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☆ How a 150-Year-Old Law Against Lewdness Became a Key to the Abortion Fight
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Emily Bazelon | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The plaintiffs’ primary argument is that the courts should force the Food and Drug Administration to revoke its approval of mifepristone, the first pill in the two-drug regimen for medication abortion. At the same time, another potentially consequential part of the suit challenges an F.D.A. decision in 2021 allowing patients to receive the prescribed pills by mail. The plaintiffs in the Texas suit argue that the Comstock Act “explicitly forbids” mailing the drugs to any state, whether abortion is legal there or not. In defense of the agency’s actions, which were based on studies showing that the medication could be safely dispensed without an in-person medical visit, the Biden administration argues that Congress made the agency responsible for assessing a drug’s safety and effectiveness, not whether other laws might affect its use.

☆ Justice Department files criminal charges in cases of American tech stolen for Russia, China and Iran
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Hannah Rabinowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —The Justice Department announced on Tuesday five criminal cases against people accused of stealing or illegally diverting American technology and materials for the Russian, Chinese and Iranian governments. The man, Xiangjiang Qiao, is at large in China, according to the Justice Department. “These charges demonstrate the Justice Department’s commitment to preventing sensitive technology from falling into the hands of foreign adversaries, including Russia, China, and Iran,” said Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department’s national security division. In New York, a Greek national is charged with allegedly acquiring more than 10 different types of sensitive technologies on behalf of the Russian government. The man, Dr. Nikolaos “Nikos” Bogonikolos, was arrested in Paris last week and the US will move for his extradition, the Justice Department said.

☆ Trump is weaponizing the Russia report he demanded -- even though it lacks bombshells
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Stephen Collinson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Another Trump ally, South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, argued the report showed the “rule of law in America is subservient to political outcomes. In another politically sensitive part of his report, Durham found that the FBI did not pursue allegations against Clinton with the same vigor with which they acted against Trump. He pointed out that the Trump investigation was launched at a time when Russia was attacking Democratic National Committee servers and had used stolen information to attack Clinton. The investigation was only launched after the bureau received evidence from a friendly foreign government that the Trump campaign had been offered help by the Russians. But all Trump needed from the report was a headline and a general narrative of suspicion against the FBI.

☆ Officials Who Cast Doubt on Hunter Biden Laptop Face Questions
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Luke Broadwater | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

As Justice Department officials weigh the matter, the investigator overseeing the Internal Revenue Service’s portion of the case has also come forward with allegations of political favoritism in the inquiry. On Monday, a lawyer for that investigator sent a short letter to Congress that said the investigator and the rest of his team were being removed from the inquiry, which is reaching its end as officials weigh whether to pursue charges. The former intelligence officials stress that their letter stated that they had no evidence of a Russian disinformation campaign, and that they were merely stating an opinion. “The Congress is wasting its time and our money by investigating the First Amendment rights of private citizens,” Mark Zaid, a lawyer who represents seven signers of the letter, said in an interview. Democrats also argue that the letter must be understood in its proper context.

☆ US special counsel faults FBI's handling of 2016 Trump-Russia probe
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Sarah N. Lynch | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The FBI lacked “actual evidence” to investigate Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and relied too heavily on tips provided by Trump’s political opponents to fuel the probe, U.S. Special Counsel John Durham concluded in a report released on Monday. FILE PHOTO: U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at his final campaign event at the Devos Place in Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S. November 8, 2016. That Crossfire Hurricane investigation would later be handed over to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who in March 2019 concluded there was no evidence of a criminal conspiracy between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia. In his new 306-page report, Durham concluded that U.S. intelligence and law enforcement did not possess any “actual evidence” of collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia prior to launching Crossfire Hurricane. He also accused the bureau of treating the 2016 Trump probe differently from other politically sensitive investigations, including several involving Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

☆ DOJ Settles Antitrust Case, Clearing Way for Assa Abloy Deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Jan Wolfe | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Justice Department’s settlement clears the way for the completion of a $4.3 billion deal. Photo: Eric Lee for The Wall Street JournalThe Justice Department said Friday that it has settled its antitrust challenge to the Swedish lockmaker Assa Abloy ’s planned acquisition involving a U.S. rival, putting the $4.3 billion deal on track for completion. Assa Abloy sells locks under various brand names. In September 2021, it announced plans to buy Middleton, Wis.-based Spectrum Brands ’ Hardware and Home Improvement segment. The Justice Department sued in September 2022 to block the deal, saying it would diminish competition in the residential door hardware industry and raise prices.

