President-elect Donald Trump's pick of Rep. Matt Gaetz as his future attorney general has sent shockwaves through the Justice Department.

The Justice Department is suing to block UnitedHealth Group's $3.3 billion purchase of Amedisys, citing concerns the combination would hinder access to home health and hospice services in the U.S.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division speaks during a news conference Friday announcing a lawsuit against the state of Georgia for its new voting law. Attorney General Merrick Garland is at right.; Credit: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday that the U.S. Justice Department is suing the state of Georgia over its new voting law, saying that the controversial measure is intended to restrict ballot access to Black voters.

"Our complaint alleges that recent changes to Georgia's election laws were enacted with the purpose of denying or abridging the right of Black Georgians to vote on account of their race or color, in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act," Garland said at a news conference.

The lawsuit marks the first major action from the Biden administration to combat a series of new restrictive voting measures passed by Republican-led state legislatures. And it came on the eighth anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to gut another key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act, Section 5.

Garland noted that Georgia experienced record voter turnout and participation in the 2020 election cycle.

In March, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, signed Senate Bill 202, a 98-page omnibus measure that makes sweeping changes to the state's absentee voting rules, adds new voter identification mandates and nearly cuts in half the amount of time for voters to request a mail-in ballot. It also expands early voting access for most counties and formally codifies Sunday voting hours as optional.

The legislation outlaws passing out food or drinks to voters within 150 feet of a polling place or too close to voters waiting in line, a provision that Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who heads the department's Civil Rights Division, highlighted at the press conference.

"Historically, minority voters in Georgia have been disproportionately more likely to wait in long lines to vote in person on Election Day," she said. "Given those long and protracted wait times, civic groups, including churches, have at times provided food and water to voters in line to make their wait more comfortable. As we allege in our complaint, this needless ban was passed with unlawful discriminatory intent."

Clarke also said the Georgia Legislature passed the bill through "a rushed process that departed from normal practice and procedure."

"The version of the bill that passed the state Senate ... was three pages long. Days later, the bill ballooned into over 90 pages in the House. The House held less than two hours of floor debate on the newly inflated SB 202 before Gov. Kemp signed it into law the same day," she said. "These legislative actions occurred at a time when the Black population in Georgia continues to steadily increase, and after a historic election that saw record voter turnout across the state, particularly for absentee voting, which Black voters are now more likely to use than white voters."

Garland said the lawsuit is the first of "many steps" the department is taking to protect the right to vote for all eligible voters. He said the Civil Rights Division will continue to examine voting laws that other states have passed.

"We will not hesitate to act," Garland said.

The Justice Department announced this month it would vigorously defend voting rights. Garland said that the department will double the number of voter enfranchisement lawyers and focus attention on litigation related to voting rights.

In response to the filing, Kemp said the lawsuit is "born out of the lies and misinformation the Biden administration has pushed against Georgia's Election Integrity Act from the start."

"[Biden and his allies] are weaponizing the U.S. Department of Justice to carry out their far-left agenda that undermines election integrity and empowers federal government overreach in our democracy," he said in a statement.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, another Republican who notably defended the state's administration of the 2020 election, said in a statement he "looks forward to ... beating [the administration] in court."

Garland's announcement comes just days after Senate Republicans united to block Democrats' attempts to pass sweeping voting rights legislation.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., tweeted his approval of the lawsuit shortly after the announcement Friday.

"If Republicans think the fight for voting rights ended with their filibuster of the For the People Act, they are sorely mistaken," he wrote. "Glad to see the Biden Administration is joining this effort. We must protect our democracy."

The Republican National Committee also linked the failed Senate vote to the Department of Justice's lawsuit.

"After failing to sell the partisan federal election takeover known as H.R. 1 to the American people, Joe Biden is now weaponizing the Justice Department to attack election integrity," RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said in a statement.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Attorney General Merrick Garland ordered a pause on federal executions Thursday while the Justice Department reviews policies and procedures on capital punishment.; Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Attorney General Merrick Garland has imposed a moratorium on scheduling federal executions, the Department of Justice announced on Thursday. The department will review its policies and procedures on capital punishment, following a wave of federal executions carried out under the Trump administration.

