Tag Archives: Justice Department

Jon Rappoport ~ Eric Holder: Idiot Zen Master

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nomorefakenews.com May 17 2013

In his recent testimony before Congress, US Attorney General Eric Holder, the so-called highest law-enforcement officer in the land, responded to questions about the AP scandal.

Holder’s Justice Dept. had secretly subpoenaed and seized the phone records of Associated Press reporters.

Holder stated he didn’t know anything about anything, because he had recused himself from the issue and recused himself from the new internal DOJ investigation of the matter.

What?

Huh?

His own agency, the US Dept. of Justice, had spied secretly on reporters. But he, Holder, the head of that agency, decided to remain entirely ignorant about the whole fiasco, once he discovered the vague outline of what was going on.

This is like the manager of a car agency learning that 50 new cars in his lot have packets of heroin in their glove compartments, and immediately withdrawing to Bermuda for a fishing vacation.

The Congressional committee then asked Holder about the new internal DOJ investigation of itself vis-a-vis the AP scandal. Holder said he wasn’t absolutely sure about that either, because, again, he had recused himself.

This is like that car-agency manager sitting in his boat in Bermuda and putting a blindfold over his eyes and plugs in his ears.

Why did Holder recuse himself? Unasked, unanswered. That in itself is staggering.

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Greg Hunter ~ Weekly News Wrap Up May 17 2013 [Video]

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USA Watchdog

This Week’s Wrap-Up series of stories I call “Scandal-topia.”  Benghazi, IRS targeting conservative groups, Department of Justice seizing phone records of the Associated Press (AP) and yet another sex abuse scandal in the U.S. military.  While all of these stories are important, they are taking our eyes off other stories of great importance.   Let’s run down the list:

Benghazi, the White House is releasing some emails, but Republicans want many more released.  The left wants to paint this as a “witch hunt,” but lots of questions go unanswered.  Mark Thompson, one of the Benghazi whistle-blowers, was in charge of the Foreign Emergency Support Team (FEST.)  This team is comprised of people like Special Ops, FBI and security experts that can go in for a rescue.  Thompson’s testimony in front of Congress said FEST was “taken out of the menu of options.”  There was never any intention to mount a rescue, and this was a policy decision that came very early on 9/11/12.  The Accountability Review Board says you can’t blame former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the murder and non-rescue of four Americans.  Really?  The person in charge isn’t to blame?

Next up, the scandal involving the IRS targeting of hundreds of conservative groups.  If this isn’t against the Constitution and the law, I don’t know what is.  This was nothing short of an attempt to stop opposition to the Obama administration and its policies.  End of story.  I think Speaker of the House John Boehner got it stop on when he said, “Who’s going to jail for this?”  Well, don’t hold your breath because it was just announced that the person in charge of tax-exempt organizations (Sarah Hall Ingram) just got a promotion and is going to be in charge of the IRS part of Obama Care.  I cannot make this stuff up.  The President said he knew nothing about this scandal until he saw news reports.

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Pam Martens ~ The Cost To A Democracy From Spying On The Associated Press

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Wall Street On Parade May 15 2013

Eric Holder

We now know that the U.S. Department of Justice spied for two months on over 100 Associated Press reporters, secretly obtaining their work, home and cell phone records showing the phone numbers of their sources. The records covered phone calls made in April and May 2012 in AP bureaus in New York City, Washington, D.C., Hartford, Connecticut and the House of Representatives. No advance notification was given to the Associated Press.

Yesterday, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press issued a stern critique of the Justice Department action, writing:

“The scope of this action calls into question the very integrity of Department of Justice policies toward the press and its ability to balance, on its own, its police powers against the First Amendment rights of the news media and the public’s interest in reporting on all manner of government conduct.”

