Free Republic

The Justice Department is planning to deploy a record 1,000 federal monitors to polling places throughout the U.S. for the midterm elections, the head of the department's Civil Rights Division said this week. Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, made the announcement in remarks to Bloomberg on Monday. The Civil Rights Division has long sent out monitors to polling places throughout the country to ensure compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act. That law prohibits discrimination in voting and ensures voters are not intimidated or otherwise prevented from casting a ballot on the basis of...

A federal appeals court just handed DOJ a win in its investigation of a telehealth clinic that prescribes gender-transition treatment, including to minors. QueerDoc, a Washington-based practice, got a HIPAA subpoena from DOJ demanding 15 categories of records: personnel files, billing data, communications with drug manufacturers, and patient medical records and consent forms. DOJ has argued that the clinic's webpages promoting off-label puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones count as unlawful drug "labeling" under the FDCA's misbranding provisions. A district judge quashed the subpoena in its entirety, finding the DOJ issued it to advance the administration's declared goal of ending gender-transition...

The federal government's ban on carrying firearms in U.S. post offices may soon be over, now that the Dept. of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel has issued an advisory opinion stating the ban does not comply with federal law. … The OLC opinion argues that in order to legally carry, both the entry into the federal facility and the carrying of the firearm must be for a lawful purpose. … Carrying arms for self-defense when entering a building held open to the public is a paradigmatic lawful purpose. The Supreme Court recognized as much in District of Columbia v. Heller,...

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division has uncovered roughly $350 million in alleged fraud across the Southeastern U.S., the Daily Caller has learned. The charges span seven states in 17 different cases and involve SNAP benefits, Small Business Administration loans, housing benefits and tax fraud, officials told the Caller. The DOJ is expected to announce the cases Thursday alongside state partners in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina, which helped uncover the fraud. Going forward, the seven states have agreed to data-sharing agreements with the division that will give the DOJ access...

More than 50 officials from seven southeastern states convened Thursday to sign a data-sharing agreement with the Department of Justice aimed at rooting out fraud. Across the seven states, officials have uncovered roughly $350 million in alleged fraud, according to information shared with the Daily Caller. Under the Memorandum of Understanding signed Thursday, the states will give the DOJ access to “publicly available corporate registration and public benefits payment data held by these state agencies.” It is data officials said will help the department spot fraud patterns faster. Colin McDonald, assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s National Fraud...

It’s moments like these when you really miss Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). The memorial service for the late South Carolina Republican was held on Tuesday, and Mr. Graham’s ability to navigate the Senate, his skills in retail politics, and his experience made him invaluable, especially in his semi-ambassador role between the Senate GOP and the Trump White House. Much of Trump's legislative agenda is uncertain after his passing on July 11 at age 71 from an aortic dissection. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s full confirmation was one of the first issues at risk, and it has now become a reality....

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced Tuesday that she will defy a Justice Department request for information about the identities of the 6,600 non-citizens who were erroneously registered to vote in the Garden State. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, had demanded the names, dates of birth, addresses, nationalities and registration dates of the non-citizens on New Jersey’s voter-rolls – 400 of whom are believed to have cast ballots – on July 21 and gave the Democratic governor a five-day deadline to comply with the request. “Today, I informed [Dhillon] that New Jersey will...

Former Biden special counsel Jack Smith could face potential criminal prosecution after Republicans accused the ex-prosecutor of misleading Congress about the scope of his investigation into President Donald Trump. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, issued a criminal referral for Smith Wednesday, arguing newly released records contradict Smith's testimony to his committee that he did not obtain or review lawmakers' text messages during his multiple probes into President Donald Trump. "All individuals have an obligation to comply with a duly authorized congressional inquiry. Mr. Smith, a former public servant, is no different," Jordan wrote in a letter to acting...

This video features a press briefing in Chicago where Department of Justice (DOJ) officials and partners from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announce a major milestone in trade and customs fraud enforcement (3:39). Key takeaways from the briefing: $1 Billion Milestone: The Trade Fraud Task Force has officially surpassed $1 billion in criminal and civil recoveries, penalties, forfeitures, and charge losses in less than one year (3:56-4:12). New Enforcement Efforts: To continue this momentum, the DOJ is establishing the Global Trade and Commerce Enforcement Section as a dedicated unit within the fraud division (10:14-10:27). Additionally, a new comprehensive trade...

