On the heels of President Obama’s call for government belt-tightening, Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday pledged to apply more pressure on health-care fraudsters who siphon billions of dollars from the federal fisc each year.

Holder, speaking at a health-care fraud summit at the National Institutes of Health, said he would push to strengthen a Cabinet-level team devoted to the effort, as well as beef up anti-fraud strike forces around the country. Holder also said he would ask Congress for more funding and legislation targeting fraud, and reach out to the private sector — one of the aims of Thursday’s summit.

The Attorney General said more than $60 billion in public and private health-care spending was lost to fraud each year. Holder, joined by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, brought the oft-cited estimate to life with a bit of pop-culture.

“That is a staggering amount of money,” Holder said in prepared remarks. “It’s half the entire economy of Secretary Sebelius’s home state of Kansas. It’s more than the net worth of America’s eight largest private foundations. And it’s 33 times the amount of money that Avatar — now the highest-earning movie of all time — has made at the box office.”

Holder and Sebelius lead the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team, known as HEAT, which supports the efforts of seven health-care fraud strike forces around the country. Thursday’s summit, attended by representatives from the insurance industry and health care-provider community, was intended to ally the public and private sectors in HEAT’s mission.

“There’s no question that our ability to protect taxpayer dollars, to ensure the viability of our government health care programs, and to strengthen our national health care system depends on our ability to expand the discussion beyond the federal government,” Holder said.

In his State of the Union speech to Congress on Wednesday, Obama said he was prepared to freeze government spending for three years, starting in 2011, and urged Congress to pass a “pay as you go” law. And anti-fraud efforts have also taken on new urgency as Congress tussles over health-care legislation that could cost north of a trillion dollars if enacted.

Holder noted that the department recovered more than $2 billion in 2009 under the False Claims Act. On the criminal enforcement front, the department charged more than 800 people for health-care fraud and related crimes and won more than 580 convictions, he said.

Attorney General Eric Holder attended the State of the Union last night (White House photo).

Although the economy was the principal focus of Wednesday night’s State of the Union speech by President Obama, the president, with Attorney General Eric Holder looking on, did mention that the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is “once again prosecuting civil rights violations and employment discrimination.” And the president also noted that Congress last year enacted hate crime legislation.

Said Obama:

“We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution: the notion that we are all created equal, that no matter who you are or what you look like, if you abide by the law you should be protected by it; that if you adhere to our common values you should be treated no different than anyone else.

“We must continually renew this promise. My Administration has a Civil Rights Division that is once again prosecuting civil rights violations and employment discrimination. We finally strengthened our laws to protect against crimes driven by hate. This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are. We are going to crack down on violations of equal pay laws — so that women get equal pay for an equal day’s work. And we should continue the work of fixing our broken immigration system — to secure our borders, enforce our laws, and ensure that everyone who plays by the rules can contribute to our economy and enrich our nations.”

Main Justice interviewed Thomas Perez, head of the Civil Rights Division, last week.

“Certainly from the division’s perspective we appreciated it,” Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli told Main Justice about the mention of the divison. “It spotlighted the important work that they’re doing. We have in the 2010 budget the opportunity to bring on new employees to increase the focus on civil rights.” (Updated 6:07 p.m.).

President Obama also spoke about combating terrorism:

Since the day I took office, we’ve renewed our focus on the terrorists who threaten our nation. We’ve made substantial investments in our homeland security and disrupted plots that threatened to take American lives. We are filling unacceptable gaps revealed by the failed Christmas attack, with better airline security and swifter action on our intelligence. We’ve prohibited torture and strengthened partnerships from the Pacific to South Asia to the Arabian Peninsula. And in the last year, hundreds of al Qaeda’s fighters and affiliates, including many senior leaders, have been captured or killed — far more than in 2008.

But the president did not touch on the chief criticisms of the Justice Department from Republicans: the decision to hold a civilian trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City, close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and give Miranda rights to the attempted Christmas day bomber. In delivering the Republican response to the speech, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell hit on their main points:

Americans were shocked on Christmas Day to learn of the attempted bombing of a flight to Detroit. This foreign terror suspect was given the same legal rights as a U.S. citizen, and immediately stopped providing critical intelligence. As Senator-elect Scott Brown says, we should be spending taxpayer dollars to defeat terrorists, not to protect them.

