By David A. Schulz For Washington Post As Eric Holder reflects on his six years as attorney general, one disturbing aspect of his legacy should give him significant pause. On Holder’s watch, legal protections traditionally afforded to communications between reporters and sources have been torn down, potentially damaging for years to come the media’s ability…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com President Obama is faced with a significant challenge and opportunity. The top three jobs at the Justice Department will soon be vacant, and just four of Obama’s 11 choices for assistant attorney generals have been confirmed, CBS News reports. The vacancies leave a power vacuum at an agency that has been…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The Justice Department accused some Ferguson officials of leaking information to the media in an effort to support Officer Darren Wilson, the Los Angeles Times reports. In recent days, details of the investigation have appeared in local and national news coverage at a time when a grand jury decision is imminent…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The DEA’s decision to set up a fake account on Facebook by stealing a woman’s identity was a “knowing and serious breach” of the social networks’ terms and policies, the company wrote in a letter to the DEA. Gizmodo reports that Facebook will enforce its policy of users creating accounts under…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com At least 38 suspected Nazi war criminals removed from the U.S. continued receiving their Social Security benefits as part of a strange deal struck with the Justice Department, the Seattle Times reports. One of them is former Auschwitz guard Jakob Denzinger, who fled to Germany and still collects about $1,500 a…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The Justice Department is about to lose another high-ranking officials. Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole, second-in-command, announced Thursday that he’s taking a job in the private sector, the Washington Post reports. The Post said possible successors include Sally Quillian Yates, who is U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia,…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The Justice Department has ended the controversial practice of asking defendants who plead guilty to waive their appellate rights over bad legal advice, CNN reports. In a memo issued Tuesday, the Justice Department said it will ban the waivers that are still used in 35 U.S. attorney offices. The waivers are controversial…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The Justice Department is mulling whether to investigate NYPD’s use of the controversial crime fighting strategy known as “broken windows,” the New York Daily News reports. The Justice Department Civil Rights Division is considering a request from six members of Congress to investigate whether black people and Hispanics are disproportionately affected…
