Justice Department investigation of Russia probe is criminal in nature, person familiar with case says
WASHINGTON – The federal prosecutor tapped by Attorney General William Barr to examine the origins of the FBI’s probe of President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign is conducting an investigation officials consider criminal in nature, according to a person familiar with the matter. Barr tapped Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham in May to review the FBI’s […]
Justice Dept. assures judge White House won’t destroy records of Trump calls
WASHINGTON – Justice Department attorneys promised a federal judge Wednesday that the White House will not destroy records of President Donald Trump’s calls and meetings with foreign leaders while the court weighs a lawsuit brought by historians and watchdog groups. In a two-page filing, Justice Department lawyer Kathryn Wyer told a federal judge in Washington […]
Federal judges received a link to an anti-Semitic blog post. It came from the Justice Department.
The morning briefings come nearly every workday, seemingly chock-full of all the news fit to be seen by employees at the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, which handles the country’s immigration cases. Regularly topping two dozen pages, the memos include summaries of articles from outlets national and local, covering topics like “Legal News,” […]
Justice Department refuses to comply with congressional subpoena for testimony on citizenship question and 2020 Census
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department said Wednesday that it will not comply with a congressional subpoena for a Trump administration official to testify in a House panel’s investigation of the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. In a letter to the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd informed […]
DOJ hires vendor to help sift through massive trial data
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The Department of Justice has hired an outside vendor to help sift through a massive amount of data from the computers of a New York-based self-improvement group accused of branding women and forcing them into unwanted sex. The computers were seized from Albany-area residences associated with NXIVM co-founders Keith Raniere and […]
Ex-Justice Dept. lawyer offered to sell secret U.S. whistleblower lawsuits
WASHINGTON – Jeffrey Wertkin had a plot to bring in business and impress his new partners after joining one of Washington’s most influential law firms. As a former high-stakes corporate-fraud prosecutor with the Department of Justice, he had secretly stockpiled sealed lawsuits brought by whistleblowers. Now, he would sell copies of the suits to the […]
Analysis: Russia probe gains credibility
With one bold move, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein managed to restore the credibility of a federal probe into Russia’s role in the 2016 election, calm political furor over the firing of the FBI director and salvage his own increasingly bruised reputation. The move to make former FBI director Robert Mueller special counsel overseeing the […]
Disagreement on marijuana in Trump administration
Two high-ranking Trump administration officials; two vastly different positions on marijuana. Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants to revive the war on drugs, and a crackdown on weed appears to be a major part of that. He is expected to pursue harsher punishments for using and distributing marijuana, which were relaxed under President Trump’s predecessor. “Good […]
Baltimore police ready for reforms despite delay request
BALTIMORE — Baltimore’s mayor and police chief worked closely with Justice Department investigators to scrutinize the city’s police force and embraced a plan they crafted to overhaul the troubled department. So they were surprised by the Justice Department’s sudden request Monday for more time to see how the proposed changes might conflict with the aggressive […]
Top NY federal prosecutor says he was fired
Preet Bharara, one of the most high-profile federal prosecutors in the country, said he was fired Saturday after refusing to submit a letter of resignation as part of an ouster of the remaining U.S. attorneys who were holdovers from the Obama administration, according to people familiar with the matter. Bharara’s dismissal was an about-face from […]
Justice Dept. lays out defense of revised travel ban
The Justice Department on Monday laid out its first significant legal defense of President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban, arguing in a court filing that the harms opponents say it causes are “speculative” and that the president was well within his authority to issue the directive. Responding to a lawsuit from the state of Hawaii, […]
Commentary: Sessions doesn’t want to investigate police, but we need to
Michael Brown’s death on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, on Aug. 9, 2014, changed the national conversation about policing and race. Police abuse became daily front-page news; the Black Lives Matter movement was born; race and inequality turned into mainstream political issues. Underlining much of the discussion after Brown’s shooting was a March 2015 report […]
Case Digests
- Fourth Department – Negligent performance: Rosenthal v. Syracuse University, et al.
- Second Circuit – Visual Artists Rights Act: Kerson v. Vermont Law School Inc.
- NYS Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics – Former foreclosure referee: Opinion 22-157
- NYS Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics – College honorarium: Opinion 22-156
- Second Circuit – Reasonable accommodation: Tafolla v. Heilig
- Fourth Department – Labor Law: Primisch v. Peroxychem LLC
- NYS Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics – Judicial candidacy: Opinion 22-155
- Fourth Department – Defamation: Lavine v. Glavin
- NYS Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics – Law clerk: Opinion 22-154
- NYS Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics – Review of another judge’s actions: Opinion 22-153
- NYS Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics – Charitable contributions: Opinion 22-150
- Second Circuit – Class action settlement: Moses v. The New York Times Company
Law News
- Appeals court upholds conviction
- Federal lawsuit reinstated against jail officer over strip search, delayed release
- Hyzon to pay $25M penalty to settle alleged fraud charges by SEC
- NY appeals court reinstates lawsuit over contract to remove snow
- Fourth Department affirms $400K judgment in contract dispute
- Fourth Department affirms decision in NY property dispute
- Greenlight Networks selects Buffalo-based attorney as general counsel
- Barclay Damon hires attorney Matt Smith