In a memo to the Justice Department, Garland justified his decision to halt the deeply controversial practice, citing factors including its capricious application and outsized impact on people of color.

"The Department of Justice must ensure that everyone in the federal criminal justice system is not only afforded the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States, but is also treated fairly and humanely. That obligation has special force in capital cases," Garland said in the memo.

"Serious concerns have been raised about the continued use of the death penalty across the country, including arbitrariness in its application, disparate impact on people of color, and the troubling number of exonerations in capital and other serious cases," he added. "Those weighty concerns deserve careful study and evaluation by lawmakers."

Under former President Donald Trump, the federal government carried out its first executions in a generation last year, with 13 inmates put to death in Trump's final year in office. That included an unprecedented number of federal killings carried out in the last days of his single-term presidency, bucking a nearly century-and-a-half practice of pausing capital punishments during the presidential exchange of power.

Then-Attorney General William Barr said the executions were being carried out in cases of "staggeringly brutal murders." Civil rights activists had rallied to spare the lives of those on death row. Concerns of how humanely the sentences could be carried out, as well as the recent exonerations of a number of death row inmates, were major factors in the demonstrations to cease state-sanctioned killings.

"The Department must take care to scrupulously maintain our commitment to fairness and humane treatment in the administration of existing federal laws governing capital sentences," Garland said in his memo on Thursday.

President Biden, who nominated Garland to the top law enforcement post, opposes capital punishment. During his campaign, Biden pledged to pass legislation to end the federal death penalty.

Some congressional Democrats have been working on such legislation, but no action has been taken. Some progressives and activists opposed to capital punishment had been expressing frustration that they have not seen more movement on the issue from Biden.

"A moratorium on federal executions is one step in the right direction, but it is not enough," said Ruth Friedman, director of the Federal Capital Habeas Project. "We know the federal death penalty system is marred by racial bias, arbitrariness, over-reaching, and grievous mistakes by defense lawyers and prosecutors that make it broken beyond repair."

Friedman said Biden should commute all federal death sentences, warning that a pause alone "will just leave these intractable issues unremedied and pave the way for another unconscionable bloodbath like we saw last year."

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

One of the nation’s largest surveys of crime victims is likely undercounting incidences of rape and sexual assault, making it difficult to ensure that adequate law enforcement resources and support services are available for victims, says a new report by the National Research Council.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In response to the Department of Justice adopting rules regarding obtaining information or records from members of the news media, the following statement can be attributed to NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt:

UnitedHealth is seeking to add Amedisys to Optum, its subsidiary that provides care as well as pharmacy and technology services.

CNN says the Trump administration Justice Department secretly obtained the 2017 phone records of a CNN correspondent

The post CNN: Trump Justice Department seized reporter phone records first appeared on Federal News Network.

Justice Department Hosts Election Threats Task Force Meeting

In a sweeping lawsuit, the Dept. of Justice on Friday accused TikTok of illegally collecting information on minors without their parents' permission.

The incoming Trump administration has expressed a desire for a big overhaul at the Department of Justice and the FBI.

The U.S. Department of Justice has received reports that fraudsters are creating websites mimicking unemployment benefit websites, including state workforce agency (SWA) websites, and Facebook pages to unlawfully capture consumers’ personal information.   To lure consumers to these fake websites, fraudsters send spam text messages and emails purporting to be from an SWA and containing […]

A new Government Accountability Office report says that the Justice Department kept FBI employees in the dark for seven years after Congress updated whistleblower protections for bureau personnel in 2016.

The DML News App offers the best in news reporting.

The post VIDEO: Lindsey Graham puts Obama on notice after Justice Department swipe appeared first on Dennis Michael Lynch.

One of the nation’s largest surveys of crime victims is likely undercounting incidences of rape and sexual assault, making it difficult to ensure that adequate law enforcement resources and support services are available for victims, says a new report by the National Research Council.

