his denial while in office of a decades-old rape allegation. The judge, Lewis A. Kaplan of Federal District Court in Manhattan, rejected the Justice Department’s attempt to step into the case and defend the president, and his …

The Washington Post reports: The Department of Justice is expected Tuesday to charge Google with violating federal antitrust law, according to two people familiar with the matter, finding after a year-long investigation that the tech giant wrongfully wielded its digital dominance to the detriment of corporate rivals and consumers. The federal government’s imminent lawsuit will touch off a landmark and …

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department said on Monday that President Trump should not be sued personally for having denied a rape allegation because he made the statement while acting in his official capacity as president. Lawyers for the government made the argument as they defended Attorney General William P. Barr’s decision to intervene in a defamation lawsuit …

Reuters reports: The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday accused Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, author of a tell-all book about first lady Melania Trump, of breaking their nondisclosure agreement and asked a court to set aside profits from the book in a government trust. In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, Justice Department lawyers said Wolkoff, a former aide …

The Associated Press reports: Attorney General William Barr will self-quarantine out of caution after President Donald Trump and several other lawmakers and aides tested positive for the coronavirus. Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec said late Sunday that Barr has had four COVID-19 tests since Friday, and all have come back negative. She says he will self-quarantine for several days out …

Politico reports: The prosecution of Michael Flynn. A Senate investigation into the provenance of the Steele Dossier. The nascent federal probe of discarded absentee ballots in Pennsylvania. In recent days, the Justice Department has declassified or disclosed sensitive materials related to each of these proceedings that, on the surface, have little to do with each other. Yet within hours, President …

The Washington Post reports: The Department of Justice asked Congress on Wednesday to adopt a new law that would hold Facebook, Google and Twitter legally accountable for the way they moderate content on the Web, as the Trump administration ratchets up its attacks on social-media sites entering the 2020 election. The new request from the Justice Department came in the …

Gothamist reports: The Department of Justice vowed to strip federal funding from New York and two other cities on Monday, following a legally dubious directive issued by President Trump earlier this month to withhold money from “anarchist jurisdictions.” While city leaders and New Yorkers mainly ridiculed the threatened cuts, the move was immediately celebrated by some of the city’s police …

The New York Daily News reports: Gov. Cuomo ripped President Trump as a “bully” and “political opportunist” Monday as he dismissed the commander-in-chief’s attempt to label the Big Apple as an “anarchist jurisdiction” and strip the city of federal funds. “I believe the president is fundamentally a bully… you can’t bully New Yorkers,” the governor said during a conference call …

The New York Post reports: New York City was among three cities labeled “anarchist jurisdictions” by the Justice Department on Sunday and targeted to lose federal money for failing to control protesters and defunding cops, The Post has learned. Portland, Ore., and Seattle, Wash., were the other two cities on the list, which was approved by US Attorney General William …

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into whether President Trump’s former national security adviser John R. Bolton unlawfully disclosed classified information when he published a memoir this summer, a case that the department opened after it failed to stop the book’s publication this summer. The department has convened a grand jury, which issued …

NBC News reports: The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General has begun investigating the circumstances surrounding the sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone, a longtime friend of President Donald Trump, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The investigation is focused on events in February, according to the two sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity, when prosecutors …

CBS News reports: A top prosecutor in the probe into the origins of the investigation of President Donald Trump and Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has quit, reportedly in part due to fears that political concerns were behind pressure to produce a report before the probe’s work is completed. The Hartford Courant on Friday reported that Nora Dannehy, …

NBC News reports: The Trump administration is siding with religious leaders who ordered a Catholic school in Indiana to fire a teacher in a same-sex marriage, saying the church’s actions are protected by the First Amendment. In a 35-page amicus brief filed on Tuesday, the Department of Justice argued that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis — which fired gay …

Bloomberg News reports: The U.S. Justice Department is seeking to take over the defense of President Donald Trump in a defamation suit brought by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who claims Trump raped her two decades ago. In a court filing Tuesday, the Justice Department said Trump was acting “within the scope” of his job as president when he said …

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department plans to bring an antitrust case against Google as soon as this month, after Attorney General William P. Barr overruled career lawyers who said they needed more time to build a strong case against one of the world’s wealthiest, most formidable technology companies, according to five people briefed on internal department conversations. …