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Justice Department Seeks To Keep Secret The Names Of Prosecutors Of Aaron Swartz

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Jonathan Turley’s blog April 4 2013

Carmen-Ortiz-144x150

Carmen Ortiz

The Justice Department was once all too eager to announce its prosecution of Aaron Swartz and issue press releases on how they piled on additional counts against him. However, after Swartz committed suicide in response to its unrelenting prosecution, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz and the Justice Department now want to keep the names of prosecutors in the case a secret so that they will not be held accountable for the abusive case. The Justice Department routinely holds press conferences in which prosecutors crowd stages to take credit for indictments. However, when a prosecution is denounced globally as excessive and cruel, the Justice Department wants to prevent the public from knowing the identities of the prosecutors responsible.

Attorney General Eric Holder left no question about the Administration’s support of the abusive treatment of Aaron Swartz by US Attorney Carmen Ortiz and Deputy US Attorney Stephen Heymann. Heymann was previously linked to a suicide in another prosecution. We have discussed the abusive prosecution earlier and Swartz’s suicide after months of unrelenting threats and coercion. Holder heralded the treatment of Swartz as an example of the “good use of prosecutorial discretion.” Swartz’s girlfriend has come forward to denounce Holder and the Obama Administration for its misrepresentations in the case.

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Elizabeth Warren ~ Banks Get Wrist Slaps While Drug Dealers Get Jail [Video]

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Les Grossman March 7 2013 (Thanks, Minty)

Warren (D-Mass.) grilled officials from the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency about why HSBC, which recently paid $1.9 billion to settle money laundering charges, wasn’t criminally prosecuted and shut down in the U.S. Nor were any individuals from HSBC charged with any crimes, despite the bank confessing to laundering billions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels and rogue regimes like Iran and Libya over several years.

Defenders of the Justice Department say that a criminal conviction could have been a death penalty for the bank, causing widespread damage to the economy. Warren wanted to know why the death penalty wasn’t warranted in this case.

“They did it over and over and over again across a period of years. And they were caught doing it, warned not to do it and kept right on doing it, and evidently making profits doing it,” Warren said of HSBC. “How many billions of dollars do you have to launder for drug lords and how many economic sanctions do you have to violate before someone will consider shutting down a financial institution like this?”

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Elaine Magliaro ~ Just Fine: Don’t Bank On The Justice Department To Prosecute Big Banks

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Jonathan Turley’s blog February 25 2013

DeptofJustice

Last December, I wrote a post titled You Call This Justice? DOJ Criticized for Its Settlement with “Too Big to Jail” Bank HSBC. It appears that the US Justice Department isn’t too keen on bringing criminal charges against ANY wealthy bankers—not just those who work for HSBC, a huge international bank that has knowingly laundered money for drug cartels and murderers. The unethical shenanigans of the banksters of Wall Street that led to the near collapse of the US economy and to a recession don’t seem to merit jail time for the perpetrators—just a slap on the wrist and a fine.  No individual fines are paid though. The mega banks pay the fines and the banksters continue to go about their business…and continue to earn hefty salaries and bonuses.

At “Wall Street Reform: Oversight of Financial Stability and Consumer and Investor Protections,” the first Banking Committee hearing attended by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D, MA), Warren asked bank regulators how tough they really are on the biggest financial institutions on Wall Street and about the last few times they actually took any banks all the way to a trial.

A few weeks ago, Bill Moyers sat down with Matt Taibbi to talk about the HSBC settlement, UBS and the Libor Scandal, Lanny Breuer, Mary Jo White, and the revolving door in Washington, D.C.

Not long after Taibbi’s appearance on Bill Moyers’s program, his article on HSBC , Gangster Bankers: Too Big to Jail, was published in Rolling Stone.

Quoting from Taibbi’s article:

For at least half a decade, the storied British colonial banking power helped to wash hundreds of millions of dollars for drug mobs, including Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, suspected in tens of thousands of murders just in the past 10 years – people so totally evil, jokes former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, that “they make the guys on Wall Street look good.” The bank also moved money for organizations linked to Al Qaeda and Hezbollah, and for Russian gangsters; helped countries like Iran, the Sudan and North Korea evade sanctions; and, in between helping murderers and terrorists and rogue states, aided countless common tax cheats in hiding their cash.

