Holder Justice Department
March 10, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The word is that President Obama has settled on Thomas Perez as his nominee to be Secretary of Labor. That nomination would continue the trend of atrocious, in-your-face, leftist nominees that has characterized Obama’s second term. We first wrote about Perez when Obama nominated him to head the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. As I explained on Power Line and in a Wasington Times op-ed, Perez had
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March 7, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The prospect of drone attacks on American citizens here in the U.S. is at or below the bottom of the list of things we should be worried about. But Eric Holder bears a share of the blame for this silly sideshow because of his failure to provide cogent answers to questions about the subject. For some sorely needed clarity on this matter, let’s turn to John Yoo at Ricochet: [In
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March 1, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, the Obama Administration filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional Proposition 8, California’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage. The brief does not explicitly endorse a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. Rather, it argues that “Proposition 8’s denial of marriage to same-sex couples, particularly where California at the same time grants same-sex partners all the substantive rights of marriage, violates equal protection.” “Prejudice,” the Justice Department sniffs,
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February 27, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
From William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection, we learn about the case of Uwe and Hannelore Romeike and their children: The Romeikes are devout Christians from Germany who wanted to homeschool their children because of what they perceived as the secularist agenda in German public schools. In the United States, the right to homeschool ones’ own children is accepted, although frequently mocked by the left. The homeschoool movement is thriving in
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February 11, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
I don’t believe we’ve written about the Obama Justice Department’s suit against Standard & Poors, which alleges that S&P manipulated bond ratings for its own purposes. Actaully, there’s good reason not to write about it, since we don’t have access to the evidentiary record on which the DOJ is relying. This hasn’t stopped some from opining. For example, Robert Samuelson, a columnist I respect, has denounced the suit, asserting that
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January 10, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Roll Call reports that “despite being the first attorney general ever to be held in contempt of Congress, Eric Holder intends to stay in his post for the foreseeable future.” According to Roll Call, “Holder had been expected to step down relatively early into President Barack Obama’s second term.” But no such luck. There’s a certain logic to Holder’s retention. Obama has made a series of in-your-face nominations — Chuck
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December 16, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
A while ago, The Daily Caller reported that, as a student at Columbia University, Eric Holder participated in an armed takeover of the University’s former ROTC office. John wrote about this at the time, but I want to expand. According to the Daily Caller, Holder was among the leaders of the Student Afro-American Society (SAAS), which demanded that the former ROTC office be renamed the “Malcolm X Lounge.” The change,
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December 4, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
I wrote here about the sustained persecution of CIA agents who protected America by obtaining information from terrorists in the aftermath of 9/11. The persecution culminated in a decision by Attorney General Holder to reopen cases against some agents that the Justice Department had already deemed unworthy of prosecution. I now know the “back story” to Holder’s decision. It renders that decision even more disgraceful than I had thought. The
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December 4, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Gary Grindler, Attorney General Eric Holder’s chief of staff, has resigned from the Justice Department effective tomorrow. Grindler leaves after less than two years in that position. Grindler oversaw the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which led “Fast and Furious,” the failed and criminally stupid “gun-walking” operation that allowed Mexican cartels to obtain hundreds of illegally purchased weapons. The DOJ’s Inspector General faulted Grindler for hiding the connection
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November 16, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Eric Holder is defending his decision (or alleged decision) not to inform President Obama of the investigation the FBI was conducting of General Petraeus. Holder says that his department conducted the investigation “the way it normally conduct[s] a criminal investigation.” Normally, the Justice Department does not share the facts of ongoing investigations outside the FBI. Holder added that the Justice Department concluded that the facts it was investigating did not
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November 12, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Reuters has come up the following purported time line of the events leading to General Petraeus’ resignation: Spring 2006: Paula Broadwell meets David Petraeus at a Harvard University function. 2008: Broadwell decides to pursue a doctorate in public policy and conduct a case study on Petraeus’ leadership. Petraeus invites her to go on a run in Washington, D.C. 2010: Petraeus is put in charge of the war in Afghanistan and
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July 31, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Federal Judge Reggie Walton has found that internal DOJ documents about the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case “contradict Assistant Attorney General [Thomas] Perez’s testimony that political leadership was not involved in” the decision to dismiss the case. In other words, as Hans Von Spakovsky says, “the sworn testimony of Perez, the Obama political appointee who heads the Civil Rights Division, before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights was
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July 17, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Attorney General Holder has come in for constant and largely deserved criticism from conservatives. The complaints cover plenty of territory: the Fast and Furious scandal, including the subsequent stonewalling; the bright idea of holding a trial of the 9/11 mastermind in New York City; the attacks on state laws designed to help with immigration enforcement; the efforts to promote voting fraud by attacking laws designed to prevent it; the decision
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June 21, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Unlike Politico, the Washington Post offers a realistic, non-partisan take on President Obama’s assertion of executive privilege. Under a headline stating that Obama has “create[d] a tricky situation,” David Nakamura recognizes that this dispute could hurt Obama. He writes: “The potential protracted legal dispute has the potential to embarrass and distract the White House during the heart of the reelection campaign.” This election is, above all else, about the economy.
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June 20, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Here’s how Politico writers Jake Sherman and Reid Epstein reported the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s vote to hold Eric Holder in contempt: “The Fast and Furious investigation has finally handed House Republicans a prize they’ve long sought: a legal smackdown of the Obama administration.” Can anyone imagine this lead sentence if the House had found the Attorney General in a Republican administration, Alberto Gonzalez for example, in contempt?
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June 20, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
My friend Bill Otis was a Justice Department lawyer for many years. He spent a good portion of those years as a prosecutor. He also served as an attorney in the White House Counsel’s shop, so he knows all about dealing with unpleasant congressional inventigations and demands for documents. In short, Bill is extremely very well positioned to comment knowledgably on the dispute between Rep. Issa’s Committee and Eric Holder,
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June 20, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
With the House of Representatives poised to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt, President Obama has granted Holder’s request to assert executive privilege in refusing to turn over documents to Congress related to the Fast and Furious scandal. This won’t insulate Holder from being held in contempt. Rather, the White House presumably hopes the assertion will improve Holder’s position if/when his dispute with the House reaches the judicial system.
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