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Justice Department Declines to Support Blocking Hillary Clinton Deposition

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By National Review. The Justice Department has declined to join former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s effort to block depositions of both herself and a key aide in a case concerning her use of a private email-server system to conduct Obama administration business.

Though the DOJ’s decision will inevitably be reported as political retribution against President Trump’s 2016 election rival, there is actually nothing much here. The Trump State and Justice Departments have defended the former secretary throughout the suit in question. The government’s refusal to support Clinton’s latest gambit to avoid answering questions under oath is consistent with Justice Department policy and will have no bearing on the outcome of the case.

The depositions of Clinton and Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s State Department chief-of-staff and longtime confidant, were ordered by federal judge Royce Lamberth of the District of Columbia. The case is a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit brought by Judicial Watch, the private-watchdog group. It focuses on talking points the Obama administration generated to guide official public statements following the 2012 jihadist attack in Benghazi, Libya, in which U.S. ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed. (Read more from “Justice Department Declines to Support Blocking Hillary Clinton Deposition” HERE)

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U.S. Justice Dept. Opposes Hillary Clinton’s Challenge to Rare Deposition Order

By The National Law Journal. . .Clinton, represented by a team from Williams & Connolly, and former aide Cheryl Mills last month appealed a Washington trial judge’s order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Their case tests the high bar that plaintiffs must hurdle to secure a deposition involving a current or former cabinet secretary. Mills is represented by lawyers from the litigation boutique Wilkinson Walsh.

The U.S. State Department, represented by the Justice Department, said in a recent filing at the D.C. Circuit that the government “does not support the extraordinary relief of mandamus due to the unique circumstances of this case.” The Justice Department historically has resisted efforts by plaintiffs to depose high-ranking officials; the government’s legal team in the Clinton case argued that the dispute over Clinton’s email practices falls outside the realm in which the United States might otherwise have fought efforts to depose her.

“This is the rare situation in which discovery of a former cabinet secretary was not authorized for the impermissible purpose of probing internal government decisionmaking regarding official policy, but rather to focus on the impact on FOIA compliance of a former official’s unusual decision to use a private email server to systematically conduct large volumes of official business,” Mark Freeman, a Justice Department appellate lawyer, wrote in the April 3 filing. (Read more from “U.S. Justice Dept. Opposes Hillary Clinton’s Challenge to Rare Deposition Order” HERE)

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More Than 1,100 Former DOJ Staffers Call on AG Barr to Resign

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More than 1,100 former Department of Justice alumni signed a petition calling on Attorney General William Barr to resign. They take issue with the fact that he instructed the U.S. Attorney’s Office to reverse their recommendation for Roger Stone to serve between seven and nine years in prison. According to the petition, Barr did not uphold the department’s principle of “apply[ing] the law equally to all Americans.”

We, the undersigned, are alumni of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) who have collectively served both Republican and Democratic administrations. Each of us strongly condemns President Trump’s and Attorney General Barr’s interference in the fair administration of justice.

“This obligation flows directly from the Constitution, and it is embedded in countless rules and laws governing the conduct of DOJ lawyers. The Justice Manual — the DOJ’s rulebook for its lawyers — states that ‘the rule of law depends on the evenhanded administration of justice’; that the Department’s legal decisions ‘must be impartial and insulated from political influence’; and that the Department’s prosecutorial powers, in particular, must be ‘exercised free from partisan consideration,'” the petition stated.

“Although there are times when political leadership appropriately weighs in on individual prosecutions, it is unheard of for the Department’s top leaders to overrule line prosecutors, who are following established policies, in order to give preferential treatment to a close associate of the President, as Attorney General Barr did in the Stone case,” the petition said. “It is even more outrageous for the Attorney General to intervene as he did here — after the President publicly condemned the sentencing recommendation that line prosecutors had already filed in court.”

Those who signed the petition feel that President Trump has interfered with department policies and “gravely damaged the Department’s credibility.”

