The Senate today approved an amendment to the health care overhaul bill that includes provisions to fight fraud.

Patrick Leahy (Getty Images)

The Senate voted 60-39 on a manager’s amendment from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that would incorporate elements of the Health Care Fraud Enforcement Act into the health care bill. Sen Ted Kaufman (D-Del.), a Judiciary Committee member, introduced the fraud legislation as a stand-alone bill in October.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), a co-sponsor of the fraud bill, said in a floor statement yesterday that health care scammers have driven up the cost of medical care. The Judiciary Committee chairman said the manager’s amendment gives prosecutors the resources needed to effectively combat health care fraud.

“These changes will strengthen our ability to crack down on fraud and will ultimately result in significant savings that will make health care more efficient and more affordable,” Leahy said.

Here are some of the key provisions:

– Increased penalties in federal sentencing guidelines.  “Despite the enormous losses in many health care fraud cases, offenders often receive shorter sentences than other white collar criminals,” Leahy said. He added: “By increasing the federal sentencing guidelines for health care fraud offenses, we send a clear message that those who steal from the nation’s health care system will face swift prosecution and substantial punishment.”

– Anti-kickback statute changes. “The manager’s amendment also includes our provision amending the anti-kickback statute to ensure that all claims resulting from illegal kickbacks are considered false claims for the purpose of civil action under the False Claims Act, even when the claims are not submitted directly by the wrongdoers themselves,” Leahy said. “All too often, health care providers secure business by paying illegal kickbacks, which needlessly increases health care risks and costs. This change will help ensure that the government is able to recoup from wrongdoers the losses resulting from these kickbacks.”

– Limited Justice Department subpoena powers for civil rights probes int0 certain medical institutions. “This provision allows the government to more effectively investigate conditions in publicly operated institutions, such as nursing homes, mental health institutions, and residential schools for children with disabilities, where there have been allegations of civil rights violations,” Leahy said.

We reported in October that Assistant Attorney General Tony West urged members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to approve health care fraud legislation.

In May, the Justice and Health and Human Services departments launched the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team to fight Medicare and Medicaid fraud.

Criminal prosecutions since 1989. (Courtesy of TRAC)

Federal prosecutions soared in the 2009 fiscal year, reaching a record high of 169,612.

The 9 percent increase over the previous year was driven by cases filed against immigration violators, according to Justice Department data analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. Immigration prosecutions shot up 15.7 percent, and amounted to more than half of all criminal cases brought by the federal government.

Meanwhile, drug, weapons and white-collar cases were up only slightly or declined.

Experts told The New York Times the jump stems from efforts during the Bush administration to step up immigration enforcement and expedite prosecutions. In addition to increasing the number of Border Patrol agents, the Bush administration launched Operation Streamline, which promoted mass processing of plea deals in immigrant cases. The Obama administration has continued the policy. The Obama administration was in power for more than two-thirds of fiscal 2009.

Immigration cases are disposed of in an average of two days, and they are rarely turned down by prosecutors. White-collar cases typically linger for about 460 days, and prosecutors reject about half those referred to them by law enforcement agencies.

In Arizona, where nearly a quarter of the immigration cases were processed, Operation Streamline has run into trouble. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which has jurisdiction over the state, recently held that the process of mass pleadings violates the federal rule that shields defendants from being coerced into a guilty plea, according to the Times.

Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, who was confirmed by the Senate in September, has said border enforcement is a top priority.

Arizona is also home to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose tough enforcement of immigration laws have led to the arrest of thousands of illegal immigrants. He has been accused of unfairly targeting Latinos in his crime sweeps, traffic stops and immigration raids. Arpaio denies wrongdoing, saying his officers are simply enforcing the law.

The Justice Department has set up a telephone tip-line as part an investigation of Arpaio, known as “Sheriff Joe.”

Click here for the full NYT story, and click here for a summary of TRAC’s findings.

With only a couple days left to do your holiday shopping, we thought we’d offer some gift ideas for your favorite Justice Department employee or DOJ geek. We’ve done some of the work for you by visiting a few downtown D.C. stores and checking out some Web sites.