☆ Donald Trump: Fresh January 6 convictions raise the stakes for the former president
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Stephen Collinson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

The first scene of his reelection announcement video released last month showed smoke rising over the US Capitol and rioters with Trump flags. The legal complications facing Trump and GarlandGiven the fraught situation, the Justice Department’s next moves will be hugely significant. Thursday’s Proud Boys convictions are among the most significant of hundreds of successful Justice Department prosecutions of people linked to the US Capitol riot. So while a prosecution of Trump and his closest political associates over January 6 could be tough, it may not be impossible. So for now, at least with GOP primary voters, what doesn’t convict Trump, makes him stronger.

Companies Binance Holdings Ltd FollowMay 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether Binance Holdings was illegally used to let Russians skirt U.S. sanctions and move money through the cryptocurrency exchange, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. Regulators globally have long called for tighter controls on crypto exchanges including Binance, the world's largest, to prevent illegal activities - from money laundering to the financing of terrorism. The recent seizures by Israel's NBCTF also highlight how governments are targeting crypto companies in their efforts to prevent illegal activity. Binance and the DoJ did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Reporting by Jose Joseph in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju SamuelOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ After Jan. 6 Sedition Convictions, Far-Right Threats Remain
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The guilty verdicts on Thursday against four leaders of the Proud Boys on charges of seditious conspiracy were arguably the most significant victory the Justice Department has won so far in its vast investigation of the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Prosecutors took a victory lap, with Attorney General Merrick B. Garland noting that along with the similar convictions of six members of another extremist group — the Oath Keepers militia — a major blow had been struck against two of the country’s most prominent far-right organizations. And yet on April 23 — one day before closing arguments took place at the Proud Boys trial — fliers blaming Jews for “the rise in transgenderism” were found in the driveways of several homes in suburban Atlanta. One week later, as the Proud Boys case went to the jury, a neo-Nazi group flying a swastika flag protested a drag show in Columbus, Ohio. The incidents were just two of the many such episodes in recent weeks.

☆ Alabama Discriminated Against Black Residents Over Sewage, Justice Dept. Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Linda Qiu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Justice Department said it had reached an interim agreement with the health departments of Alabama and one of its rural counties over practices found to discriminate against generations of Black residents. Under the agreement announced Thursday, the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Lowndes County Health Department said they would improve wastewater infrastructure, measure the health risks associated with raw sewage exposure, and stop penalizing residents who cannot afford adequate treatment systems. The agreement represents “a new chapter for Black residents of Lowndes County, Ala., who have endured health dangers, indignities and racial injustice for far too long,” said Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division. Catherine Coleman Flowers, an environmental activist who grew up in Lowndes, said that residents of the county, like those in many other rural communities, use wastewater systems installed on the grounds of homes and businesses rather than a centralized sewage treatment plant operated by a local government. But the county stood alone in penalizing residents for sanitation issues that were outside their control, she added.

☆ Four Proud Boys Convicted of Sedition in Key Jan. 6 Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Alan Feuer | Zach Montague | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Four members of the Proud Boys, including their former leader Enrique Tarrio, were convicted on Thursday of seditious conspiracy for plotting to keep President Donald J. Trump in power after his election defeat by leading a violent mob in attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The jurors in the case failed to reach a decision on the sedition charge for one of the defendants, Dominic Pezzola, although he was convicted of other serious felonies. The trial was the last of three major sedition cases that federal prosecutors brought against key figures in the Capitol attack. The sedition charge, which is rarely used and harks back to the Union’s efforts to protect the federal government against secessionist rebels during the Civil War, was also used in two separate trials against nine members of another far-right group, the Oath Keepers militia. Six of those defendants — including Stewart Rhodes, the organization’s founder and leader — were convicted of sedition; each of the others was found guilty of different serious felonies.

