Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — A lead prosecutor in the John Brennan investigation has been removed from the case after expressing concerns to Justice Department officials about the legal strength of a potential criminal prosecution of the former CIA director, a person familiar with the matter said Friday. Maria Medetis Long told defense lawyers involved in the investigation that she was no longer participating in the Brennan investigation. Her departure from the investigation came after she conveyed doubt that there was sufficient evidence for a criminal case against Brennan, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press...

WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice announced Friday that its National Fraud Enforcement Division (NFED) thwarted fraud schemes targeting $340 million in taxpayer funds in its first week on the job — with more than $10 million paid back in restitution. The NFED’s first big win was the sentencing of Abdullahe Nur Jesow April 9 to three years and seven months in prison for his role in bilking taxpayers out of $250 million meant for a child nutrition program that operated out of a bogus headquarters in Minneapolis during the COVID-19 pandemic. The funds weren’t spent by the co-conspirators —...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has fired several prosecutors who weaponized the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act to go after pro-life activists during the Biden administration.CBS News reported Monday evening — before the agency released a bombshell report about the Biden-era DOJ’s abuse of power — that at least four prosecutors had been fired for their role in targeting pro-life Americans with the FACE Act. The DOJ confirmed the firings in a post to X.“DOJ has terminated the employment of personnel responsible for weaponizing the FACE Act who still remained at the department,” the agency said on...

The Justice Department on Tuesday asked a federal appeals court to throw out the seditious conspiracy convictions of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders who were sentenced to prison terms for leading members of the far-right extremist groups in attacking the U.S. Capitol to keep President Donald Trump in the White House over five years ago. Trump commuted the prison sentences of several Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders last January in a sweeping act of clemency for all 1,500-plus defendants charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. The request by the Justice Department would go a step further and...

The Justice Department has fired at least four prosecutors who were involved in prosecutions under the FACE Act during the Biden administration, a government official familiar with the firings told CBS News. Among those fired Monday is Sanjay Patel, a longtime federal prosecutor in the Civil Rights Division's criminal section who was placed on administrative leave last month, sources told CBS News at the time. The terminations occurred at about the same time a report on the FACE Act and the Biden Justice Department was being finalized. Congress passed the FACE Act in 1994 to address rising concerns about threats...

IBM has agreed to settle the US Department of Justice's accusations that the company violated civil rights laws with its DEI practices. According to a press release from the DOJ, IBM will pay more than $17 million to resolve allegations of taking "race, color, national origin, or sex" into account when making employment decisions. This settlement is the latest development in a longstanding effort from the Trump administration to end DEI programs, which was kick-started from an executive order in early 2025. IBM denied any wrongdoing and said the settlement wasn't an admission of liability, while the US government said...

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday announced the creation of a National Fraud Enforcement Division at the Department of Justice, marking a significant step in the Trump administration's efforts to crack down on misuse of public funds. "There will be an additional 93 prosecutors in every district across the country devoted to the mission of combating fraud with the National Fraud Enforcement Division," he told reporters. "Because of this administration's leadership, fraudsters, scammers, tax cheats, or anyone who lies to get rich off the generosity of the American people should be on notice," Blanche said. Blanche, moreover, announced that...

Today, the Department of Justice and the FBI announced a court-authorized technical operation to neutralize the U.S. portion of a network of small office/home office (SOHO) routers compromised by a unit within Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff (GRU) Military Unit 26165, also known as APT28, Sofacy Group, Forest Blizzard, Pawn Storm, Fancy Bear, and Sednit. The unit used the routers to facilitate malicious Domain Name System (DNS) hijacking operations against worldwide targets of intelligence interest to the Russian government, including individuals in the military, government, and critical infrastructure sectors.Since at least 2024, GRU actors have exploited known...

It used to be understood, before we started rewarding lawbreakers with goodies like birthplace citizenship, that punishing bad guys was the most effective way to stop bad actions. The best way to drop the murder rate, for example, is to swiftly and justly execute murderers. For the same reason, the best way to end the political weaponization of the bureaucracy is to punish the weaponizers. As long as the architects of the most infamous abuses — from the Russia collusion hoax to the Biden DOJ effort to throw its political opposition in prison — escape accountability, new partisans will be...

National Association for Gun Rights warns the move could derail momentum toward a U.S. Supreme Court challenge to “Assault Weapons” Bans and magazine bans nationwide. A growing controversy is unfolding after the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, signed onto a Department of Justice brief seeking to revisit a major pro-Second Amendment ruling from the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. The case, Benson v. United States, recently resulted in a three-judge panel striking down Washington, D.C.’s magazine ban, marking a significant legal victory for gun owners and a potential stepping stone toward broader challenges to “Assault...

