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NEWS ABOUT: Department of Justice

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Holder: We Didn't Lie About 'Fast and Furious'

He says charges are forthcoming against those who screwed up

(Newser) - Eric Holder angrily denied that the Justice Department was trying to hide anything about the botched "Operation Fast and Furious" program in his testimony before Congress today—and insisted that he'd had no knowledge of the gun-tracking operation. "There's no attempt at any kind of coverup,... More »

BofA Pays $335M to Settle Claims Over Minority Loans

It's the largest fair-lending settlement in history

(Newser) - Bank of America's purchase of Countrywide in 2008 just got more expensive. BofA agreed today to pay $335 million to settle a Justice Department complaint that Countrywide discriminated against black and Hispanic home buyers. The Wall Street Journal calls it the "largest residential fair-lending settlement in history."... More »

Sheriff Joe Fires Back at Feds' Allegations

Discrimination case a 'witch hunt': lawyer

(Newser) - Arizona's embattled Sheriff Joe Arpaio is hitting back at Justice Department allegations that his office shows "a pervasive culture of discriminatory bias" against Hispanics. "Don't come to use me as a whipping boy for a national, international problem," he told reporters, saying he has "... More »

Feds: Sheriff Joe Violated Civil Rights

Arpaio conducted 'egregious' racial profiling: Justice Department

(Newser) - Tough times ahead for America's Toughest Sheriff : The Justice Department has accused Joe Arpaio of major civil rights violations. Arpaio's office committed what a top Justice official called the most egregious racial profiling he'd ever come across, the AP reports. Arpaio also conducted immigration "sweeps" prompted... More »

White House: We've Recovered $5.6B in Fraud

Cabinet secretaries to meet on wasteful spending

(Newser) - The Justice Department has managed to recover some $5.6 billion lost to fraud over the 2011 fiscal year, officials will announce today. Civil fraud accounted for some $3.4 billion, with the rest attributable to criminal fraud, insiders tell the Washington Post . Much of the money was recovered by... More »

FCC Moves to Block T-Mobile, AT&T Merger

Which means the government will have two cracks at stopping the deal

(Newser) - AT&T thought its muscular lobbying operation would ensure regulatory approval of its deal to buy T-Mobile , but it’s not working out that way. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski moved to block the merger yesterday, giving the government a second chance to break up the sale should an antitrust suit... More »

Feds Sue South Carolina Over New Immigration Law

State's proposed law is one of the nation's toughest

(AP) - The federal government is suing South Carolina to put a stop to the state's tough new immigration law. US Attorney Bill Nettles said today the government wants a judge to stop enforcement of the legislation. The law requires that officers call federal immigration officials if they suspect someone is... More »

Court Blocks Parts of Alabama Immigration Law

Schools won't have to check legal status of kids

(Newser) - The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction today blocking two key provisions of Alabama’s controversial immigration law : the one requiring immigrants to carry special alien registration cards, and another forcing schools to check the immigration status of enrolling students. The court said the legal challenges against those... More »

Obama Mulls Release of Awlaki Memo

As al-Qaeda chides US for contradicting its own values

(Newser) - The Obama administration is currently debating whether to release a legal memo outlining its rationale for assassinating American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki without a trial. Some argue the disclosure could quiet questions about the killing, sources tell CNN , while others say the memo is too sensitive, since it refers to a... More »

Obama Goes on Offense Vs. Immigration Laws

Administration may challenge laws in a half dozen states

(Newser) - Even as Alabama’s stringent new immigration law takes effect today , the Obama administration is ramping up efforts to challenge it and other laws like it around the country. The administration has already sued Arizona and Alabama, its lawyers are talking with Utah officials about another suit there, and Georgia,... More »

$16 Government Muffins? It's a 'Myth'

Audtiors clearly aren't familiar with conference invoices: Kevin Drum

(Newser) - A recent government audit wagged its finger at the Justice Department for spending $16 on muffins. It's a great story, a classic case of government abuse—and almost certainly not true, writes Kevin Drum at Mother Jones . Yes, the invoices show the department spent $4,200 on 250 muffins... More »

Société Générale Probed Over Role in Ponzi Scheme

Justice Dept. will probe whether subsidiary ignored suspicious transactions

(Newser) - The Justice Department has launched a criminal probe against a subsidiary of Société Générale that alleged Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford funneled money through, based on suspicions that it ignored some fishy transactions, sources tell the Wall Street Journal . A Société Générale spokesman confirmed... More »

Puerto Rico Police Brutal, Corrupt: Justice Dept.

Scathing report finds department routinely violates civil rights

(Newser) - Violent crime is on the rise in Puerto Rico—and the police department is part of the problem, a scathing new report from the Justice Department concludes. The department is “broken in a number of critical and fundamental respects,” according to a copy of the report obtained by... More »

Feds Nab 91 in $295M Medicare Fraud Sting

Accused 'treated' dead people, ran Florida housing scheme

(Newser) - The Obama administration notched yet another win for its Medicare fraud team yesterday, as the Justice Department announced the arrests of 91 fraudsters from across the country, accused of bilking Uncle Sam for a combined $295 million. “The defendants allegedly treated the Medicare program like a personal piggy bank,... More »

Georgia Town Relents, Approves Expanded Mosque

Pressure from Department of Justice prompts change in Lilburn

(Newser) - The city council of Lilburn, Georgia, changed its tune last night, voting 3-1 to approve expansion plans for a local mosque that it had blocked for nearly two years, after the federal Justice Department said it would investigate the town. Residents packed into City Hall for the meeting, with nearly... More »

Feds Sue Alabama Over Immigration Law

Says law oversteps its bounds, interferes with federal policy

(Newser) - In a move that will shock exactly no one, the Department of Justice is treating Alabama’s extraordinarily harsh illegal immigration law the same way it treated Arizona’s: It’s suing. The DOJ is asking for an injunction stopping the law from going into effect on Sept. 1, arguing... More »

Eric Holder to Talk Phone Hacking With 9/11 Families

US investigation gets serious

(Newser) - The FBI's investigation into allegations that News of the World reporters hacked the phones of 9/11 victims must be heating up, because Attorney General Eric Holder himself will meet with families of the dead next month to discuss the probe's progress, the Guardian reports. A lawyer for 20... More »

Senator Says AT&T, T-Mobile Merger Must Die

Urges FCC, Justice Department to block it on anti-trust grounds

(Newser) - AT&T’s purchase of T-Mobile must be blocked on antitrust grounds, Sen. Herb Kohl declared today. The chair of the Senate subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights released a letter urging the FCC and Justice Department to step in before the two phone companies get hitched, the... More »

Holder Backs Release of 5,500 Crack Offenders

Proposal would correct vast crack/cocaine sentencing gap

(Newser) - Eric Holder today told the US Sentencing Commission that he supports a proposal to release thousands of federal prisoners convicted on crack-related offenses. Until Congress changed them last year, federal sentencing guidelines gave crack users—who are predominantly poor and black—much harsher sentences than powder cocaine users. Now, Holder... More »

NYT Reporter Subpoenaed in CIA Leak Case

James Risen hasn't cooperated in case against his alleged source

(Newser) - Federal prosecutors have issued a subpoena demanding testimony from New York Times reporter James Risen in the case against ex-CIA employee Jeffrey Sterling, who allegedly leaked info about a failed CIA disinformation campaign to him for a 2006 book. A judge has already quashed one subpoena issued to Risen, but... More »

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