Department of Justice

Parsing the Inspector General’s report.

Senator Ron Johnson continues his effort to claw documents out of the grip of a reluctant FBI and Department of Justice. As chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, he has been fighting to acquire materials involving the FBI and DoJ investigations both into…

The Justice Department has won a small but significant victory in the campus free-speech case of Young America’s Foundation and Berkeley College Republicans v. Napolitano. Justice didn’t have to get involved in the case, but it did so and has helped the cause of free speech. Justice’s work in the…

Constitutional concerns were at the center of some conservatives' opposition.

A rare left-right agreement in Washington: disliking the attorney general.

I confess to a weakness for the attorney general, Jeff Sessions. I say this despite the fact that I disagree with him on various issues​—​civil-asset forfeiture, for example, and the opioid crisis. But as is often the case in politics, certain whimsical reasons recommend him. To my mind, his very…

The Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, led by Californian Adam Schiff, have taken on an awkward, crosswise task with their memo rebutting the majority’s memo, which alleged FBI abuse of the FISA court process. The task is crosswise because it requires the minority to do two…

Two of the top Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are calling on former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice to explain an “unusual email” she sent on the day of President Trump’s inauguration.

A major theme of the Trump administration lies in its effort to discipline the regulatory state, with the Justice Department playing a key role. In November Attorney General Jeff

Robert Mueller was supposed to be fired by now. That was, at the end of 2017, the fervent hope of both Democrats eager for a Saturday Night Massacre rerun and of some burn-it-all-down fans of the president. They saw the document demands by GOP lawmakers and their challenges to the impartiality of…

“No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”

In many quarters of the American news media today, seasoned journalists seem incapable of pondering those parts of reality that don’t complement their political worldviews. It goes beyond “bias”—we’re all biased. This is negligence.

In many quarters of the American news media today, seasoned journalists seem incapable of pondering those parts of reality that don’t complement their political worldviews. It goes beyond “bias”—we’re all biased. This is negligence.

There’s not much more to add to what Anthony Scaramucci told the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza on Wednesday night. Shortly before publicly making a false accusation against Reince Priebus, the brand new White House communications director laid into Priebus, White House aide Steve Bannon, and many other…

Washington greeted the news that the Justice Department had named Robert Mueller special counsel to oversee the FBI's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election with a collective sigh of relief. The speed and intensity of events and developments about this interference—and the…

Washington greeted the news that the Justice Department had named Robert Mueller special counsel to oversee the FBI's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election with a collective sigh of relief. The speed and intensity of events and developments about this interference—and the…

The Trump administration is set to undo federal guidance issued by their predecessors last year that threatened public schools with the loss of federal funding if they didn't allow transgender students to use the school facilities matching their gender identity, according to a report.

Democratic antagonism toward attorney general nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions continued Wednesday ahead of a confirmation vote, with former presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders following Elizabeth Warren's lead from the night before.

President Donald Trump has relieved Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, who instructed DOJ employees not to defend his executive order on halting entry by immigrants to the United States from certain countries.

Over the course of the last year or so, many Trump supporters have pointed to the string of unlikely victories that propelled him to the White House and argued that he was playing three-dimensional chess. I think the temptation to consider Trump a tactical genius should be avoided. For every…

A lawyer for the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights said it best. At last week's National Sexual Assault Conference, OCR's Rachel Gettler called inconsistent sexual violence data collection by government agencies "a never-ending issue." She added with a chuckle, "We'll see if the…

The FBI's Labor Day weekend document dump regarding its investigation of Hillary Clinton gives those who thought the result was predetermined much to complain about. The FBI's notes confirm that her former chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, was among the several lawyers representing Clinton in her FBI…

Many Obamacare supporters have been taking solace in their belief that Aetna's recent decision to pull out of all but four government-run exchanges was a result not of Obamacare's slow-motion death spiral but of Aetna's playing politics with the Department of Justice, which has blocked the…

FBI Director James Comey's choice to recommend against the federal prosecution of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton has spurred no shortage of commentary, to say the least—including THE WEEKLY STANDARD's editorial this week, "Hillary Skates."