“They violated every goddamn law in the book,” says Jack Blum, an attorney and former Senate investigator who headed a major bribery investigation against Lockheed in the 1970s that led to the passage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. “They took every imaginable form of illegal and illicit business.”

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Trevor Hultner ~ “Anti-war” Liberals: No More Excuses

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The IntelHub  February 8 2013

Thanks to NBC News, a lot of (now-former) drone supporters are confronted with a confidential Justice Department white paper justifying presidential killing of American citizens abroad, seemingly on the basis of thin air.

The document, 16 pages of Bushian doublespeak, declares “Here the Justice Department concludes only that where the following three conditions are met, a U.S. operation using lethal force in a foreign country against a U.S. citizen who is a senior operational leader of al-Qa’ida or an associated force would be lawful.”

Those conditions? “[A]n informed, high-level official of the U.S. government has determined that the targeted individual poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States; capture is infeasible, and the United States continues to monitor whether capture becomes feasible; and the operation would be conducted in a manner consistent with applicable law of war principles.”

In other words, we’ll obliterate you because of reasons, and you’re now a terrorist because we said so.

Anwar al-Awlaki, to whom the Justice Department refers when it writes, “a U.S. citizen who is a senior operational leader of al-Qa’ida,” was killed by a drone strike in Yemen in 2011; his 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, died in another drone strike weeks later. Their deaths, not to mention numerous other killings in Yemen, were well-documented by reporters, including Jeremy Scahill. Yet the government has continued to refuse to publicly acknowledge that it assassinated two American citizens.

From page two of the DOJ white paper:

“Were the target of a lethal operation a U.S. citizen who may have rights under the Due Process Clause and the Fourth Amendment, that individual’s citizenship would not immunize him from a lethal operation. Under the traditional due process balancing analysis of Mathews v. Eldridge, we recognize that there is no private interest more weighty than a person’s interest in his life. But that interest must be balanced against the United States’ interest in forestalling the threat of violence and death to other Americans that arises from an individual who is a senior operational leader of al-Qa’ida and/or an associated force of al-Qa’ida and who is engaged in plotting against the United States.”

Raven Clabough ~ Latest Fast And Furious Report Incriminates DOJ

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The New American | October 30 2012

The controversial Fast and Furious gun-walking operation has prompted members of Congress to take a closer look at the Department of Justice. An October 29 report on the Fast and Furious investigation reveals that Justice Department officials “failed to identify red flags” in the gun-walking operation.

Operation Fast and Furious was a gun-running operation led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), in which the ATF “lost track” of 1,700 guns. The operation resulted in the death of border patrol agent Brian Terry, and a number of the guns lost during Fast and Furious appeared at a variety of crime scenes. Investigation into the operation has been particularly incriminating for the ATF.

However, investigations into the Operation Fast and Furious revealed a number of startling items.

Representative Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight Committee that is leading the investigation into the operation, told ABC News’ Jake Tapper that pertinent e-mails revealed that the agenda of the operation was to advocate for greater gun control, not, as was alleged, to pursue criminal prosecutions of drug cartel members.

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Alex Newman ~ AG Holder Demands U.S. Court Allow Fast And Furious Coverup

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The New American | October 17 2012

As lawmakers seek to use federal courts to force disgraced Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department to hand over documents on the deadly Fast and Furious gun-running scandal, the Obama administration filed a motion this week claiming that the judicial branch has no power to interfere. According to the Department of Justice, a ruling in favor of Congress and its oversight authority would violate so-called “executive privilege.” But lawmakers are not buying it.

