By Hemp Today A 2013 Department of Justice memorandum designed to prioritize the goals of anti-marijuana legislation should shield Indian tribes who are looking at growing hemp as an industrial crop, former ND Federal Prosecutor Timothy Purdon said. The so-called “Cole memo” is a policy statement based on Deputy U.S. Attorney General James M. Cole’s…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Freddie Gray was seen walking and talking when he was placed into a Baltimore police van. But when he emerged, Gray “could not talk, he could not breathe,” Deputy Police Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez said in a story in the Washington Post. Gray died after suffering a severe spinal cord injury. Six…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The FBI and Justice Department admitted for the first time that forensic unit for the bureau provided false testimony in nearly every trial that involved hair analysis, The Washington Post reports. All but two of the 28 examiners with the FBI Laboratory’s microscopic hair comparison unit “overstated forensic matches in ways…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The DEA is under examination for its handling of informant payments. The Department of Justice’s Inspector General probe comes as the DEA spends more money on informants. The DEA spent $33 million last year on informants but has done a poor job in the past tracking the money, wrote The Pittsburgh…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The FBI is not happy with how prosecutors handled the indictment of Blackwater security contractors involved in a deadly shooting in Iraq, saying political appointees in the Justice Department intentionally undermined the case. The FBI wanted to have charges filed that could have sent the defendants to prison for life. Citing…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The partisan delay in confirming Loretta Lynch as the next attorney general is beginning to impact promotions and policy decision at the Justice Department, The Los Angeles Times reports. The delay has prompted DOJ officials to question whether to hold a major intentional meeting on cybersecurity this spring. “There is a…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com President Obama’s plan to shield millions of immigrants from deportation received another setback Tuesday after a judge refused to lift a temporary hold on the executive action. The Associated Press reports that U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville declined the administration’s request to lift the preliminary injunction issued on Feb….
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The DEA and Justice Department have been secretly amassing logs of nearly all international phone calls that originated from the U.S., the USA Today reports. The collection of billions of calls came nearly a decade before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The government has tracked calls to as many as 116…
