Free Republic

These are embarrassing times for the nation's criminal justice system; as the Obama administration executes the nation's largest mass release of federal prisoners, it's sending a Long Island fisherman to jail for reeling in too many... Back in 2010 resident Obama signed a measure that for the first time in decades relaxed drug-crime sentences he claimed discriminated against poor and minority offenders. This severely weakened a decades-old law enacted during the infamous crack cocaine epidemic that ravaged urban communities nationwide in the 1980s. As part of the movement the U.S. Sentencing Commission lowered maximum sentences for drug offenders and made...

The residents of Long Island can rest easier in their beds knowing that another dangerous criminal has been taken out of commission thanks to the diligent work of the Justice Department. Anthony Joseph has finally been brought to justice and won’t plague the coastal residents any longer. What was the nature of his crime spree? He failed to properly report the correct number of flounder that he caught on his fishing boat, and for that he’s heading off to jail, spending years on probation and facing more than a half million dollars in fines. Anthony Joseph, a commercial fisherman from...

The DOJ has acted as a partisan arm of the White House Sen. Cruz Questions Associate AG Nominee Stuart Delery on Operation Choke Point (video) WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today in a full Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) questioned the Hon. Stuart Delery, nominee for U.S. Associate Attorney General. Mr. Delery approved Operation Choke Point, a Department of Justice (DOJ) initiative that unconstitutionally sought to choke off access to banking services for gun dealers and other lawful business enterprises.“The DOJ has a long and bipartisan tradition of staying out of politics, of defending the law and the...

Sen. Cruz Asks DOJ to Preserve All IRS-Related Documents The IRS targeting scandal is a serious breach of the public trust November 2, 2015 | 202-228-7561 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sent a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch requesting that the Department of Justice (DOJ) preserve all Internal Revenue Service (IRS) documents and information for investigation under the next administration. Sen. Cruz’s letter comes after the DOJ recently closed its investigation into improper targeting of conservative groups by the IRS. “Make no mistake: the IRS’s targeting of ordinary citizens for their political viewpoints under this...

A report by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of Homeland Security has found that the Department’s Federal Protective Service (FPS) division wasted about $2.5 million of taxpayer money in 2014 on an extravagant fleet vehicle program. It is not surprising that images show that the vehicles in question appear to be manufactured by crony company , General Motors. A House of Representatives Subcommittee on Oversight and Management Efficiency, headed by Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), requested the audit on the FPS’ fleet operation. The report unveils a fleet of 1,169 vehicles which were leased at...

(CNSNews.com) – The Department of Education’s Office of the General Council and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division filed a brief Wednesday evening in support of Gavin Grimm, a biological female who “identifies” as a male. Grimm filed a lawsuit in June against the Gloucester County School Board in Virginia for access to the boys’ restroom. “Prohibiting a transgender male student from using boys’ restrooms, when other non-transgender male students face no such restriction, deprives him not only of equal educational opportunity but also ‘of equal status, respect, and dignity,’” the DOE and DOJ attorneys argue in the brief. “Treating...

Two disturbing cases highlight the serious problems with the nation’s immigration laws under the Obama administration; In one, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accused a local police department of racial profiling for arresting two previously deported illegal immigrants and turning them over to federal authorities for removal. In the other, the Department of Justice (DOJ) charged a public school district with discrimination for verifying the immigration status of its employees. The first case comes out of New Llano, a Louisiana town of about 2,500 near the Texas border. In the course of doing their job, a pair of police...

Department of Justice officials gave official approval Thursday to the FBI’s practice of blocking access to data and documents in a decision that DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz said “undermines” his ability to do his job and violates the will of Congress. “Today’s opinion by the Office of Legal Counsel undermines the IG’s independence, which is a hallmark of the Inspector General system and is essential to carrying out the IG’s oversight responsibilities under the Inspector General Act,” Horowitz said. “The OLC’s opinion restricts the IG’s ability to independently access all records in the Justice Department’s possession that are necessary...

Full title: Judicial Watch Obtains Previously Classified CIA Inspector General Report Strongly Condemning Agency Handling of Briefings and Interviews with the Entertainment Industry Report specifically criticizes CIA’s briefings ‘in which foreign nationals may have participated’ specifically criticizes CIA interface with ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ filmmakers (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it has received a previously classified December 2012 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) report from the Office of Inspector General (OIG) strongly condemning the agency’s handling of “briefings, interviews, visits, and other support” given to the entertainment industry. The report specifically criticizes the CIA’s granting of “Secret level” access...

The DOJ has filed its response to Apple's claims that unlocking an iPhone 5 would be unduly burdensome. This ongoing dispute over an All Writs Act order (the act itself dates back to 1789) is also an ongoing dispute over the use of encryption-by-default on Apple phones running iOS 8 or higher. The argument started with one of the founding members of the "Magistrates' Revolt" -- Judge James Orenstein -- who, back in 2005, challenged another All Writs order by the DOJ. A decade ago, Orenstein pointed out that the government's use of these particular orders circumvented both the judicial...