What attorney couldn’t use another tie?  For those with DOJ pride, this tie features the face of Attorney General Eric Holder. For only $38.50, you can always have your favorite Attorney General close by. And don’t be afraid to loosen it at the end of the day, even Holder does that!

Does work seem to slow down this time of year? Need something to keep you slogging away at your desk? Well then, this cops vs. robbers police chess set is just what you’ve been looking for. See if you really are smarter then the bad guys. The set is on sale for $76.16. What a steal! (pun intended)

Why not bring some color to your office with a personalized caricature? On the left is a tasteful example of a lawyer doing a pole dance around the scales of justice.  Just send a photo and describe the scene, and a professional caricaturist will do the rest, starting at just $99.

Did someone you work with help draft the Patriot Act? Show them your appreciation by giving them this Bill of Rights mug. Best part about the mug? The text disappears when hot liquid is added. Watch your civil liberties disappear right before your eyes for only $12!

To lie or not to lie — what a silly question! Why would a lawyer need to lie as long as he or she has this mechanical fortune teller to help decide how to win. For $125 your favorite lawyer can choose to win by one of these tactics: “baffle them with legalese,” “find a loophole” or “sneak out to play golf.”

Even the Attorney General takes a break from working sometimes. Or maybe he brings his work with him. Either way we know that Eric Holder keeps it legal at lunch. So why not pick up a gift card to Legal Sea Foods?

We don’t care what former Vice President Dick Cheney says, we know that Holder is the nation’s chief law enforcement officer. But just in case the Attorney General needs to remind others, someone should pick him up this hat so everyone knows who’s top cop.

Are you a DOJ rock star? Do you think you’re awesome enough to fill the shoes of outgoing Fraud Section chief Steve Tyrrell? Well then you should be sporting these glasses. Think some of your co-workers are also rock stars? Then you’re in luck because these glasses come in a 12-pack for $25.15.

Depressed by your score from the FBI open-book test? How about an after-work drink to take the edge off? Then this “Federal Bureau of Intoxication” shot glass is for you! This good time retails for $2.49.

Although the DOJ holiday party has already passed it’s never too early to get snazzy for next year’s event. Americana Memorabilia right near the White House offers a variety of cuff links including these with the insignia of the U.S. Marshals Service.  These designer duds retail for $135.

Just a reminder — there are rules about government employees accepting holiday gifts from people outside of government (even ones as cool as star-shaped sunglasses). A couple of weeks ago Office of Government Ethics Director Robert I. Cusick sent this letter to “Designated Agency Ethics Officials.” Along with the reminder about the office’s gift policy, the memo reprises a 1994  holiday poem (since updated) about gift giving. Here’s an excerpt:

Some gifts may be taken but some are verboten.
The source is the key – it’s the rule that I’m quotin’.
When from me or others
The source seeks some act,
I must find an exception or I could be sacked.

The leak of secret documents to an unidentified blogger by a former FBI linguist “has become a black eye for the law enforcement agency and signals a breakdown in the security clearance process there,” reports Politico.

Last week, an Israeli-American lawyer, Shamai Leibowitz, pled guilty to leaking to an unidentified blogger five classified documents Leibowitz obtained while working as a Hebrew translator for the FBI from January through August of this year. Court records also said that four documents classified as “secret� were found in an August search of Leibowitz’s Silver Spring home. Leibowitz held a top-secret clearance, the filings said.

But Leibowitz, 39, seems an unlikely candidate for a top U.S. security clearance. After news of the charges against him broke, it took reporters only minutes to track down news articles reporting that he was fired from a legal clerkship in Israel and was publicly chastised by a court there for leaking a judge’s private comments.

The FBI told Politico it was reviewing the episode, including whether the agency’s clearance process was handled properly.

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth has ruled that an Assistant U.S. Attorney does not have to release his e-mails in a lawsuit brought by a former Detroit colleague against the Justice Department, Tickle The Wire reports.

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino received national media attention for his handling of a 2003 terrorism trial, which prompted a DOJ ethics investigation into whether he committed misconduct. Two of the defendants in the case were found guilty, but their convictions were overturned. The former federal prosecutor was acquitted in 2007 of conspiring to hide evidence in the case.