(Read more from “More Than 1,100 Former DOJ Staffers Call on AG Barr to Resign” HERE)

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Justice Department Drops Criminal Investigation Into Andrew McCabe

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In a turn of events that will only shock those unfamiliar with the Washington, D.C. swamp, the Department of Justice announced Friday that it would drop its criminal investigation into ex-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

In a letter sent from J.P. Cooney, head of the DOJ’s Fraud & Public Corruption Section and Molly Gaston, assistant U.S. attorney, the department said that the government has decided to drop the investigation and charges”

We write to inform you that, after careful consideration, the Government has decided not to pursue criminal charges against your client, Andrew G. McCabe, arising from the referral by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to our Office of conduct described in OIG’s April 13, 2018, report entitled, “A Report of Investigation of Certain Allegations Relating to Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.” Based on the totality of the circumstances and all of the information known to the Government at this time, we consider the matter closed. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

McCabe was fired in 2018. One month before, the OIG released the aforementioned report, which found that McCabe “lacked candor, including under oath, on multiple occasions in connection with describing his role in connection with a disclosure to the [Wall Street Journal]”

As The Daily Wire wrote last year, such dishonesty is a violation of FBI policy. The OIG also determined that McCabe violated FBI and DOJ policy by disclosing “the existence of an ongoing investigation in the manner described in this report.” (Read more from “Justice Department Drops Criminal Investigation Into Andrew McCabe” HERE)

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FISA Report Was so Bad That FBI’s Top Lawyer During Russia Probe Felt ‘Distressed’ After Reading It

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Former FBI general counsel James Baker said Monday that he felt “distressed” after reading the Justice Department inspector general’s report laying out “significant” errors and omissions in the bureau’s applications to surveil former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

In an interview on CNN, Baker went further in his critique of the bureau than did FBI Director James Comey, who said Sunday that he believed the FBI was “sloppy” in its efforts to obtain Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against Page.

“Sloppiness is completely unacceptable. That is not the way you operate in front of a federal court. I don’t know what word you want to use, it’s terrible, it’s unacceptable, it shouldn’t happen. That is not the way we should be filing matters in front of a federal court,” Baker told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

“I was distressed about it. I was completely distressed about it,” Baker said of his response to the inspector general’s (IG) findings.

Baker has testified that he personally reviewed the FISA applications against Page, given their political sensitivity. (Read more from “FISA Report Was so Bad That FBI’s Top Lawyer During Russia Probe Felt ‘Distressed’ After Reading It” HERE)

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DOJ Investigating Claims of ‘Sexual Arousal Studies’ on Disabled Patients

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The Department of Justice is investigating whether “sexual arousal studies” were performed on disabled patients in Iowa.

An investigation into the Glenwood Resource Center in Iowa is meant to determine whether intellectually disabled people were part of a sexual research study.

“The DOJ investigation of Glenwood Resource Center related to ‘human subject experiments’ is focused on ‘optimal hydration’ under the ‘Perfect Care Index,’ and ‘sexual arousal studies,” said Matt Highland, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Human Services. (Read more from “DOJ Investigating Claims of ‘Sexual Arousal Studies’ on Disabled Patients” HERE)

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Two Illegal Aliens Charged in Killing of California Sheriff Deputy

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On Thursday, the Department of Justice announced federal indictments against four individuals arrested in connection with the killing of El Dorado County Sheriff Deputy Brian Ishmael. The charges handed down today relate to the illegal cultivation of marijuana and illegal discharge of a firearm, but the new indictments confirm the two suspects previously arrested for the killing of Deputy Ishmael were in the country illegally.

On October 23rd, Deputy Brian Ishmael was killed and another deputy wounded after responding to a call about stolen marijuana crops at a private residence. Deputy Ishmael was shot and killed after immediately coming under fire by an unknown number of people. The injured deputy was taken to a local hospital and released after undergoing surgery.

(Read more from “Two Illegal Aliens Charged in Killing of California Sheriff Deputy” HERE)

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CIA ‘Rattled’ by DOJ Inquiry Into Russia Investigation Origins

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The Justice Department’s review of the origins of the Russia investigation created “unease” at the CIA, according to a reporter who has followed its progress.

Uncertainty over what investigators are seeking and whether the inquiry has become a criminal investigation has prompted some CIA analysts who played a role in the intelligence assessment of Russia’s activities during the 2016 campaign to hire lawyers.

“It’s really not clear where he’s going with this, but a lot of people are very rattled. Those CIA analysts I mentioned had to hire their own lawyers because no one’s even sure whether this is a criminal investigation or not. And if it is a criminal investigation, what is the allegation of wrongdoing? No one I talked to can answer that,” Ken Dilanian said on Monday’s episode of Morning Joe on MSNBC. . .

A similar report was published by the New York Times that notes President Trump granted Barr expansive powers for the inquiry, but Durham lacked subpoena power and could only request documents and interviews when he was tasked with the review earlier this year because a criminal investigation was not opened. The report also states, however, that it is unclear whether the status of the review has changed.