While he is currently abusing his position to shield himself from prosecution, Holder famously became the first attorney general in U.S. history to be held in civil and criminal contempt of Congress in late June on a bipartisan vote. Lawmakers were upset over the administration’s ongoing coverup in which it refused to provide subpoenaed documents on Fast and Furious, the now-infamous federal scheme that put thousands of high-powered American weapons into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

“Disputes of this sort have arisen regularly since the founding,” the Justice Department claimed in the legal brief filed late Monday, asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to dismiss the lawsuit. “For just as long, these disputes have been resolved between the political branches through a constitutionally grounded system of negotiation, accommodation and self-help.” The filing also claimed the courts lack jurisdiction in the case.

The administration has unlawfully refused to hand over thousands of documents related to the scandal, repeatedly defying congressional subpoenas and flouting the authority of Congress. When it became clear that lawmakers would not back down in the effort to uncover the details of Fast and Furious, however, President Obama stepped in and claimed “executive privilege” to justify the coverup.

Congress responded with contempt charges and over 120 members of the House and Senate demanded Holder’s resignation. When that failed, lawmakers filed suit in federal court. Now the administration claims that even the judiciary does not have the authority to force the executive branch’s hand. Lawmakers trying to carry out their oversight responsibilities, though, say the Justice Department’s argument is absurd on its face.

“The Obama Administration’s argument should trouble Americans who believe the President and the federal government are not above the law,” said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who has been leading the charge for accountability. “In perpetuating a cover-up, through false and misleading statements that even the Justice Department’s own Inspector General found troubling, the Obama administration argued for months that it did not have to meet its legal obligations to a lawfully issued congressional subpoena.”

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Travis Waldron ~ Justice Dept. Ends Investigation Into Goldman Sachs Mortgage Abuses Without Pressing Charges

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Nation Of Change | August 10 2012

After a year-long investigation into Goldman Sachs, the bank singled out by a Senate investigative committee for its abusive mortgage practices in the run-up to the financial crisis, the Justice Department announced Friday that it would not press charges against the bank. Goldman Sachs became of the face of widespread mortgage fraud and abuse that led to the subprime mortgage crisis when evidence that it had made trades described by its own bankers as “shitty deals” came to light during a Senate investigation in 2011.

The Department of Justice, however, concluded that it did to meet the “burden of proof” required for charges, the Wall Street Journal reports:

“Based on the law and evidence as they exist at this time, there is not a viable basis to bring a criminal prosecution with respect to Goldman Sachs or its employees in regard to the allegations set forth in the report,” the statement read. [...]

In a statement Thursday, Goldman said: “We are pleased that this matter is behind us.”

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Wynton Hall ~ Revealed: Corzine’s MF Global Was Client Of Eric Holder’s Law Firm

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Breitbart | July 26 2012 | Thanks, Minty

Hall

Those wondering why the Department of Justice has refused to go after Jon Corzine for the vaporization of $1.6 billion in MF Global client funds need look no further than the documents uncovered by the Government Accountability Institute that reveal that the now-defunct MF Global was a client of Attorney General Eric Holder and Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer’s former law firm, Covington & Burling.

There’s more.

Records also reveal that MF Global’s trustee for the Chapter 11 bankruptcy retained as its general bankruptcy counsel Morrison & Foerester–the very law firm from which Associate Attorney General Tony West came to DOJ.

And more.

As Government Accountability Institute President Peter Schweizer explains in the Washington Times Thursday, the trustee overseeing MF Global’s bankruptcy is former FBI Director Louis Freeh. At Holder’s Senate confirmation hearing Freeh served as a character witness for Holder and revealed that Holder had previously worked for Freeh. “As general counsel,” Freeh said, “I could have engaged any lawyer in America to represent our bank. I chose Eric.”

Until now, the conventional wisdom for why Holder wouldn’t throw the book at Corzine was that Corzine is an Obama campaignbundler. Indeed, as Breitbart News reported, four of the top officials at the Department of Justice–Eric Holder, Thomas Perrelli, Karol Mason, and Tony West–were also big money bundlers for Obama.

