By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The politics surrounding ATF’s failed Operation Fast and Furious began to sizzle Wednesday, with Republicans leading the charge against Attorney Gen. Eric Holder Jr. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, voting along party lines, voted 23 to 17 to hold Holder in contempt for failing to turn over documents pertaining…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The massive coal mining company that reached an agreement six months ago to avoid federal charges over the 2010 mine explosion in West Virginia that killed 29 workers has significantly reduced accident and injury rates, the Associated Press reports. Alpha Natural Resources also is breaking ground on an $18 million training center…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A federal crackdown on illicit trading on Wall Street netted its latest catch with the conviction of Rajat Gupta, a business insider and former board member of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Reuters reports. Gupta was convicted Friday on charges that he leaked confidential information about Goldman Sachs during the peak of…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The former U.S. Attorney who spearheaded the failed prosecution of former Sen. John Edwards expressed no regrets, the News and Observer reports. George Holding said political corruption cases are the most difficult to prosecute, and any decision to halt the prosecution would have been a “derliction of duty,” according to the News…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com What’s a little exaggeration among friends? The Newark Star-Ledger and PolitiFact called ex-U.S. Attorney turned N.J. Gov. Chris Christie on his exaggeration the other day. Christie said at a town hall meeting that as Newark U.S. Attorney he put behind bars 10 percent of the state legislature for various crimes. The…
Shoshanna Utchenik ticklethewire.com Reid J. Schar, lead prosecutor in the Rod Blagojevich corruption retrial in 2011, may have cinched the convictions that sent Blago to prison with the question: “Mr. Blagojevich, you are a convicted liar, correct?” Now Schar, 40, is taking his show on the road. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Schar is leaving…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com A former official for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was sentenced Friday in Los Angeles to two years in prison and ordered to pay $400,000 in restitution for obstruction of justice, giving false information to a federal prosecutor and a federal judge in Florida, and devising a scheme to…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Some federal cases are too complicated for jurors. Some may be borderline illegal. And some may end up being a waste of taxpayer money. The trial against ex-presidential hopeful John Edwards was probably all of the above. A jury on Thursday acquitted him on one count and deadlocked on five others…