Twenty-four children have been reunited with their families, 305 fugitives arrested, and 179 charges filed against defendants in 140 cases in a multi-agency federal operation, says the Justice Department in annoucing a weeks-long, multi-agency operation. The DOJ posted on Thursday that 11 agencies had participated "as part of this first-of-its-kind ‘badgeless’ enforcement initiative in Chicagoland in recognition of our nation’s 250th Birthday that focused on a single mission for roughly 60 days: to set aside barriers and focus exclusively on disrupting violence in the Chicago and Rockford areas by arresting the worst of the worst offenders." [snip] Chicagoland is the...

FIRST ON FOX: A federal grand jury is investigating alleged financial crimes by Neville Roy Singham, the China-based tech tycoon whose fortune has funded a sprawling network of socialist, communist and Marxist organizations across the U.S. over the last decade. According to sources familiar with the matter, the grand jury in Manhattan has issued subpoenas as part of a probe launched by U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York, one of the country's most powerful districts for federal prosecutions. Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche authorized the investigation as the Trump administration seeks to crack down...

Starting under the Biden administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration allowed hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills into New Mexico because Justice Department prosecutors wanted to bring a bigger criminal case against traffickers, The Associated Press first reported. The AP cited three current and former DEA agents as well as government records showing that, between 2023 and 2025, the DEA monitored fentanyl shipments but didn’t seize the highly lethal drugs. “We poisoned our community to make cases,” DEA Special Agent David Howell told AP. “Through our own willful blindness, we get to say, ‘We don’t really know what happened to the...

Some within the Democrat Party are reportedly worried investigations into California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) may hurt his possible run for the presidency in 2028.The concerns center on the fact that Newsom’s image could become marred even before he chooses to enter the race, allowing Republicans to use allegations and news of the investigations against him, the Hill reported Thursday.“There’s not one candidate who wants to enter what will inevitably be a brutal primary campaign cycle with that chain around their necks,” a Democrat strategist told the outlet.

In “response to the spike in anti-Muslim bigotry,” the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has quietly scheduled a special hearing for early next week to better protect Muslim civil rights in America. Organized by Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin, who chairs the judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, the event will mark the first-ever congressional hearing on Muslim civil rights. Durbin put it together because he claims there’s been a surge in anti-Muslim bigotry in the last year. As examples he offers Quran burnings, restrictions on mosque construction, hate crimes, hate speech, and other forms of discrimination....

California Gov. Gavin Newsom went public Monday with a dramatic claim: President Trump, he said, had directed the Department of Justice to investigate him and his wife. But the update that followed makes the story much bigger than Newsom’s video. Reporting now points to multiple federal probes around Newsom’s circle, including one related to Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s taxes and another connected to a former Newsom chief of staff that began under Joe Biden’s Justice Department. Eric Daugherty posted the update with the Newsom video as the story started moving: ============================================================= Newsom’s office posted an official transcript of his remarks on...

Today, my wife & I joined Donald Trump’s hit list. He has directed his Department of Justice to investigate us. They have not found a crime - they are simply trying to find one.He isn't coming after me because of mean tweets, but because I am considering running for President.… pic.twitter.com/tVYk3WUvO8— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 15, 2026

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that the Department of Justice is investigating him, claiming that President Donald Trump is targeting a “political enemy” despite no evidence the Democratic potential 2028 presidential contender has committed a crime. Newsom said in a video posted to social media that Trump’s administration is also targeting his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom.

The Justice Department is escalating its clash with California over voter-roll access, accusing state officials of blocking a federal audit — though Golden State officials warn the demand threatens voter privacy and oversteps federal authority.The dispute centers on voter roll maintenance and access to registration records, not any publicly identified allegation of impropriety in a specific California race. "If California genuinely wants voters to trust its elections, it should open its records, not fight to keep them closed," Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli said in a lengthy post on X that included a copy...

WASHINGTON (CN) — The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel released an opinion Tuesday concluding the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s guidelines prohibiting policies that unintentionally harm minority groups, known as disparate impact liability, are unconstitutional. The Office of Legal Counsel issued the opinion in response to the Supreme Court’s June 2 decision in Allen v. Milligan. There, the justices blocked a lower court order prohibiting the use of Alabama’s 2023 electoral maps after finding the court failed to consider if Republican lawmakers were acting with good faith when leaving Black voters in the minority in all but one congressional...

The federal government is moving to denaturalize more than a dozen “criminal aliens” for allegedly lying about their past crimes, including child sexual abuse, fraud, and drug dealing, during the naturalization process. Officials with the Justice Department told the Washington Examiner that the denaturalization actions, announced on Monday, are “unprecedented.” The suspects include convicts originally from Somalia, Haiti, Colombia, Mexico, Cuba, and Jamaica who are accused of withholding information from immigration authorities that would have made them ineligible to receive citizenship. Federal law has long allowed the government to try to denaturalize foreign-born U.S. citizens who officials believe committed fraud...