On Friday, in a letter to the chairman and the ranking member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, Peter Kadzik, the assistant attorney general of the Justice Department, let Lois Lerner (shown) off the hook:

Despite evidence to the contrary, one commentator recently tried convincing readers that there is no connection between the Department of Justice’s “Strong Cities Network” and the United Nations. “First, it should be noted that Strong Cities Network is NOT a government body at all,” writes Patrick Wood of technocracy.com, “but rather a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with no connection to any government, or even the United Nations!” Wood apparently is projecting his own unfounded hopes on a program that is not only tied to the UN, but is also bound to it by being the source of the globalist philosophy upon...

On September 30, 2015, at the UN, Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced a new worldwide law enforcement initiative, the Strong Cities Network, to be set up in certain American cities. What this actually is is the UN plan for global police, using the Department of Justice. It’s the overriding of American law by the Obama administration in conjunction with the UN, without Congressional input. What’s the initiative all about? Officially, it’s to prevent and combat “violent extremism in all of its forms” without linking it “with any particular religion, nationality or ethnic group.” The emphasis is on inclusiveness, collaboration, and...

CHICAGO — The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, said on Friday that the additional scrutiny and criticism of police officers in the wake of highly publicized episodes of police brutality may have led to an increase in violent crime in some cities as officers have become less aggressive. With his remarks, Mr. Comey lent the prestige of the F.B.I., the nation’s most prominent law enforcement agency, to a theory that is far from settled: that the increased attention on the police has made officers less aggressive and emboldened criminals. But he acknowledged that there is so far no data to...

(Washington, DC ) – Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton made the following statement regarding the Obama Justice Department decision to close its investigation of the IRS targeting of Tea Party groups and other conservative opponents of President Obama’s policies: “President Obama’s IRS was used against his opponents to help him win reelection. So the Obama Justice Department’s decision to shut down its IRS abuse investigation with no prosecutions is as unsurprising as it is corrupt. Judicial Watch’s independent litigation proved the Obama IRS obstructed justice and destroyed evidence. And we uncovered that the IRS and Lois Lerner conspired with the...

Instead of opposing racial classifications and racial division, the Obama administration is doing what it does best: taking sides against American traditions of equality and unity. On Friday, a federal judge in Hawaii will rule whether a racially discriminatory election that only allows one race to participate may take place in November. The Obama administration filed a brief as a friend of the court saying that the racially discriminatory election should take place. Hawaii passed a law to empower the “native Hawaiian” movement by establishing a government-run voter registration roll that only allows “native Hawaiians” to register to vote. The...

Delivering remarks on domestic terrorism at an event co-sponsored by the George Washington University’s program on extremism and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Assistant Attorney General John P. Carlin announced on Wednesday the creation of a new position within the Department of Justice (DOJ) aimed at investigating violent extremism. “We are here to talk about combating domestic terrorism, which the FBI has explained as ‘Americans attacking Americans based on U.S.-based extremist ideologies.’ The threat ranges from individuals motivated by anti-government animus, to eco-radicalism and racism,” stated Carlin. He continued, “Homegrown violent extremists can be motivated by any viewpoint on...

From documents obtained by Jesse Trentadue, it’s clear that Clinton Administration Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder and his DOJ team had conspired to squelch any investigation into the August, 1995 murder of Trentadue’s brother Kenneth. (1) But the obvious question is WHY? And why kill Kenneth Trentadue at all? He was no more than a face in the crowd, hardly distinguished or distinguishable from tens of millions of others throughout the United States. What would move the Deputy Attorney General to animate resources of the United States Justice Department to make certain there would be no hearing, no investigation, no...

Under the guise of “tracking domestic terrorism,” Obama’s battering ram, the Department of Justice is colluding with the radical hate group, the Southern Poverty Law Center to target Americans who oppose Obama’s anti-American domestic and foreign policies. Will Obama employ his ‘global police force’ to go after patriots, vets, tea parties, and counter jihadists? The SPLC is an attack machine. This amounts to nothing short of a stealth coup – without so much as firing a shot. We are under siege from within and without and the Obama administration is pointing it’s guns on Americans who oppose jihad terror, who...

In the wake of recent mass shootings in Chattanooga, Tenn., Charleston, S.C., and Roseburg, Ore., the Department of Justice is getting more serious about countering the increasing threats of domestic terrorism. Speaking at George Washington University on Wednesday, John Carlin, head of the department’s national security division, announced the creation of a new position. The new domestic terrorism counsel will serve “as our main point of contact for U.S. attorneys working on domestic terrorism matters,” Carlin said. The position, he continued, will “ensure that we are gaining the benefits of the information and input from those eyes on the ground...