Attorney General William Barris pictured at a coronavirus task force meeting at the White House on March 23. The Justice Department is looking to crack down on coronavirus-related fraud.; Credit: Alex Brandon/AP

The coronavirus pandemic has brought out the good side of many Americans, but certainly not all Americans. Officials say that fraud related to COVID-19 — like hoarding equipment, price gouging and hawking fake treatments — are spreading as the country wrestles with the outbreak.

"It's a perfect ecosystem for somebody like a fraudster to operate in," said Craig Carpenito, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey and the head of the Justice Department's COVID-19 price gouging and hoarding task force.

"People want to believe that there's a magic pill that they can take or that if they buy a certain kind of mask or a certain kind of protective gear that it's going to protect them and their families," he said. "That creates opportunities for the types of people that prey upon scared people. They prey upon their fear."

A month ago, Attorney General William Barr instructed federal prosecutors around the country to aggressively investigate and prosecute scams and other crimes related to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also created the price gouging and hoarding task force and put Carpenito in charge of it.

From that perch, Carpenito has one of the best views of virus-related crime nationwide.

"Instead of seeing that tremendous support from all aspects of society, we're still seeing that sliver, that that dark underbelly, that small percentage of folks who instead of putting the interests of the country and support for those medical professionals that are putting themselves at risk in the forefront, they're finding ways to try and take advantage of this situation and illegally profiteer from it," he said. "And it's despicable."

The most prevalent kind of fraud that federal authorities are seeing at this point, he and others say, is tied to personal protective equipment like N95 masks, gloves or face shields.

In one notable case, prosecutors brought charges against a Georgia man, Christopher Parris, for allegedly trying to sell $750 million worth of masks and other protective equipment to the Department of Veterans Affairs but with a sizable advance payment.

The problem, prosecutors say, is the masks and other items didn't exist, at least not in the quantities Parris was offering.

Steven Merrill, the head of the FBI's financial crimes section, says the bureau refers to these sorts of operations as advance-fee schemes.

"We're getting many complaints that different entities are entering into these agreements, paying money upfront, sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars, and may or may not get any masks or other PPE ordered at all," Merrill said. "So our guidance to the public is to please be wary of these frauds and solicitations."

Other problems, such as hoarding and price gouging, can arise even when the medical gear does exist.

The FBI is trying to identify individuals who are stockpiling protective equipment and trying to sell it at exorbitant markups, sometimes 40 to 70 times the value, Merrill said.

A few weeks ago, the FBI seized nearly 1 million respirator masks, gloves and other medical gear from a Brooklyn man who was allegedly stockpiling them and selling them to nurses and doctors at what officials say was around a 700% markup.

The man, Baruch Feldheim, has been charged with lying to the FBI about price gouging. He's also been charged with allegedly assaulting a federal officer after he coughed on agents and claimed he had COVID-19.

The confiscated items, meanwhile, have been distributed to medical workers in the New York area.

Carpenito said the Justice Department has more than 100 investigations open into price gouging. It has hundreds more, he said, into other crimes tied to the pandemic, including fake treatments and cures.

In one case out of California, prosecutors charged a man who was allegedly soliciting large investments for what he claimed was a cure for COVID-19.

"He was doing so by broadcasting this scheme via, notably, YouTube, where had thousands of hits and views," Merrill said.

In a separate case out of Florida last week, the Justice Department got a court order to stop a Florida church from selling on its website an industrial bleach that was being marketed as a miracle treatment for the virus.

To be clear, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there is no cure at this point for the virus.

More than a month into this crisis, there's no sense COVID-related crime is going to slow down.

In fact, Carpenito and Merrill say that with the massive $2 trillion economic relief package beginning to be doled out, they expect to see even more fraud in the weeks and months ahead.

"What we're worried about is that not only do we have these existing conditions, but we are awaiting — like everybody in the country — the arrival of $2 trillion to hit the streets," Merrill said. "And anytime there's that much money out there, you can just multiply the amount of frauds that are going to take place. So we're preparing for many more complaints to come in and new schemes to arrive on a daily basis."

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

At the start of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, the Department of Justice today announced that on April 20, the Madoff Victim Fund (MVF) began its fifth distribution of approximately $378.5 million in funds forfeited to the U.S. Government in connection with the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) fraud scheme, bringing the total distributed to over $2.7 billion to nearly 38,000 victims worldwide.