☆ Former F.B.I. Agent Charged in Jan. 6 Riot
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Adam Goldman | Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Over the past two years, scores of rioters with military experience have been arrested in connection with the Capitol attack. Wise is the rare former federal agent to have been charged. Thomas E. Caldwell, a member of the Oath Keepers who was convicted in November of felony charges stemming from the Jan. 6 riot, had once worked with the F.B.I. And Mark S. Ibrahim, an active-duty agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration, was charged in July 2021 in connection with the riot. Wise worked on counterterrorism matters at the F.B.I.

CNN —Prosecutors for special counsel Jack Smith have been asking questions in recent weeks about the handling of surveillance footage from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort after the Trump Organization received a subpoena last summer for the footage, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation. Prosecutors are expected to ask them about the handling of the surveillance footage and Trump employees’ conversations following the subpoena, according to the sources. Calamari Sr., the executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Trump Organization, has primarily overseen security operations for Trump and his properties during his decadeslong career working for Trump. His son, Calamari Jr., is director of security for the Trump Organization. An attorney for Calamari Sr. did not respond to a request for comment.

☆ Google Loses Bid to Escape DOJ’s Digital-Ad Antitrust Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Jan Wolfe | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The case is one of two Justice Department antitrust lawsuits against Google. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg NewsAlphabet Inc.’s Google lost an early bid to escape a Justice Department antitrust lawsuit that seeks to break up the company’s business brokering digital advertising across much of the internet. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema denied Google’s request to dismiss the case, finding that the Justice Department’s complaint filed in January was sufficiently detailed to proceed.

☆ Judge Acquits Aerospace Executives Accused of Rigging Labor Market
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Dave Michaels | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Justice Department under the Biden administration has aimed to push the boundaries of antitrust law. Photo: ALEXANDER DRAGO/REUTERSWASHINGTON—The Justice Department’s push to prosecute employers over alleged deals to fix wages or stop workers from getting better jobs has a major defect: Courts don’t see any crime committed. On Friday, a federal judge in Connecticut threw out criminal charges against six aerospace-industry executives accused of agreeing to not poach one another’s employees. The result is the latest trial defeat for the Justice Department, which is trying to prosecute conduct previously treated as civil wrongdoing.

The Justice Department’s April 20 letter includes guidance for state and local police, prosecutors, judges and probation officers. Joanna Weiss, co-director of the Fines and Fees Justice Center, told me that the DOJ's voice is critical on these issues. The earlier memo included a section that laid out the principle that courts must not use bail practices that incarcerate people solely because they can’t afford a fee. The Justice Department didn't address my specific questions about why the section on bail was nixed. Lauren Jones, legal director at the National Center for Access to Justice, told me that there's clear overlap between cash bail practices and justice system fees.

☆ Comstock Act: The 150-year-old chastity law that may be the next big fight over abortion
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Tierney Sneed | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

“Comstock is really the backdoor way to remove access to abortion across the whole country,” said Greer Donley, a University of Pittsburgh Law School professor who specializes in abortion law. Severino argued that, at least when it comes to the Comstock Act’s prohibitions on mailing abortion pills, Congress is well within its powers to regulate those shipments. Several towns, some in New Mexico and elsewhere, have passed local ordinances that cite the Comstock Act and prohibit business within those jurisdictions from shipping or receiving items used for abortions in the mail, as covered by the Comstock Act. The lawsuits in New Mexico state court that those ordinances have prompted may provide for another opportunity for courts to elaborate on what the Comstock Act means. The Supreme Court, in the emergency order it issued last week, did not say anything about the Comstock Act.

☆ Guo Wengui Denied Bail While Awaiting Trial in New York
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( James Fanelli | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A courtroom sketch shows Guo Wengui at a courthouse in New York. Photo: JANE ROSENBERG/REUTERSA New York federal judge on Thursday ordered wealthy Chinese businessman Guo Wengui jailed while he awaits trial on fraud and money-laundering charges, calling him a flight risk and saying the Justice Department’s evidence against him was strong. Mr. Guo, who garnered attention by accusing Beijing of corruption from his Manhattan penthouse, was arrested and charged last month with a $1 billion fraud scheme. Federal prosecutors in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office alleged he took advantage of the hundreds of thousands of followers he amassed online by soliciting investments in a cryptocurrency he developed, a media company and other ventures. He spent some of the proceeds on lavish purchases, including a $26 million home in New Jersey, a yacht and a Ferrari, prosecutors allege.