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released his "Preliminary Citywide Racial Equity Plan" on Monday, which quickly prompted pushback from conservatives online and skepticism from President Donald Trump’s Justice Department, with one top official saying she will "review" the move. Mamdani’s office explained in a press release that the preliminary report, which the mayor had promised to release within 100 days in office, shows racial disparities in areas like housing, education, and income, and the new plan aims to "establish a new framework for how New York City measures affordability, understands inequity and plans for a more equitable future." "The...

President Trump has always viewed terminations as a way to spur higher performance levels. Pam Bondi's ouster is the just the latest example There is an old joke that scientists switched from lab rats to lawyers because you do not get as attached to lawyers. President Donald Trump has shown the same tendency to avoid becoming attached to either private or government counsel. Attorney General Pam Bondi is only the latest in a long line of lawyers let go by a president who was made famous with the tagline "You're fired."There is no evidence of bad blood between President Trump...

The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way on Monday for the Justice ​Department to move forward with dismissing a criminal case in which Steve Bannon, an influential ally of President Donald Trump, was convicted after defying ‌a congressional subpoena. The justices threw out a lower court's decision to uphold Bannon's 2022 conviction for refusing to turn over documents or testify to a congressional panel that investigated the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters. Trump's Justice Department, in urging the Supreme Court to toss the lower court's decision, told the justices in court papers it has...

In her one short year on the job, Pam Bondi has been very successful in many ways.AdvertisementHer DoJ has successfully defended the administration against a barrage of lawfare, including winning 24 defenses at the Supreme Court.Her DoJ has likely done more damage to drug cartels and other transnational organized crime groups than any in the past.Her DoJ has successfully secured agreements with a number of major universities to end bigoted practices and make reparations for past offenses.Her DoJ has led a bunch of major busts of human-trafficking networks and other kinds of immigrant-related financial criminals, from Medicaid fraud to daycare...

MS NOW's Deadline: White House, or the Nicolle Wallace show, is where Democrats go to hear other Democrats throw rhetorical bombs at the Republicans. No one is any good in the GOP. On Thursday, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) greeted Attorney General Pam Bondi's dismissal with a “good riddance”—then dismissed every potential replacement, all while being encouraged by host Alicia Menendez. Lofgren didn’t limit herself to criticism of Bondi’s tenure: LOFGREN: Good riddance to Pam Bondi. But good luck to us for who might come next. She then turned her disdain on possible successors. Menendez named some rumored replacements -- "Lee...

Government investigator Mike Howell says Pam Bondi, out as attorney general, wasn’t the right fit to take on the weaponizers. Pam Bondi was President Donald Trump’s second choice for attorney general, and she never quite fit. Bondi often looked uncomfortable in the top prosecutor role, fumbling her way through and failing to meet the demands of a Department of Justice with a mandate to bring the criminals in the corrupt Biden administration to account. The frustration from the MAGA movement has been mounting for many months. The president’s patience had worn threadbare with an attorney general who — for many...

There’s so much fraud happening in California that Los Angeles’ top federal prosecutor believes he could “never have enough” prosecutors to tackle it all. First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli spoke to The Post Friday about fraud in California — and how, despite his “unlimited hiring authority,” the Department of Justice is starving for new prosecutors aimed at the “almost unimaginable” amount of fraud in the state. “We’re in a very target rich environment, and there is no shortage of leads for fraud investigations,” he said. “I would say we are doing a lot...

The measure of success will be how many of these people receive justice, and the American people will know a dent has been made when the Bureau of Prisons can’t handle the new domestic terrorist inmates.The only criterion that matters for President Donald Trump’s next attorney general is whether he or she will go after domestic terrorists such as Antifa and the participants in the attempted palace coup of the Russia collusion hoax. Those are two glaring areas in which outgoing Attorney General Pam Bondi fell well short of the mandate demonstrated by Trump’s win in 2024, and her successor...

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche suggested that the Department of Justice is investigating ActBlue after a New York Times report said that ActBlue might have lied to Congress about vetting foreign donations. Blanche told TV show host Jesse Waters: "That's a priority of this administration and this DOJ. It's something that a lot of people have been worried about it for a very long time. You can rest assured that it includes the Department of Justice and it includes me."🚨 BREAKING: Todd Blanche indicates the DOJ is ACTIVELY INVESTIGATING ActBlue getting foreign donations and lying about it"That's a priority of...

Did the now-fired Attorney General tip off one of her boss' fiercest critics over an FBI plan to release investigatory files? That's what the Daily Mail claimed earlier this afternoon, shortly after Donald Trump announced Pam Bondi's departure from the Department of Justice. Their trio of reporters claims that the matter came to a head late yesterday, with Trump cashiering Bondi just prior to his war speech on national television.Color me a bit skeptical on this, but here's the story:Trump's reasoning for the sudden dismissal comes in part because the President believes Bondi tipped off Eric Swalwell about the FBI's...