An attorney for a homosexual couple now plans to use comments made by President Obama on the Defense of Marriage Act last week in federal court this August to argue for the federal government’s recognition of gay marriage, The San Francisco Chronicle reported yesterday.

The Justice Department invoked DOMA earlier this month in a motion to dismiss the marriage case filed in federal court. The DOJ said the case should be handled by a state court because it involves a gay couple married in California. The federal 1996 Defense of Marriage Act leaves the decision of recognizing gay marriage up to the states.

The DOJ’s motion made many gay rights groups livid. The DOJ Civil Division will meet with some of these organizations today, Politico reported yesterday.

But now The Chronicle said attorney Richard Gilbert plans to argue that gay marriage is a federal issue because of comments President Obama made on DOMA last Wednesday when he announced that homosexual partners of federal employees would receive some government benefits. “It’s discriminatory, it interferes with states’ rights, and it’s time we overturned it,” Obama said.

“It appears to me that the president of the United States is making it clear that the attorneys for the United States do not represent the views of the administration,” Gilbert told the Chronicle. “I think they have a duty to withdraw their motion. I think they have a duty to join my side of the case.”

Dawn Johnsen, Obama’s pick to lead the Office of Legal Counsel, has been seen around Washington the last few days, Talking Points Memo reported yesterday.

We previously reported that she has been waiting for a vote on her appointment for more than 90 days as Democrats have worked to coax reluctant Republicans into considering her nomination on the Senate floor. TPM said she might be “confident that she’s poised for a breakthrough.” After all, she is reportedly  living in Washington now, according to TPM.

Dawn Johnsen (Indiana University)

But a commenter on the post said she was in town for the American Constitution Society National Convention last weekend. Johnsen sits on the ACS national board and is a co-chair of the ACS issue group on separation of powers and federalism.

Read the TPM post here.

Paul Fishman, President Barack Obama’s nominee to serve as the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, declined to name more than half of his private clients in his government ethics forms, citing privacy concerns. The Washington Times has the story. The exemption is permitted under federal ethics laws, ”but that leaves prosecutors on an honor system to police their own conflicts,” the Times notes.

Mr. Fishman provided the names of 29 clients on the government disclosure form, including a convicted former New Jersey municipal official, a health care company and the former girlfriend of New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine. But he withheld the names of “approximately 37 confidential clients,["] saying they cannot be named because they are involved in grand jury or other secret investigations.

Fishman declined to comment. White House spokesman Ben LaBolt told the Times that Fishman would police himself, if confirmed.

“Upon confirmation, as is standard practice for U.S. attorneys who previously worked in the private sector, Mr. Fishman will implement a screening mechanism that removes himself from matters that may be pending in the U.S. Attorney’s Office involving his former clients, including confidential clients,” Mr. LaBolt said

We certainly hope so. Fishman’s public client list is chockablock with high-profile and politically sensitive cases prosecuted by the New Jersey’s office.

Both of New Jersey’s U.S. senators have endorsed Fishman’s nomination. He would replace Christopher Christie, a Bush appointee who is running for governor. (On Thursday, Christie is scheduled to testify on before a House panel about a court monitoring contract worth up to $52 million that his office awarded former Attorney General John Ashcroft.)

Federal Judge Emmett Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is once again on a tear against federal prosecutors, this time for not disclosing favorable information to defense lawyers.

On Monday, federal prosecutors moved to dismiss charges against foreign national Zhenli Ye Gon, who was accused of importing large amounts of methamphetamines into the United States.  Ye Gon was arrested after the largest drug-related seizure of cash in history when authorities took $205 million in drug profits from his Mexico City mansion.

Since the 2007 arrest in Maryland, one witness has refused to testify, while the other has recanted.  While citing “evidentiary concerns,” Paul Laymon claims the “overwhelming reason” for dropping the charges was to allow the prosecution to be carried out in Mexico.

But Sullivan isn’t convinced, and wants a declaration from the Justice Department indicating when the government learned that one of the witnesses would no longer testify and that another witness had recanted.  Sullivan believes that the prosecutors knew for “months” but only disclosed the information to the defense very recently.

Sullivan has ordered follow-up status conference next week.

Also, you can read about Sullivan’s grilling of Obama DOJ lawyers defending Dick Cheney here.

The Justice Department issued a statement today shooting down a New York Times report that the U.S. is considering dropping its  tax enforcement case against Swiss bank UBS AG.

“There is no basis for the report in the New York Times,” DOJ spokesman Charles Miller said in the statement. “While the Department is always willing to consider  settlement in any case, the suggestion that the Department is planning to drop this suit is simply untrue. The Department is continuing with the case against UBS and will file its brief asking the court to enforce the summons on June 30.”

The U.S. wants the Swiss bank to cough up the names of 52,000 Americans who may have used UBS to evade taxes by putting money in overseas accounts. Naturally, this effort has caused a huge diplomatic row. The U.S. is taking direct aim at Swiss banking secrecy laws – and if your Swiss bank account isn’t secret, Switzerland ain’t much use as a tax haven, is it?

So you see the problem here.

The Times reported that the move to drop the case could be made by mid-July, which would fall right after the June 30 I.R.S. deadline requiring clients of offshore banks to file certain disclosures, known as F-bars.  The U.S. official told the Times:

“If you look at the repatriations and F-bar filings and voluntary disclosures, and if these are big numbers, then it would make sense to settle this case.�

Many wealthy UBS account holders have already come forward recently to declare their accounts out of fear that they would be outed anyways.  According to the official, the rationale in dropping the case is that:

“To have a complete meltdown in Swiss-U.S. relations and go to the mat with Switzerland three years from now when money is getting back into the system doesn’t make sense,�

The Times also reports that a new treaty was established between the United States and Switzerland to fight tax evasion by increasing information sharing.  The DOJ has also filed legal papers in Swiss courts as an alternate avenue to getting names of Americans hiding money in UBS accounts.  The Swiss government is considering a compromise where the charges in the United States are dropped while the Swiss government complies with the Swiss-based filings.