“There’s a lot of unease at the CIA and disquiet about the notion of federal prosecutors going over and rooting in their files,” Dilanian said. “Not because they think they did anything wrong, but because these are sources and methods — some of the most highly classified documents and secrets in our government. And they are kept to a small set of people for a reason. It’s a need-to-know situation. And they’re questioning what is the need for John Durham and his prosecutors to go over and talk to them about that in the absence of any allegation of wrongdoing?”

(Read more from “CIA ‘Rattled’ by DOJ Inquiry Into Russia Investigation Origins” HERE)

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Lawmakers Ask for DOJ Help on Fetal Remains Discovery: ‘This Case Has Countless Victims’

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The following is an excerpt from Blaze Media’s daily Capitol Hill Brief email newsletter:

67 House Republicans called on the Justice Department Tuesday to assist in the investigation of thousands of fetal remains found at a deceased Midwest abortionist’s home.

“We write to you regarding the horrific discovery of more than 2,200 preserved human fetal remains on the Illinois property of the recently deceased abortionist Ulrich ‘George’ Klopfer, who practiced for decades in northern Indiana until 2015,” lawmakers wrote in a letter to Attorney General William Barr. “A careful and thorough investigation of this matter is necessary to ensure justice is done and to prevent such tragic situations from occurring in the future.”

The letter, spearheaded by Indiana Reps. Jackie Walorski and Jim Banks, also asks the Justice Department to look into state laws and practice regarding the disposal of human fetal remains in order to “aid Congress in examining potential legislative remedies to ensure human fetal remains are always treated with dignity.”

“This case has countless victims – both unborn babies and mothers,” the letter concludes, “and represents a grotesque violation of human dignity that American society should not and cannot tolerate.” (For more from the author of “Lawmakers Ask for DOJ Help on Fetal Remains Discovery: ‘This Case Has Countless Victims’” please click HERE)

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Hezbollah Operative Scoped out Times Square, Statue of Liberty for Possible Terrorist Attacks, Prosecutors Say

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The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday that they have charged a New Jersey man over his support of Hezbollah, a militant Islamist group.

The DOJ announced a nine-count indictment against 42-year-old Alex Saab, alleging that Saab had scoped out iconic New York City landmarks, such as the Statue of Liberty and Times Square, for a terrorist attack.

“Saab served as an operative of Hizballah and conducted surveillance of possible target locations in order to help the foreign terrorist organization prepare for potential future attacks against the United States,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers said in a statement. “Such covert activities conducted on U.S. soil are a clear threat to our national security and I applaud the agents, analysts, and prosecutors who are responsible for this investigation and prosecution.”

Saab is a naturalized citizen, but U.S. attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said that his “true allegiance was to Hizballah, the terrorist organization responsible for decades of terrorist attacks that have killed hundreds, including U.S. citizens and military personnel.” (Read more from “Hezbollah Operative Scoped out Times Square, Statue of Liberty for Possible Terrorist Attacks, Prosecutors Say” HERE)

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FISA Report: Comey, McCabe ‘Predicted’ to Face Criminal Charges

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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., promised that guilty parties will be held accountable after Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz releases his report on the FBI’s alleged abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in the Russia investigation, and predicted that former bureau leaders James Comey and Andrew McCabe will face criminal charges after what he described as an attempted “coup” to take down President Trump.

The report will address concerns with whether or not the FBI acted improperly in obtaining a FISA warrant to monitor former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in the early stages of their investigation of Russian election interference and possible Trump campaign connections. The Inspector General’s office has already turned over a draft of its findings to Attorney General Bill Barr, and a final report is expected in the near future.

“We came the closest ever to this country having a coup, and now we need accountability,” McCarthy told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “I respect this attorney general so greatly, that the way he has handled this, he believes in accountability, but more importantly, he believes in the rule of law.” . . .

James Comey and Andrew McCabe, who were the director and deputy director of the FBI when the Russia probe began, have been the subjects of separate IG investigations, and McCarthy believes they will both face consequences.

“We will see an indictment,” he said of McCabe, who is facing the prospect of federal charges after Horowitz faulted him in a separate inquiry over statements he made during a Hillary Clinton-related investigation. The review found that McCabe “lacked candor” when talking with investigators, but the former FBI official has denied wrongdoing. Washington, D.C., U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu recommended charges against McCabe after the DOJ rejected his appeal. (Read more from “FISA Report: Comey, McCabe ‘Predicted’ to Face Criminal Charges” HERE)

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