The Department of Justice announced today that it has reached a settlement agreement with the Warren County, North Carolina, Board of Education (Warren County) that resolves a federal lawsuit brought under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) on behalf of Dwayne Coffer, a Command Sergeant Major (CSM) in the Army Reserve. In its complaint, the United States alleged that Warren County violated USERRA by eliminating Sergeant Major Coffer’s employment position while he was on active duty with the military and failed to re-employ him in a comparable position when he returned.

The Department of Justice announced that it filed a complaint yesterday in federal court in the Northern District of Mississippi against Coahoma County, Mississippi (Coahoma County), to protect the employment rights of an Army Reservist, Staff Sergeant First Class (SSG) Jason Sims Sr.  

The Department of Justice filed a complaint today in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado on behalf of Naval Petty Officer Third Class Lindsey Hunger against Walmart Inc. The complaint alleges that Walmart violated the law when it declined to hire Hunger due to her upcoming naval reserve duties.

As we mark Veterans Day 2019, the Justice Department announced two settlement agreements under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to protect and advance equal access for veterans with disabilities who use service dogs. One agreement is with Deerfield Inn & Suites, in Gadsden, Alabama. The second agreement is with the Landmark Hotel Group in Virginia Beach, Virginia, which manages the Holiday Inn Express in Hampton, Virginia. These matters were investigated and resolved in furtherance of the Department’s commitment to ensuring that our veterans enjoy equal access to public accommodations, such as restaurants, hotels, and shops.

On Dec. 17, 2019, the Department of Justice filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on behalf of Captain and Judge Advocate Derrick Strong against the City of Chicago Fire Department (CFD), alleging that the City violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) when it failed to provide Strong with an opportunity, after his return from active duty military service, to take a promotional examination that he missed while deployed.

The Department of Justice announced today the resolution of a lawsuit in which Naval Petty Officer Third Class Lindsey Hunger alleged that Walmart violated her rights when it failed to offer her employment at the Walmart store located at 2545 Rimrock Avenue in Grand Junction, Colorado because of her upcoming Naval Reserve commitments. Ms. Hunger had alleged that Walmart’s actions violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA). The Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and United States Attorney’s Office represented Petty Officer Hunger in the lawsuit.

The Justice Department announced today that it has reached a settlement with the Richmond County (GA) Sheriff’s Office (RCSO) that resolves allegations that the RCSO violated the employment rights of Private First Class (PFC) Auben Kendall under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA).

The Justice Department announced today that Juan Carlos Pagán Bonilla (Pagan), 21, and Sean Díaz de León (Diaz), 19, have been charged by a criminal complaint in federal district court with carjacking and with using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence in connection with the death of two transgender individuals. Pagan and Diaz are now in federal custody.

The Justice Department announced today that it has entered an agreement with the State of Arkansas to resolve claims that the state did not provide certain opportunities to update voter registration records as required by Section 5 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).

The Department of Justice announced today that it has reached a settlement with Randstad North America Inc. (Randstad), a global staffing agency with offices throughout the United States and a headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. The settlement resolves the department’s claims that the staffing company’s South Plainfield, New Jersey location, violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by discriminating against lawful permanent residents when verifying their work authorization.

The Department of Justice today filed a Statement of Interest in a Georgia federal court to help ensure that uniformed service members serving their country away from home, their family members absent with them, and American citizens living overseas have the opportunity to participate fully in Georgia’s 2020 federal elections. The Statement of Interest is part of the Department of Justice’s continued efforts to enforce the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA).

The Department of Justice this week concluded an arbitration that will resolve a civil antitrust lawsuit challenging Novelis Inc.’s proposed acquisition of Aleris Corporation. The lawsuit seeks to preserve competition in the North American market for rolled aluminum sheet for automotive applications, commonly referred to as aluminum auto body sheet. This marks the first time the Antitrust Division has used its authority under the Administrative Dispute Resolution Act of 1996 (5 U.S.C. § 571 et seq.) to resolve a matter.