Convertino is suing DOJ to find out who leaked news of the internal investigation to the Detroit Free Press. Tickle The Wire reports that the former prosecutor in the Eastern District of Michigan has indicated that he believes Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tukel was the one who leaked information to the newspaper about the Office of Professional Responsibility investigation. He has sought to have Tukel’s e-mails released. However, Lamberth earlier this month ruled that the e-mails to Tukel’s private attorney and those involving his DOJ work were privileged and protected.

In his ruling, Lamberth wrote, “We need to encourage candid communications among governmental officials, allowing officials to deliberate honestly with each other, without fear that their discussions will
be exposed to the public,” adding, “Mr. Tukel reasonably expected that his e-mails with his personal attorney to remain confidential.â€�

The sale of a unit of Diebold Inc. that makes voting machines to its larger competitor, Election Systems and Software, is coming under increased scrutiny from both governmental and private entities as new details emerge.

We reported last month that the Justice Department was investigating the merger over concerns that it would be anticompetitive.

Last week, Florida’s Attorney General, Bill McCollum, said his office was also studying the sale to see if it concentrated too much power in one company.

This weekend, an election watchdog group, Black Box Voting, released a letter it sent to DOJ outlining its concerns about the deal.

The newly combined firm would control around 75 percent of the market for voting machines, according to Black Box, which argues that the merger “will put a single company in a position to shut down federal elections at will.”

According to Black Box, the merger raises concerns that, for large parts of the country, one company would control information about who is eligible to vote, which absentee ballots are accepted, and how votes are counted. Local election officials are also locked in to purchase software and service fees, the letter says.

The letter also raises questions about who owns the privately-held companies, and the companies’ ties to individuals who had previously been convicted of bid-rigging and unfair trade practices.

A rival voting-machine manufacturer, Hart InterCivic, has filed suit in federal court in Delaware in order to stop the deal.

The firms’ public relations strategy in announcing the $5 million sale also raised eyebrows. The companies waited until the deal had closed to make a formal announcement and sidestepped federal antitrust reporting procedures that require the parties in a transaction that meets a threshold size to alert regulatory agencies of their intentions, then wait 30 days to proceed.

Witnessing the arrival at Dover Air Force Base of caskets containing the remains of three Drug Enforcement Administration agents who died in Afghanistan last October was “the most difficult evening” so far in his tenure, Attorney General Eric Holder told Newsweek in a newly published interview.

Attorney General Eric Holder (right) was on hand at Delaware's Dover Air Force Base in October to honor fallen DEA agents whose remains were returned from Afghanistan. (Getty Images)

Special agents Forrest N. Leamon, Chad L. Michael and Michael E. Weston were killed when their helicopter was shot down in a firefight after a raid on poppy fields in western Afghanistan. The DEA has been working to combat the nation’s opium trade, which funds the extremist Taliban.

Klaidman: I noticed that you were the only cabinet official who was with President Obama when he made that midnight visit to Dover, to honor fallen soldiers from the wars. Why were you there, and what were you thinking when you saw those caskets being lowered down from the cargo plane?

Holder: Well, I was there, generally, to support all those whose remains were being brought back to our country, but among those were three DEA agents who had been killed in Afghanistan. That was, in some ways, the most difficult evening I’ve had as attorney general. It made real, in a way that nothing else has, the sacrifices that public servants make on behalf of our country, making the ultimate sacrifice in the defense of this nation.

Klaidman: What did you talk about when you spoke to the president afterward?

Holder: I’m not sure I want to go into that, but I do remember that there were colleagues of the [fallen] DEA agents who were there, and they asked if they could meet with the president. And I said, “Sure.” And I went to ask him to come into this room where those agents were. I remember, as I walked in, he was sitting on a couch with his back towards me, and I was really struck, given what we were there for, [by] the enormous burden that has been placed on his shoulders. He was sitting by himself, on a couch, and it just … I don’t know, something just struck me about that picture, about the really tough decisions that a president has to make. And I brought them into the room, and he met with the DEA agents who had just come back from Afghanistan, who were unshaven. Some of them were in shorts. But it was important to them, and it was important to him.

Klaidman: He was getting ready to make this decision about sending more troops into Afghanistan.