My phone buzzed with a "news alert" from the New York Times Friday morning. Normally, these alerts are reserved for truly breaking, earth-shattering news, like the rise of "man buns" in Brooklyn.

A largely unnoticed story about Carly Fiorina is that she is the daughter of a man who was one of the finest lawyers of his generation. His influence on her, she says, is “huge.” Asked in an interview whether he would be surprised by her bid for the Oval Office, Fiorina said he “probably would be,”…

Eric Holder, the attorney general and one of President Obama's longest serving cabinet members, will resign. NPR reports:

Each year the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requires all federal agencies and departments to file reports detailing FOIA requests submitted by the public. Each report contains statistics on requests submitted, processed, granted (full or partial), and denied, in addition to current backlogged…

In November, the Obama Justice Department dropped a lawsuit aimed at stopping a school voucher program in Louisiana. The Louisiana Scholarship Program is intended to give students in failing public schools a chance to attend better schools, including private ones. Justice tried to block the program…

An organization representing Louisiana parents shouldn't be allowed to intervene in a federal lawsuit against the state's school voucher program, the Department of Justice said in a response to a motion requesting legal intervention. The Louisiana chapter of the Black Alliance for Educational…

The Chicago Tribune editorializes:

As much as it's a distraction from some inartful comments Mitt Romney made about taxes, perhaps the media might spend sometime explaining why a Justice Department official just resigned over over a report on the Fast and Furious scandal that led to the death of a border patrol agent:

Texas senator John Cornyn is targeting classified leaks being released by the Obama administration. "The leaks appear to have formed the basis of two New York Times reports about the White House’s role in classified national security efforts, one detailing the use of cyber warfare against Iran, and…

Before 1987, Supreme Court nominations were relatively peaceful affairs. Yes, there occasionally were bursts of controversy—the appointment of progressive activist Louis Brandeis in 1916, the promotion of conservative Justice William Rehnquist in 1986—but controversy was the exception, not the…

Fox News: "Muslims say crosses at Catholic University Violate 'Human Rights'"

Over at Forbes, Frank Miniter argues that "'Fast And Furious' Just Might Be President Obama's Watergate":

Hot Air: "Report: At least 200 murders in Mexico now linked to Fast & Furious weapons"

The acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is stepping down from his role, according to a story at Politico. The ATF and the Justice Department have been plagued by a recent scandal surrounding the controversial "Fast and Furious" operation, which involved…

Keith Hennessey: "President Obama says no to a bipartisan debt limit plan"

When the White House announced last week that it would not comply with the requirements of the War Powers Resolution because the Libya operation does not involve "hostilities," eyebrows arched in curiosity. Many observers questioned the administration's conclusion that America's involvement in the…

How our Marines are "destroying the Taliban"

President Obama has now decided that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, is unconstitutional. Thus, the Obama administration says that it will no longer defend that federal law in court. On the campaign trail, President Obama repeatedly…

The Wall Street Journal reports that the president "will nominate White House lawyer Donald Verrilli as solicitor general, filling a vacancy left by Elena Kagan when she became a Supreme Court justice last year, the White House said Monday." By picking Verrilli, the White House is passing over Neal…

The Obama administration fancies itself as the ‘most transparent’ presidential administration ever. Yet, when it comes to Guantanamo Bay detainees, the White House has consistently been less than forthcoming. Today, Eli Lake picks up a letter that Republican members of the Senate Intelligence…

James Cole, recess appointed this week by President Obama to serve as deputy attorney general, famously wrote an op-ed on September 9, 2002, criticizing then-Attorney General John Ashcroft. Cole argued:

From a Washington Times editorial: 

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has chronicled the Department of Justice’s voting rights scandal with the New Black Panther Party from the very beginning. (See Jennifer Rubin’s pieces here, here, here, and here.) Finally, it seems, the mainstream press is catching on, as the Washington Post ran a front-page…

It is about to get harder for both the Obama administration and the mainstream media to downplay the New Black Panther party scandal. 

Jennifer Rubin follows up on her May cover story for THE WEEKLY STANDARD (titled, "Gen. 'Stonewall' Holder") with this email: