Tag: Biden Justice Department

Senate confirms Gupta nomination in tight vote

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The Senate on Wednesday narrowly voted 51-49 to confirm Vanita Gupta, President Biden‘s nominee for the No. 3 position at the Department of Justice (DOJ), despite stiff opposition from Republicans who had criticized her civil rights advocacy during the Trump administration. 

Just one Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), voted in favor of Gupta. Vice President Kamala Harris would have cast the deciding vote if it had been a 50-50 roll call.  

As associate attorney general, Gupta will oversee the DOJ’s efforts on civil litigation and law enforcement issues. Continue reading.

DOJ announces sweeping probe into Minneapolis policing practices

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Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday announced that the Justice Department will open a sweeping investigation into whether the Minneapolis Police Department has a “pattern or practice” of discriminatory policing practices.

Why it matters: The federal probe, which will also examine MPD’s handling of misconduct allegations against officers, could result in significant changes to policing in Minneapolis in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

  • The announcement comes a day after a jury convicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s killing, setting off celebrations across the country. Continue reading.

Kristen Clarke faced abuse for taking on Trump. Now she’s poised to lead Justice Department’s civil rights team.

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President Donald Trump was waging his baseless assault on the presidential election results last fall when Kristen Clarke, head of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, opened her inbox to a stream of vicious threats over her efforts to fight back and protect the rights of voters.

Openly misogynistic, littered with racial epithets, the messages were of the variety that seeks to debase and intimidate prominent minority women. “May you be found guilty by military tribunal and executed by hanging,” one email read.

Clarke, who is Black, posted it on Twitter. Continue reading.

Justice Dept. faces risks, rewards with riot sedition charges

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Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers face risks and rewards if they move forward with sedition charges against members of the mob that overran the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Many legal experts say sedition charges are a natural fit given what happened at the Capitol that day.

Hundreds of former President Trump’s supporters overwhelmed Capitol Police and interfered with Congress’s lawful certification of President Biden’s Electoral College victory. Five people were killed, including a Capitol Police officer, with dozens more injured. Continue reading.

The Justice Department Is Investigating Officials Who Talked To The Press About The Capitol Riot Investigation

Michael Sherwin, the former acting US Attorney in DC, had told media “the facts” support charging some Capitol rioters with sedition.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has launched internal probes into a recent spate of apparently unauthorized comments to the media about the status of the Capitol insurrection investigation, a supervisor in the US Attorney’s office in Washington told a judge on Tuesday.

US District Judge Amit Mehta scheduled an emergency hearing to question the government about a March 21 broadcast of 60 Minutes featuring an interview with Michael Sherwin, the former acting US Attorney in Washington, DC, as well as a New York Times article published Monday that quoted anonymous law enforcement sources. Both reports addressed the government’s conspiracy case against 10 people associated with the Oath Keepers militia collective who are charged with participating in the insurrection; Mehta is presiding over that case.

John Crabb, the head of the Criminal Division in the DC US Attorney’s office, told Mehta it appeared that Sherwin had failed to comply with the department’s rules and policies that govern contacts with the press. Crabb said Sherwin had been referred to the Office of Professional Responsibility, which investigates misconduct allegations against DOJ lawyers and officials. Continue reading.

Shadowy group behind Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation spending big to undermine Biden’s Justice Department

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The right-wing dark money group that helped Donald Trump “capture” the Supreme Court is now working to undermine the Biden administration’s efforts to enforce voting rights.

The Judicial Crisis Network is running ads attacking Justice Department nominees Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke — a pair of widely respected litigators and civil rights activists — as part of a related new organization, the Honest Elections Project, with an improbable name, reported The Daily Beast.

Conservative legal activist Leonard Leo, the longtime executive vice president of the Federalist Society, is coordinating efforts by the various dark-money front groups to pack the Supreme Court and then to bring voting rights cases in front of those right-wing courts. Continue reading.

Senate confirms Merrick Garland as attorney general

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The Senate voted 70-30 on Wednesday to confirm Judge Merrick Garland as U.S. attorney general. 

Why it matters: Garland takes over the Justice Department after a tumultuous four years under former President Trump, who frequently sought to politicize the law enforcement agency. The former Supreme Court nominee has pledged to make prosecuting the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrectionists a top priority for the Justice Department.

  • Garland told the Senate Judiciary Committee last month that he will “supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol,” as he did as a federal prosecutor investigating the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
  • The Justice Department is also overseeing an investigation into the business affairs of President Biden’s son, Hunter. Garland testified that he hasn’t spoken to the president about the issue. Continue reading.

U.S. accuses three North Koreans of conspiring to steal more than $1.3 billion in cash and cryptocurrency

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The Justice Department unsealed charges Wednesday against three North Koreans accused of conspiring to steal and extort more than $1.3 billion in cash and cryptocurrency from banks and businesses around the world.

The indictment builds upon 2018 charges brought against one of the alleged hackers in connection with the North Korean regime’s 2014 cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, marking the first time the United States charged a Pyongyang operative.

The latest indictment shows the degree to which North Korea relies on financial cybertheft to obtain hard currency in a country whose main exports are under United Nations and U.S. sanctions, and that is further isolated by a self-imposed coronavirus blockade. The hackers managed to steal at least $190 million, according to prosecutors, who wouldn’t put an exact figure on how much was stolen. They said the North Koreans were unable to get at least $1 billion of the $1.3 billion they targeted, mostly in banks, officials said. Continue reading.

DOJ asks Trump-appointed US attorneys to resign

The Justice Department on Tuesday asked US attorneys appointed by former President Donald Trump to submit their resignations, a turnover that spares two top prosecutors in Delaware and Connecticut overseeing two sensitive Trump-era investigations.

The resignations are effective February 28, US attorneys were told on a conference call with acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson, according to two Justice officials familiar with the matter. A number of acting US attorneys who aren’t Senate confirmed or who were appointed by the courts are expected to remain in their posts until a Biden appointee is approved by the Senate, prosecutors were told Tuesday.

Delaware US Attorney David Weiss has been asked to remain in office, where he is overseeing the tax probe of Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son. John Durham, appointed as special counsel by former Attorney General William Barr to reinvestigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, will also continue his work, but he is expected to resign as US attorney in Connecticut, a Justice official said. Continue reading.

Biden DOJ nixes last-minute Trump administration memo on LGBTQ rights

A Supreme Court ruling last June concluded that a half-century-old prohibition on sex discrimination in employment applies equally to discrimination against gay and lesbian workers as well as those who are transgender.

The Justice Department has taken its first major step under President Joe Biden to reverse the Trump administration’s resistance to expansion of rights accorded to LGBTQ Americans.

Greg Friel, the lawyer just named to oversee the Justice Department’s civil rights division on a temporary basis, issued a directive Friday revoking a 22-page memorandum a Trump appointee released earlier this week taking a cramped view of a major Supreme Court decision last year that longstanding federal law protects LGBTQ individuals from discrimination at work.

In withdrawing the parting-shot memo from the prior administration, Friel said the stance taken in the memo conflicted with a first-day executive order Biden issued promising a vigorous battle against discrimination based on “gender identity or sexual orientation.” Continue reading.