Dear Colleagues, This ongoing shutdown continues to be a very frustrating time for all of us who work for the Department of Justice and those who provide services on contract. I remain particularly concerned about the impact the shutdown continues to have on all of you and your families. Unfortunately, because we are unable to…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The Justice Department is asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Florida socialite whose complaint to the FBI led to the resignation of Gen. David Petraeus, Lawyers.com reports. Jill Kelley claims in a lawsuit that her reputation was tarnished when the government allegedly leaked her private e-mails to the…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The Justice Department shut down its Amber Alert website (www.amberalert.gov) because of the government shutdown. Instead of featuring photos and other urgent information about missing children, the site tells visitors, “Due to the lapse in federal funding, this Office of Justice Programs (OJP) website is unavailable.” The site was set up to…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com President Obama pledged to run a transparent administration that respects public access to records. But an internal audit of the Justice Department recently found excessive secrecy, according to Slate. The audit found “persistent misunderstanding and lack of knowledge of certain classification processes.” For example, a review of documents found that information was…
By Sari Horwitz Washington Post WASHINGTON –– A former FBI bomb technician who later worked as a contractor for the Bureau has agreed to plead guilty to disclosing national defense information about a disrupted terrorist plot to the Associated Press, according to the Justice Department. Donald John Sachtleben, 55, of Carmel, Ind., who previously had…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com When federal judges repeatedly complained about the government misleading them about NSA’s secret domestic surveillance, the Justice Department never sprang into action, the USA Today reports. According to the USA Today, newly released records show the Justice Department’s internal ethics watchdog never investigated allegations of the NSA having surveillance on Americans’ phone…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The Justice Department grossly overstated the number of terrorism convictions and made other inaccuracies because of shoddy record keeping, a federal audit has found, the Washington Post reports. Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz concluded in a report that the federal agency, which has 93 U.S. attorneys’ offices, over-reported the number…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A lawsuit alleging that the National Security Agency violated the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens now includes claims against new FBI Director James Comey, Bloomberg reports. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed the original lawsuit in July, alleges the NSA, with the help of the Justice Department and FBI, surreptitiously collected information…