A trial is scheduled before Federal Judge Alan S. Gold of the United States District Court in Miami on July 13.

You can read our previous reports on the UBS case here, here, here, here, here, and here.

The Department of Justice has issued a technical assistance memorandum aimed at the Yonkers’ police department’s policies and procedures, reports the Associated Press.

The memorandum comes as the result of a year-long review of the police department in an ongoing civil rights investigation.  According to the AP, the police department has “a touchy relationship with residents, confusing policies on the use of force and an outdated and disorganized procedures manual, the Justice Department says.”

Among the recommendations was the idea that officers were name plates instead of badge numbers, revisions of the policies governing the use of dogs, and that complaint materials be made available in Spanish.

Read the full story here.

The Obama administration has been methodically deploying cabinet officials to score political points for quite a while now.  This strategic deployment has been especially common for top DOJ officials, as we have reported in the past.  Among other things, there was Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli touting a tribal justice initiative in Niagara Falls and Perrelli traveling to Detroit to support the auto industry and announce a $10 million grant for more Detroit police officers.  Most recently, Deputy Attorney General David Ogden was sent to take part in the “dog and pony show” that was the Indian artifacts raid.

President Obama laughs as Eric Holder jokes about their rivalry on the basketball court at Holder's installation ceremony in March at George Washington University. (Getty Images)

Attorney General Eric Holder has been especially visible in supporting President Obama.  Whether it be traveling with him to publicize stimulus grants, pledging to follow-through on the President’s pledges to the Muslim community, or sitting back and letting Obama call the shots, one thing is clear: Holder’s got the President’s back.

And now, Holder’s back on the road pushing Obama’s latest issue: community service, telling Philadelphians yesterday to get in the helping spirit.  Holder was promoting the President’s new program aimed at increasing volunteerism across the nation United We Serve.  Other high profile names were out promoting the initiative as well, including First Lady Michelle Obama, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.

You can watch Michelle Obama’s introduction of the program below:

The National Prison Rape Elimination Commission will be releasing a study today that proposes new standards to reduce prison rapes.  Estimates from the Bureau of Justice Statistics indicate that 60,500 prisoners, on the federal and state level, were sexually assaulted in 2007.

The Congressional commission’s recommendations will be sent to Attorney General Eric Holder, who has one year to create national standards.  While Holder’s recommendations are not binding on state corrections officers, states that don’t comply risk losing 5% of their criminal justice funding.

Read the New York Times story here, read the Washington Post story here.

You can read today’s Washington Post’s editorial on the issue here.

Lawrence Franklin (purplepinupguru.blogspot.com)

According to the Justice Department, Pentagon analyst and cooperating witness Lawrence Franklin was approached by two people who asked him to fake his own death so that he wouldn’t have to testify against two pro-Israel lobbyists charged as a result of an investigation into the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, reports Josh Gerstein at POLITICO.  Franklin had previously pled guilty in October of 2005 for his involvement in a conspiracy with AIPAC officials Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman to obtain and distribute classified information.

Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman (truthdig.com)

While the Department dropped the case against Rosen and Weissman last month, prosecutors still filed a motion to have Franklin’s initial 12 year sentence reduced.  The prosecutors stated in a brief that:

Just prior to the entry of his guilty plea, Franklin was approached by two individuals who made a pitch to Franklin about faking his death by suicide and disappearing, thus thwarting any cooperation in the case against Rosen and Weissman.

Franklin’s lawyers cited the report as more reason to reduce Franklin’s sentence.  The brief indicated that Franklin “conducted five consensually recorded telephone conversations” with one of the AIPAC lobbyists to support the investigation, and that the FBI was still “unable to obtain the requisite incriminating evidence to support a criminal investigation.”

Franklin wanted the sentence lowered to probation, while the government wanted 9 years.  Judge T.S. Ellis re-sentenced Franklin from the initial 12 years to probation and 10 months home confinement.

The Supreme Court decided today not to consider a lawsuit accusing former Bush administration members of illegally disclosing the identity of then-CIA agent Valerie Plame.

We previously reported that the Justice Department filed a brief with the high court in response to a petition earlier this year to revive the case against former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and former Bush aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis “Scooter� Libby. Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Assistant Attorney General Tony West and Justice Department attorneys Mark B. Stern and Charles W. Scarborough wrote the brief.

The justices did not comment on the rejection, according to Bloomberg.

The U.S. District Court in D.C. threw out Plame’s lawsuit against the Bush administration members in June 2007. In August 2008, U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. upheld the lower court’s decision.

We reported last week that this wasn’t the first time the Obama Justice Department intervened in a Plame-related case to protect the Bush administration. DOJ attorney Jeffrey Smith told U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan Friday that Cheney’s 2004 interview with special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald should remain secret. Fitzgerald was probing how Plame’s cover was blown. Libby ultimately was convicted of obstruction of justice in the matter, but no one was charged with illegally revealing Plame’s identity.

Smith said future administration officials’ would be less willing to cooperate voluntarily with investigations, and that officials might not cooperate with future requests fearing â€�that it’s going to get on ‘The Daily Show’.”

“Says who?â€� Sullivan said.

The liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sued for the release of the interview. CREW attorney David Sobel called the Obama administration’s defense of Cheney “disappointing.”

“The argument would apply to a murder in the White House, selling drugs in the White House, bribery in the White House,â€� Sobel said, according to Politico. “We would be carving out the White House … for special treatment.â€