Holder: Yeah. And I also wonder about that. How he has to balance those very human feelings, and the lack of desire to put American soldiers and agents in harm’s way, against his constitutional obligations to keep the American people safe. When people criticized him for taking as long as he did to make that decision to deploy more troops to Afghanistan, it really struck me: why would you expect him to do anything other than take as long as he thought he needed? And if you’d been at Dover on that night, anybody would understand that.

Read the full Newsweek article for its Jan. 4, 2010, issue here and our past report on the interview here.

Eric Holder (Photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice)

Attorney General Eric Holder recently sat down with Newsweek’s Daniel Klaidman for an interview that will be published in the magazine’s Jan. 4, 2010, issue.

Holder talked about himself, what it’s like to be the Attorney General and how he has changed since becoming the nation’s top law enforcement official. He also shares his opinions about former vice president Dick Cheney, who has been critical of the Attorney General.

Read the full article here. Here are the highlights:

Klaidman: The last time I saw Sharon [Malone, Holder's wife], she had this to say about you …

Holder: Uh-oh.

Klaidman: “He sees himself as the nice guy, but when he leaves the nice guy behind, that’s when he’s strongest.” Accurate?

Holder: That’s an interesting quote. I think that I try to be a consensus builder, but that ultimately what drives me is a sense of responsibility and a desire to do what’s right, and if that means I have to do things that people are going to find unpopular, I’m prepared to do that. Like ordering the preliminary investigation into torture.

Klaidman: As you see it, what’s the most important difference between this administration’s approach to combating terrorism and the previous administration’s?

Holder: I think that too often the past administration is now seen through the voice of one person. And that’s not necessarily, I think, reflective of …

Klaidman: Are you talking about the president or …

Holder: No, I’m talking about the vice president. And I’m not sure that accurately reflects where the prior administration was. So there is that caveat. But having said that, I think that one of the things that distinguishes this administration is that we believe that our Constitution is a strong and vibrant document that, at the end of the day, is perhaps our best protection against those who would try to do this nation harm.

Klaidman: How do you feel—how do you react, personally—when you see the former vice president going on about how this administration is not keeping the American people safe, or has abandoned important policies? Are you dismissive of it? Does it tick you off?

Holder: I frankly don’t understand it. There’s a part of me that doesn’t really believe that he believes what he’s saying.

Klaidman: In the summer, you and I took a walk in your old neighborhood. I remember you telling me about your mom and dad, who came from the West Indies, and what they really emphasized with you was the twin principles of achievement and humility. I’m curious how the humility plays. The achievement is obvious. But what about the humility?

Holder: Well, it’s not a difficult thing to be humble. As attorney general of the United States, there are constant critics of actions that you take. I’m still a work in progress.

Klaidman: I remember you’d just become attorney general, and you called me at my office, and you didn’t do it through a secretary or assistant. One of our assistants answered the phone, and she put you on hold. You were on hold for two or three minutes. I’m guessing that doesn’t happen to you very often, but would that annoy you now?

Holder: No, I don’t think so. I still get placed on hold. That’s a good thing, you know? You can’t get too caught up in these jobs. You’ve got to remember who you were before, who you’re going to be after. I’ve been on a lot of motorcades with whirring lights and sirens, but that’s not who I am. That’s not who I’m going to be.

The Attorney General also reflected on his trip to Dover Air Force Base to witness the arrival of caskets containing the remains of three Drug Enforcement Administration agents who died in Afghanistan last October. Read our article here.

A Florida judge has unsealed his court order that is critical of a U.S. Attorney candidate for the Middle District of Florida, The Florida Times-Union reported yesterday.

Harry Shorstein (Shorstein & Lasnetski)

State Circuit Judge Kim Hammond denounced former Jacksonville, Fla., state attorney Harry Shorstein in the 2008 order regarding the ex-prosecutor’s management of a still-sealed grand jury examination into state attorney John Tanner’s probe of the Flagler County, Fla., prison, according to the newspaper. The 16-month-old court order was unsealed Dec. 4, according to the Times-Union.

