Tag: Atty Gen Jeff Sessions

Sessions Instructs US Attorneys to Fight Nationwide Injunctions

Admin
Jeff Sessions

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions instructed Department of Justice lawyers in a memo Thursday to resist the nationwide injunctions issued by federal judges that have hindered or halted some of the Trump administration’s signature policies, including the border separation of families and various travel bans. Sessions stated in an official press release accompanying the memo that the guidance would help standardize the reasoning litigators use when arguing against injunctions. “The Constitution does not grant to a single district judge the power to veto executive branch actions with respect to parties not before the court,” Sessions said in the release. “Nor does it provide the judiciary with authority to conduct oversight of or review policy of the executive branch.” Sessions argued that his motivation was not partisan, but aimed at maintaining the traditional balance of power in the U.S. government. “Increasingly, we are seeing individual federal district judges go beyond the parties before the court to give injunctions or orders that block the entire federal government from enforcing a law or policy throughout the country. This kind of judicial activism did not happen a single time in our first 175 years as a nation, but it has become common in recent…

Read the full story

White House Lawyers Actively Reviewing Docs For Declassification

Admin

by Saagar Enjeti and Chuck Ross   White House lawyers are actively reviewing controversial FBI and Department of Justice documents relating to the 2016 presidential campaign for possible declassification, multiple sources with knowledge tell The Daily Caller News Foundation. The review process is being led by Emmet Flood of the White House Counsel’s office at the urging of an insistent president, two sources with knowledge of the process told TheDCNF. A source close to the president noted that Flood and his colleagues within the counsel’s office are generally opposed to declassification, out of the concern for the precedent it would set as well as any unintended consequences of making the information public. Sources cautioned that declassification could occur as soon as this week, though the uncertainty reflects the nature of the review process itself. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders demurred on declassification in a Monday briefing saying, “I can’t get into that right now.” Trump himself told The Daily Caller in a Sept. 4 Oval Office interview on declassification “we’re looking at it very seriously right now because the things that have gone on are so bad.” At issue within…

Read the full story

Commentary: Obama Cybersecurity Failures Are The Real 2016 Election Story

Admin
Barack Obama

by George Rasley   Remember when the Democrats lost the 2016 election and the charge was that the Russians “hacked” the election? Then the charge morphed into, the Trump campaign, or maybe even Trump himself, “colluded” with the Russians to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House? As Rowan Scarborough of the Washington Times summarized the charges: Christopher Steele’s Democratic Party-financed dossier said Mr. Manafort worked with Russia to coordinate the hacking of Democratic Party computers. In addition, a number of media reports last year claimed that Mr. Manafort, Mr. Trump’s erstwhile campaign manager, sought Russia’s help to bolster his candidate. U.S. surveillance captured the collusion in copious amounts of phone records, the stories said. CNN declared in September: “Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, which is leading the investigation into Russia’s involvement in the election, has been provided details of these communications.” But, reported Scarborough, that and similar reports seemed to be dashed by Kevin Downing, Mr. Manafort’s attorney. He filed a brief in U.S. District Court subject to an accuracy review by a federal judge. In a cut-and-dried manner, he said Mr. Mueller has no evidence that Mr. Manafort communicated with Russian officials. Mr. Downing is defending Mr. Manafort against federal charges…

Read the full story

24 MS-13 Gang Members Facing Federal Indictment For Several Crimes And Conspiracies

Admin
MS-13

by Neetu Chandak   Twenty-four alleged MS-13 gang members are facing federal indictment for several crimes, according to a press release by the Department of Justice on Friday. The gang members and their apprentices were allegedly involved with five murders, drug trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, and also allegedly planned to murder eight people between 2015 to 2017, according to a report by the Justice Department. Currently, 21 of the 24 members are known while the other six names, both members and associates, have not been revealed. The DOJ is heavily cracking down on MS-13, known as one of the “most notorious street gangs in the Western Hemisphere,” according to Insight Crime. The gang is primarily composed of El Savadorian immigrants that dominate Frederick, Anne Arundel, Prince George, and Montgomery counties in Maryland. The gang recruits kids to, “their murderous ranks, destroying families, and leaving behind countless victims,” said acting assistant Attorney General Cronan. The indictment was given on June 27 and opened on June 28. The members were scheduled to appear in the U.S. District Court of Baltimore starting on June 28. – – – Neetu Chandak is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Neetu on Twitter.                  …

Read the full story

Attorney General Sessions Announces Charges For 601 People In Largest Health Care Fraud Bust In History

Admin

by Steve Birr   Federal officials are charging 601 people, including more than 100 medical workers, for fueling opioid addiction in the largest bust of health care fraud in U.S. history. The Department of Justice revealed the charges Thursday, which were brought as part of an annual effort to dismantle schemes across the country involved in scamming health care programs. The takedown included the arrest of 76 doctors, 23 pharmacists, 19 nurses and several hundred others involved in prescribing and distributing massive quantities of opioid medications, resulting in more than $2 billion in fraudulent costs to federal health care programs and insurers, reports NBC News. In one example, the owner of a Texas-based pharmacy chain and two co-conspirators filled scripts for more than 1 million oxycodone and hydrocodone pills, which were subsequently transferred to couriers for sale on the street. “Much of this fraud is related to our ongoing opioid crisis—which is the deadliest drug epidemic in American history,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. “Some of our most trusted medical professionals look at their patients—vulnerable people suffering from addiction—and they see dollar signs.” The Department of Justice under Sessions is making progress in the fight against both smugglers and medical providers taking…

Read the full story

Justice Department Initiative Aims to Protect Houses of Worship

Admin
Jeff Sessions

by Arya Hodjat   The U.S. Justice Department will intensify its efforts to bring up lawsuits against municipalities that discriminate against religious establishments, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Wednesday. The initiative, called the “Place to Worship Initiative,” is centered on bringing cases against towns and cities that use zoning laws to prevent houses of worship — churches and mosques, for example — from building. “In recent years, the cultural climate has become less hospitable to people of faith and to religious belief,” Sessions said. “Many Americans have felt that their freedom to practice their faith has been under attack.” The announcement came during an event for the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center — an Orthodox Jewish advocacy group — in Washington, D.C. Sessions also announced the Justice Department would be filing a lawsuit against a New Jersey town for denying the building of an Orthodox Jewish synagogue. “Religious Americans have heard themselves called deplorables,” Sessions said. “They’ve heard themselves called bitter clingers.” Sessions referred to comments made by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama during their presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2008, respectively. Clinton made no reference to religion in her 2016 speech. Heather Weaver, a senior staff attorney for the ACLU, told…

Read the full story

Five Facts About the Prosecutor Probing FBI, Justice Department Actions

Admin

by Fred Lucas   While Attorney General Jeff Sessions has decided to hold off on naming a second special counsel, he reached well outside Washington for a federal prosecutor to investigate possible wrongdoing by the FBI and Justice Department. “The [Justice] Department is not above criticism and it can never be that the department conceals errors when they occur,” AG Jeff Sessions says. Sessions announced Thursday in a letter to members of Congress that, rather than name another special counsel, he has tapped Utah U.S. Attorney John Huber to work with the Justice Department’s inspector general to review multiple issues of Justice Department and FBI conduct. The conduct under scrutiny occurred during the Obama administration as FBI and Justice officials investigated matters connected with 2016 presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution.  Find out more >> “We understand that the [Justice] Department is not above criticism and it can never be that the department conceals errors when they occur,” Sessions said in the letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.; and House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Trey…

Read the full story