But the newly understood crony connections reveal conflicts of interest that extend well beyond mere political support for a common candidate–they go to a tangle of prior business dealings that further underscore the need for a special prosecutor in the Corzine case.

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Alex Newman ~ With Judge’s Comments, Calls to Free Jailed Border Agent Grow

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The New American | July 18 2012

Jesus “Chito” Diaz, Jr

After an appeal hearing for jailed Border Patrol agent Jesus “Chito” Diaz, Jr., supporters of the former officer are speaking out and demanding that he be immediately released and reinstated to his job protecting the U.S. border. And after the federal judge presiding over the appeal indicated that the government may have gone overboard in the case, hope among his supporters remains.

According to critics of the prosecution, Diaz was inappropriately persecuted by the Department of Justice for doing his job — at the behest of the notoriously corrupt Mexican government. Last year, despite a tsunami of public outrage over the controversial felony charges, the former agent was handed a stiff 24-month prison sentence for allegedly using excessive force — pulling on a suspected drug smuggler’s handcuffs in an effort to locate contraband — after an illegal immigrant was apprehended near the border with narcotics.

During the ongoing appeal, however, Diaz’s supporters found cause for optimism. “The question is it just sounds more like a misdemeanor instead of a felony to me,” opined Judge E. Grady Jolly during the hearing. While Judge Jolly also noted that Diaz may not have done the “right thing,” from the judge’s comments, it did not seem like he believed the alleged act should have been classified as a felony, which carries jail time.

In recent days, lawmakers supporting Diaz expressed hope about the jailed former agent’s prospects. “It’s good to see that this case may be finally receiving the impartial attention and due process it deserves, both for the personal respect of Agent Diaz and his family, and for the ‘far-reaching implications on law enforcement personnel,’ as the defense stated in its appeal,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), who has led the congressional inquiry into the controversial prosecution. “I’m looking forward to the court’s decision, which I’m confident will be in Agent Diaz’s favor.”

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Wells Fargo’s Disgraceful Discrimination Scandal: A Guide

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The Week | July 13 2012 | Thanks, Minty

The bank ponies up $175 million to settle accusations that it charged blacks and Latinos higher interest rates and fees on their mortgages

A customer leaves a Wells Fargo Bank branch office July 12: The bank is accused of charging higher fees and interest rates for some 30,000 minority borrowers across 36 states. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

This week, Wells Fargo agreed to pay $175 million to settle charges that it discriminated against thousands of blacks, Latinos, and other minority borrowers between 2004 and 2009. The Justice Department had accused Wells Fargo, the country’s largest mortgage lender, of charging minority borrowers higher interest rates and fees on home loans than it charged white borrowers with similar credit ratings. Thomas Perez, an assistant attorney general at the department, slammed Wells Fargo for levying the equivalent of a “racial surtax.” People ”should be judged by the content of their creditworthiness and not the color of their skin,” he said. Here, a guide to the case:

What exactly did Wells Fargo do?

The Justice Department says Wells Fargo engaged in a pattern of “systemic discrimination” in which some 30,000 minority borrowers across 36 states were charged higher fees and interest rates than their white counterparts. A black borrower in Chicago, for example, paid an average of nearly $3,000 more in fees than a white applicant who had the same credit rating. A Latino borrower paid more than $2,000 extra. The average “surtax” for a black borrower in the Miami area in 2007 was $3,657. In addition, Wells Fargo steered some 4,000 minority borrowers with good credit toward subprime loans — which are usually reserved for those with shaky credit, and have interest rates that often spike after several years.

What does Wells Fargo say now?
Though it’s coughing up a massive settlement, the bank did not officially admit wrongdoing, and claims that it settled the case “solely for the purpose of avoiding contested litigation” with the government. The bank stopped issuing subprime loans in 2008.

Why were minority borrowers treated differently?

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