Tanner, who “vehemently opposes” Shorstein’s U.S. Attorney candidacy, filed the motion to unseal the order, the Times-Union said. Shorstein, the former state attorney for Florida’s 4th Circuit in the northeast corner of the state, has a relationship with Hammond, according to the newspaper, but it is unclear how close the two are. Hammond recused himself from a case last month that involved Tanner’s daughter, the Times-Union said.

The newspaper did not report the details of the unsealed document.

Adding to the intrigue, Shorstein wasn’t aware of the Dec. 4 hearing, according to the newspaper. But prosecutors from the office of current Jacksonville-based state attorney Angela Corey, who is also a Shorstein critic, were present, even though the office’s special prosecutor appointment for the case expired in 2008, according to the newspaper.

Corey, a Republican, wrote to then-Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) earlier this year to ask them not to recommend Shorstein, who was her former supervisor at the office. Two years ago, Shorstein fired Corey, and later spoke out against her bid for election to the state prosecuting job. But last year, Corey easily beat Shorstein’s former chief of staff in the bitterly contested election.

Shorstein, now a partner at the Jacksonville law firm of  Shorstein & Lasnetski, told the newspaper that the unsealing of the order is a “slick” endeavor to spoil his bid for U.S. Attorney.

“It shows the process lacked credibility,” Shorstein told the Times-Union. “If it didn’t, it would have been done differently.”

Tanner told the newspaper that he asked for the order to be unsealed after a Florida screening committee named Shorstein, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert O’Neill, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg as candidates for the Tampa-based U.S. Attorney post in July. President Obama has not yet selected who he will nominate.

“This just made it a priority matter, and I thought it was a matter of public importance,” Tanner told the Times-Union. “When you apply for public office … your professional record … should be a matter of scrutiny.”

We previously reported that Sen. George LeMieux (R-Fla.) met with a White House official in November to express concerns about Shorstein.

It is unclear what effect, if any, this unsealed order will have on Shorstein’s bid to succeed Bush-administration holdover U.S. Attorney A. Brian Albritton. But the White House has seemed to steer clear of candidates that have links to controversies.

Southern District Developments. In other news involving the filling of U.S. Attorney posts in Florida, we reported last week that the White House no longer appears to be considering two Southern District of Florida U.S. Attorney finalists, who received special scrutiny in the state. The White House is vetting a third finalist, assistant Dade County, Fla., attorney Wifredo “Willy� Ferrer, for the Miami-based U.S. Attorney post.

An effort to repeal the antitrust exemption for health insurers took a step back this weekend, when Democratic leaders left it out of a package of changes to the health system overhaul bill the Senate is voting on this week.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) three weeks ago offered language to repeal the exemption as an amendment to the Senate’s health care legislation. The proposed repeal would subject health and medical malpractice insurers to federal laws that forbid firms from fixing prices, rigging bids, or dividing up markets with competitors.

In a statement on Saturday, Leahy said he was “disappointed” the amendment would not be a part of the Senate’s debate.

Similar language, which represents a partial repeal of the 1945 McCarran-Ferguson Act, is included in the House version of the legislation. Leahy said he will continue to push for the repeal as the the Senate and the House work to reconcile their bills.

The amendment, which had the support of Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), was a casualty of Reid’s well-chronicled struggle for the 60th vote in favor of the bill from Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.)

Nelson, a former insurance executive, had earlier expressed reservations about the repeal. Insurers had also lobbied to keep the provision out. Nelson also has been at the heart of tense negotiations over other provisions of the bill, including whether it would include a government-run health care plan option and restrictions on taxpayer funding of abortions.

Liberals have called attention to the repeal’s notable absence in the latest Senate package, and backers of the repeal have urged House Democrats to fight to keep the repeal in the final bill.

But congressional Democrats have little room to deviate from the Senate version of the legislation. “It is very clear that the bill — the final bill — to pass in the United States Senate is going to have to be very close to the bill that has been negotiated here,� said Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) on “Fox News Sunday.� “Otherwise, you will not get 60 votes in the United States Senate.�

Whether the House repeal language will survive in a House-Senate conference negotiation over the final version of the bill is largely dependent on what Nelson is willing to give up. In an interview with CNN, Nelson laid out several provisions in the House bill that are deal-breakers for him, but he did not single out the antitrust exemption as one such deal-breaker.