☆ Justice Dept. Presses Local Courts to Reduce Fines
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Glenn Thrush | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Justice Department’s third-highest-ranking official, Vanita Gupta, informed local judges and juvenile courts on Thursday that imposing fines and fees without accounting for a person’s financial status violated constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment. Doing so “may erode trust between local governments and their constituents, increase recidivism, undermine rehabilitation and successful re-entry, and generate little or no net revenue,” Ms. Gupta, the associate attorney general, wrote in a letter. A Justice Department investigation did not result in federal charges against the officer involved. The policy Ms. Gupta outlined was first enacted during the Obama administration, when she led the Justice Department’s civil rights division. It was revoked under Attorney General Jeff Sessions in 2017, but a handful of states, including several controlled by Republicans, have taken steps to reduce the practice.

☆ Asian Americans are anxious about hate crimes. TikTok ban rhetoric isn’t helping
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

And the Chinese government’s authoritarian approach to numerous other issues clashes with important American values, said many Asian Americans interviewed for this article. Concerns about China have gone mainstream as US national security officials and lawmakers have publicly grappled with state-backed ransomware attacks and other hacking attempts. People rallied during a "Stop Asian Hate" march to protest against anti-Asian hate crimes on Foley Square in New York, on April 4, 2021. But to Chu, the incident was an example of the way politics surrounding China, technology and national security have fueled anti-Asian sentiment. “Asian American issues are American issues, and all Americans deserve to be treated with respect.

☆ Notable legal clouds that continue to hang over Donald Trump in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Dan Berman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels and says the probe by Bragg, a Democrat, is politically motivated. According to the lawsuit, the Trump Organization deceived lenders, insurers and tax authorities by inflating the value of his properties using misleading appraisals. A federal judge ruled that Trump and FBI Director Christopher Wray can be deposed for two hours each as part of the lawsuit. “What (Trump’s lawsuit) lacks in substance and legal support it seeks to substitute with length, hyperbole, and the settling of scores and grievances,” US District Judge Donald Middlebrooks wrote. Woodward later released “The Trump Tapes,” an audiobook featuring eight hours of raw interviews with Trump interspersed with the author’s commentary.

☆ IRS Snooping at the Supreme Court
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

So the IRS, searching for his assets, issued summonses demanding financial records from the banks used by his wife and a law firm where he was a longtime client. The agency did not notify Mrs. Polselli or the law firm. The Supreme Court will take up that question Wednesday in Polselli v. IRS. When the IRS seeks records like this from a third party, it generally must “notify persons identified in the summons,” as the Justice Department’s brief explains. “A person entitled to such notice may sue the government to quash the summons.” Yet Congress made exceptions, using classically muddy language.

The Justice Department’s decision to subpoena government witnesses who would normally testify voluntarily to help build the government’s criminal case was highly unusual, according to a half-dozen legal and animal welfare experts. The inspectors wanted APHIS to take a tougher stance against the company for the mistreatment of the beagles. Yet, this did not happen with any of the agency's inspections of Envigo, public records show. TENSIONS RISETensions between Gibbens and Miller escalated shortly after Envigo appealed some of the findings from the October inspection, emails show. Gibbens told Envigo APHIS would strike the citation because the company ultimately provided the requested information.

☆ Merrick Garland Is a Huge Taylor Swift Fan
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Sadie Gurman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON – At a Congressional hearing on Wednesday, senators grilled Attorney General Merrick Garland on the Justice Department’s investigation into Ticketmaster, which botched ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s coming tour and is dominant in the concert industry. “Channeling Taylor Swift, I know that ‘All Too Well,’” Mr. Garland said, name-dropping the title of one of her songs. “I’m pretty familiar with Taylor Swift.”

☆ Justice Department Seeks to Spread the Pain of Corporate Fines to Executives at Fault
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Dylan Tokar | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

The Justice Department is looking to hit lawbreaking corporate executives where it hurts: their paychecks. “Our goal is simple: to shift the burden of corporate wrongdoing away from shareholders, who frequently play no role in misconduct, onto those directly responsible,” Ms. Monaco said. PREVIEWThe use of executive compensation in the fight against corporate crime was first floated by Ms. Monaco in a speech last year. Companies that seek to recoup pay from such employees will be able to deduct it from their own criminal penalties, Ms. Monaco said. Further details about the new policy will be released on Friday, Ms. Monaco said.

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