The Department of Justice prevailed in a first-of-a-kind arbitration, which will resolve a civil antitrust lawsuit challenging Novelis’s proposed merger with Aleris Corporation.  As a result, Novelis must divest Aleris’s entire aluminum auto body sheet operations in North America, which will fully preserve competition in this important industry.  In addition, under the terms of the arbitration agreement between defendants and the Department, Novelis must reimburse the Department for its fees and costs incurred in connection with the arbitration.

The Department of Justice Antitrust Division announced today that it has adopted a series of temporary changes to its civil merger investigation processes, which will remain in place during the pendency of the coronavirus (COVID-19) event. These changes will ensure that the Antitrust Division will be able to continue operations as its employees carry out their duties to protect American consumers under a mass telework directive, in accordance with health guidance from the CDC, WHO, and other health authorities.

The U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division and The Federal Trade Commission today issued a joint statement detailing an expedited antitrust procedure and providing guidance for collaborations of businesses working to protect the health and safety of Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Department of Justice announced today that it is requiring United Technologies Corporation (UTC) and Raytheon Company (Raytheon) to divest Raytheon’s military airborne radios business and UTC’s military global positioning systems (“GPS”) and large space-based optical systems businesses in order to proceed with their proposed merger.  Without these divestitures, the merger would eliminate competition between two of the primary suppliers of military airborne radios and military GPS systems to the Department of Defense (DoD), and enable the merged firm to lessen competition for multiple components used in reconnaissance satellites sold to DoD and the wider U.S. intelligence community.  

The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Bureau of Competition jointly released a statement today affirming the importance of competition for American workers.  The agencies also announced that they will protect competition for workers on the frontlines of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) response in the United States by enforcing the antitrust laws against those who seek to exploit the pandemic to engage in anticompetitive conduct in labor markets.

The Department of Justice announced today that it will not challenge a proposal by the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) to operate an online platform for advertisers to solicit bids from companies that provide production services for commercial advertisements. The Department’s position was stated in a business review letter from Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim for the Antitrust Division to counsel for the AICP.

The Department of Justice announced today that it will not challenge collaborative efforts of AmerisourceBergen Corporation (AmerisourceBergen) to identify global supply opportunities, ensure product quality, and facilitate product distribution of medications and other healthcare supplies to treat COVID-19 patients.

The Department of Justice announced today the conclusion of its investigation into proposed acquisitions by Dairy Farmers of America Inc. (DFA) and Prairie Farms Dairy Inc. (Prairie Farms) of fluid milk processing plants from Dean Foods Company (Dean) out of bankruptcy.  The department’s investigation was conducted against the backdrop of unprecedented challenges in the dairy industry, with the two largest fluid milk processors in the U.S., Dean and Borden Dairy Company, in bankruptcy, and Dean faced with imminent liquidation.

President Trump excoriated the administration of President Barack Obama as “human scum” who attempted to undermine him by “targeting” former national security adviser Michael Flynn. 

Why is the government seeking to drop charges against Michael Flynn even though he pleaded guilty — in two admissions in court — to committing the crime at issue? The short answers: The Justice Department is giving him a break. And Flynn has played his cards well. The long answer: It's a long story. The deal Flynn admitted to lying to the FBI about conversations he had had with Russia's then-ambassador to the United States as he and the rest of President-elect Donald Trump's camp waited in the wings early in 2017. That case appeared clear. But the former Army lieutenant general also had been involved with other enterprises that might have resulted in more charges — including undisclosed foreign lobbying — and his deal with prosecutors swept that off the table. It also apparently avoided prospective charges for Flynn's son. Flynn and his attorneys considered the deal to be the least bad way out of the jam. "My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the special counsel's office

Michael Flynn is a free man. But he's still a liar.

The post Justice Department drops charges against Michael Flynn appeared first on Arkansas Times.

Talks between the union and justice department officials produce new "zero tolerance" rules on the behaviour of offenders and more powers for staff in violent situations, after alleged attacks on workers sent the centre into lockdown.

The Justice Department on Thursday said it is dropping the criminal case against President Donald Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, abandoning a prosecution that became a rallying cry for the president and his supporters in attacking the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation.