Stories related to: Department of Justice

The FBI’s system of background checks has forced many legal immigrants to wait years before getting into the US or gaining citizenship, the Justice Department finds. The program, deluged by more names and wider checks after 9/11, has struggled with old technology, poor training, and swamped supervisors, the Los Angeles Times reports. And criminals could be cruising through the system. More »

Karl Rove RSVPed in the negative to the subpoena the House Judiciary Committee issued yesterday, Politico reports. His lawyer said Rove wants none of what committee chair John Conyers has promised to dole out. Citing Conyers' promise of an "ass kicking," Robert Luskin said he's not “the least bit confused about the Committee’s motives and intentions.” More »

FBI agents dragged their feet in reporting torture inflicted on prisoners by Defense contractors and CIA employees, an an internal FBI report shows, but agents themselves generally did not participate in torture. FBI brass, however, was scolded for not providing more guidance or “pressing harder” to curb other agencies’ actions, the Washington Post reports. More »

Don Siegelman is out of jail and fighting to clear his name, but the case is a lot bigger than just him, the former Democratic governor of Alabama tells the Anniston Star . Siegelman says his prosecution on corruption charges was orchestrated by Karl Rove as a way to keep Dems out of office, and appeals to Congress to keep digging until the truth comes out. More »

Already reeling from record losses and preparing to cut 5,500 jobs, UBS has acknowledged the Department of Justice is investigating the mega-bank for helping its wealthiest clients evade taxes. The feds "briefly detained" one of the Swiss firm's most senior private bankers as a "material witness," UBS said. Insiders told the Financial Times that the DoJ held the employee to encourage the bank to come clean. More »

XM and Sirius both postponed annual shareholder meetings as they awaited final FCC approval of their planned merger, the Washington Post reports. The nation’s only satellite-radio operators are expected to win approval, but their plans have faced new criticism from lawmakers and state attorneys, and there may yet be conditions on the partnership. More »

The Justice Department has stepped in to force Fox to pay up $56,000 in indecency fines levied by the FCC but challenged by the broadcaster, Variety reports. Eight Fox-owned stations are being sued to collect fines for a 2003 episode of "Married by America" that featured men at a bachelor party licking whipped cream off topless strippers. More »

Just a month after Sept. 11, 2001, the Justice Department concluded that anti-terror military operations on US soil were not constrained by the Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure. The conclusion was detailed in a memo written by John Yoo, the theorist behind many of President Bush's expansions of presidential power. Though it hasn't been released, it was referred to in Yoo's 2003 memo authorizing torture, which was released Tuesday, writes the Washington Post . More »

John Yoo, who as deputy AG wrote a crucial memo justifying torture, is a war criminal, Salon columnist Glenn Greenwald bluntly argues: Newly released documents reveal "a government official who, in concert with other government officials, set out to enable a brutal and systematic torture regime, and did so." What's more, Greenwald writes, "the underlying theories of omnipotent executive power remain largely in place." More »

The Justice Department's unusual pursuit of the Emperor's Club—and its most famous client—grew out of suspicions of corruption, not moral turpitude, department officials tell the New York Times. Agents tailed Eliot Spitzer, tapped his phone, and pored over his financial records, steps more costly and intrusive than prostitution cases usually merit. More »

One of the oldest and most hotly debated constitutional amendments—the right to bear arms—comes under scrutiny by the Supreme Court today. The court will hear arguments on the constitutionality of Washington DC's stringent ban on handguns. The ruling, which will arrive in June, is sure to have a major impact on the national debate over firearms, USA Today notes. More »

The FBI provides inaccurate information about suspects on the nation's terror watch list, leaving innocent people on it too long and failing to provide timely updates about those who pose genuine threats, a Justice Department audit shows. The FBI says it will fix the problems within 6 months, the AP reports. Feds began compiling the list in 2003 so authorities across the nation could have a national database. More »

Fruit giant Chiquita stands accused in a federal lawsuit of contributing to the deaths of five US missionaries at the hands of Colombian rebel group FARC during the 1990s, the Wall Street Journa l reports today. Families of the missionaries say protection money the Cincinnati-based company admitted to secretly paying the guerrillas helped finance the group’s activities. More »

John Ashcroft angrily denied congressional Democrats' allegations today that a lucrative no-bid contract the Justice Department awarded him represents a conflict of interest, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Democrats characterized the contract as a “backroom sweetheart deal” because Ashcroft's ex-subordinates selected his firm to monitor a medical supply company under investigation for providing kickbacks. The deal could be worth up to $52 million. More »

Law enforcement agencies all over the country are building a new information "dragnet" that will dramatically boost data-sharing,  the Washington Post reports. This month the Justice Department will begin hooking up local and county police forces to the new federal National Data Exchange, creating a "one-stop-shop" that will let investigators search millions of records in seconds and make previously unsuspected connections. More »

The FBI today began investigating whether Roger Clemens committed perjury when he told Congress that he never used performance-enhancing drugs, Bloomberg reports. The agency opened a preliminary review one day after a House panel told the Justice Department it suspected Clemens of lying. The pitcher insists he never took steroids or human growth hormone, but his former trainer says otherwise. More »

One American adult out of 100 is incarcerated, a new study shows—the first time in US history such a high proportion of the population is behind bars. The Pew Center on the States reports the nationwide prison population grew by 25,000 last year, to 1.6 million, with around 700,000 others in local jails. More »

The congressional panel that questioned Roger Clemens about steroids has drafted a letter asking the Justice Department to investigate whether he committed perjury, the New York Times reports. The letter doesn't name his former trainer, Brian McNamee, who testified the same day and insisted Clemens is lying, but that could change before the letter is submitted. More »

The blogosphere is rejoicing in the news that “local boy” Joshua Micah Marshall garnered a George Polk Award for legal reporting. Marshall's Talking Points Memo blog is the first Internet-only operation to win the award, and many bloggers see that as validation, reports the New York Times . Marshall won for coverage of the US attorney firings scandal. More »

US spy agencies are continuing wiretap surveillance despite the fact that a law re-authorizing the administration's controversial program failed to pass a divided legislature last weekend. Telecommunications companies are cooperating with the government despite concerns, Reuters reports. Wiretaps will resume under the current law "at least for now," according to a joint statement yesterday by the Justice Department and Office of National Intelligence. More »