By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Less than two years after prosecutors discovered a pattern of racial discrimination, the nation’s largest sheriff’s department reached a sweeping agreement Tuesday with the Justice Department to restore civil rights. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved the deal 4-1 after patterns of abuse were found, including unlawful stops and…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com New Attorney General Loretta Lynch received her first big test after riots broke out in Baltimore this week. Lynch, the first black female attorney general, released a statement soon after violence broke out, examining what happened and “going beyond the criminal civil right investigations” launched last week by her predecessor Eric…
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…
