Department of Justice
September 17, 2020 — John Hinderaker
I have been in DC (Northern Virginia, actually) for the last two days, in connection with Hillsdale College’s Constitution Day event. Last night, Attorney General William Barr spoke at dinner. The main subject of his speech was the rule of law, and how the rule of law is advanced by the fact that in federal agencies, final decisions are up to the senior, political appointees. In the Department of Justice,
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August 12, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Judicial Watch has obtained the FBI’s “302” forms summarizing agents’ conversations with former associate deputy attorney general Bruce Ohr. You can read the reports here, and I have also embedded them at the bottom of this post. The 302 forms relate to a considerable number of interviews that the FBI conducted with Ohr between December 19, 2016, and May 16, 2017. The reports can be viewed in two ways: you
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May 8, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Jeffrey Epstein was indicted for having sex with dozens of underage girls. His practice was to lure girls ages 13 to 16 to his mansion for a “massage.” He would molest them, paying extra for oral sex and intercourse, and offering more money to bring him new girls. In addition, Epstein reportedly had these underage girls engage in sex with his friends and associates. He would also induce them into
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March 12, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Jessie Liu is President Trump’s nominee for Associate Attorney General. This job is prestigious but usually not highly consequential. Liu likely has more impact in her current position as U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C. Liu is well qualified to be Associate Attorney General. However, in this post I raised a concern over her role as Vice President of the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL) at a time that NAWL
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March 7, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The Trump administration has nominated Jessie Liu to be Associate Attorney General. This is the number three position at the Justice Department, behind the Attorney General (William Barr) and the Deputy Attorney General (Jeffrey Rosen). On paper, Liu seems well-qualified for the job. Currently, she’s the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. She has held important positions at Main Justice and the Treasury Department. But there is at least
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February 26, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said yesterday that the Justice Department should not reveal information about people it does not charge with a crime. The Washington Post views this as “an ominous sign for those hoping the department will soon disclose the closely held details of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of President Trump and his campaign.” In reality, Rosenstein is unlikely to have any say about what the Justice
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February 7, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The Department of Justice has opened an investigation into Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta’s role in negotiating a disgraceful plea deal with Jeffrey Epstein, who has been accused of molesting dozens of underage girls. Thanks to Acosta, then the U.S. attorney in South Florida, Epstein, who could have faced life imprisonment for sex trafficking, managed to plead to only two state prostitution charges. Epstein served served just 13 months in
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January 31, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
When he was a U.S. Attorney in South Florida, Alex Acosta, now President Trump’s Secretary of Labor, gave pedophile Jeffrey Epstein the deal of a lifetime. According to the Miami Herald, a federal investigation revealed 36 underage victims of Epstein (the Herald apparently found dozens of additional ones). Yet, through a plea agreement with then-U.S. Attorney Acosta, Epstein managed to plead to only two state prostitution charges. Epstein served just
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January 19, 2019 — Scott Johnson
House sources leaked the testimony of Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr to Congress last year. Ohr himself was a conduit for the Steele Dossier and Russian meddling in the presidential election of 2016 if the dossier is taken at face value, as the FBI purported to take it. John Solomon broke the story of Ohr’s testimony here. Sara Carter had more here. Kim Strassel devoted her weekly Wall Street
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January 9, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
A local D.C. news outlet has tweeted that “Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is expected to leave his role in the coming weeks.” There’s nothing surprising about this report, which is consistent with what I’ve been hearing for some time. With any luck, a new Attorney General will soon be in place. He will want and deserve a new Deputy. What’s surprises me is that Rosenstein lasted as long as
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January 2, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The Senate Judiciary Committee has set January 15 and 16 as the dates for the confirmation hearing of William Barr, President Trump’s nominee to serve as Attorney General. The Committee now consists of 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats. Cory Booker and Kamala Harris remain on the Committee, so there will be no shortage of showmanship and viciousness. Lindsey Graham now chairs the committee, so there will be some comedy mixed
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December 9, 2018 — John Hinderaker
Royce Lamberth is an outspoken and sometimes controversial federal judge. Appointed by President Reagan, he has shown no partiality in going after litigants he considers to be malefactors. This time, it is the State Department and the Department of Justice. Judge Lamberth is presiding over the lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch against the State Department, asking for emails relating to the Benghazi talking points that were promulgated after that attack.
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September 21, 2018 — Steven Hayward
As if we didn’t have enough explosive material flying around this week, the New York Times has just posted the following story: Rosenstein Suggested He Secretly Record Trump and Discussed 25th Amendment By Adam Goldman and Michael Schmidt WASHINGTON — The deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, suggested last year that he secretly record President Trump in the White House to expose the chaos consuming the administration, and he discussed
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September 13, 2018 — John Hinderaker
I wrote last night about the leaked Google video that confirms, once and for all, that Google is an arm of the Democratic Party. Now, word emerges that the Department of Justice has invited 24 state attorneys general to meet for the purpose of discussing possible antitrust actions against the dominant technology platforms: On Thursday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that nearly half of the state attorneys general would
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August 5, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
David Lat of “Above the Law” decries the failure of the GOP-controlled Senate to confirm nominees for two key positions at the Department of Justice — Eric Dreiband as head of the Civil Rights Division and Jeff Clark as head of the Environment and Natural Resources Division. Both were nominated in June 2017. Clark’s nomination was first sent to the Senate floor on August 3 — more than a year
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July 29, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
I don’t think any of us has commented on the articles of impeachment filed against Rod Rosenstein by a small number of conservative House Republicans. My comment is that there is no case for impeaching Rosenstein. I’ll give my reasons in a moment. I assume the articles were filed in order to focus attention on the fact that the Department of Justice hasn’t produced documents requested by the House at
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June 28, 2018 — John Hinderaker
The Department of Justice has been stonewalling requests for information from both House and Senate committees for about a year, perhaps in hopes that the Democrats will win the midterm elections and all investigations will go away. The committees, which are charged with oversight over DOJ, have shown remarkable–in my view, inexplicable–patience. But that patience is running out. A little while ago, the House adopted a resolution along party lines,
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