Another Republican, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama hit on the same theme: “One of the biggest headlines from last night’s speech is what the president did not say: a single word about the botched interrogation of the Christmas Bomber and his quest to provide foreign terrorists with the same legal rights as the Americans they target,” Sessions said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughter, Liz Cheney, released an advertisement through her organization, Keep America Safe, that criticizes the Justice Department and Holder.

A  senior counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee will take a job at the Justice Department, panel Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said today at a committee meeting.

Roscoe Jones, who has served on the committee staff for three years, will be a trial attorney in the  Civil Rights Division’s appellate section, according to a committee spokesperson. Today’s Judiciary Committee meeting was Jones’ last markup, Leahy said.

Jones worked on drug and crime legislation in addition to nominations, according to the committee chairman. Read more about him here.

“I wish him all the best and appreciate his contributions and hard work to the committee,” Leahy told panel members.

Comcast Corporation and NBC Universal laid out the case for their proposed merger in a filing today with the Federal Communications Commission, arguing that the deal was in the public interest and did not raise antitrust concerns.

The joint venture between Comcast and General Electric Company — the owner of NBC Universal –  which would give Comcast a majority stake in NBC, would “increase the quantity, quality, diversity, and local focus of video content,” the companies said in the filing.

The FCC, which will assess whether the deal is in the public interest, has to approve a license transfer in order for the deal to go through. The Justice Department is separately investigating the merger for antitrust concerns.

In the filing, Comcast expanded on a set of commitments it issued when it announced the deal last Dec. 3. It vowed to support NBC’s free television and local news programming, and to add 1,000 hours of local programming and 1,500 on-demand choices for children and families within the first three years.

House Democrats offered initial praise for Comcast’s promises. “Comcast’s commitment to diverse programming and maintaining the journalistic independence of NBCU is encouraging,” said Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) who chairs the Judiciary Committee.

Conyers said the panel would hold hearings on the deal next month. Comcast and NBC execs are expected at hearings in front of two other congressional committees in the first week of February.

To make their case to antitrust regulators, the companies framed the transaction as one that is primarily vertical rather than a horizontal combination of competitors.

After the merger, according to the filing, Comcast will control only about one-seventh of the channels its cable systems will carry, and around 12 percent of national cable network advertising. NBC would still rank behind Disney, Time Warner, and Viacom in cable market size after the merger, Comcast says.

And in the market for online video, which critics have prodded the Justice Department to investigate, Comcast argues it is too nascent a market for regulators to involve themselves in. The NBC-owned video Web site Hulu accounts for only about 4 percent of that market, while Google, with its You Tube, accounts for around 40 percent, according to the filing.

“Indeed, to the extent that any one company maintains a substantial advantage in attracting online video viewers, that company is Google – not Comcast or NBCU,” Comcast says.

Critics of the deal have focused on the vertical aspects of the transaction, and argue that it puts too much control over the production and distribution of television programming in the hands of one company.

The price of coveted channels that Comcast would own — MSNBC, for example — could increase for other cable or satellite distributors, said Corie Wright, a lawyer at the consumer group Free Press, which has been a vocal critic of the merger.

Comcast would have an incentive to bundle such channels with other, less popular channels, she said, and force distributors to pay higher fees that would ultimately get passed on to viewers.

“Comcast is trying to downplay the value of that programming,” Wright told Main Justice, “but Comcast can charge rivals more money.”

Comcast says that, after pouring billions into NBC, it would be “irrational” to forgo revenues from licensing the channels to other providers in hopes of attracting more customers to Comcast within its “limited footprint.”

Critics also argue that Comcast would have an incentive to not carry independent television channels that might compete with NBC programming. But Comcast says that, as a content buyer, it lacks the market power it would need to effectively shut others out. Comcast also said it would add six new independent channels to its lineup in the next three years.

Even though critics focus on the the deal’s vertical components, recent Justice Department settlements might give Comcast and NBC hope that regulators will look closer at any horizontal aspects of the transaction.

In the Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger approved this week, with conditions, the DOJ focused its complaint on the deal’s horizontal impact in the ticketing market. The settlement did extract promises from the combined firm that addressed vertical concerns the deal raised.

Updated at 4:23 p.m. to include comments

Robert Flanagan (U.S. government photo via AP)

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) told Politico on Wednesday that William Flanagan, an acting U.S. attorney in Louisiana, “most certainly should beâ€� disappointed in his son, who was arrested for allegedly tampering with phones in the senator’s office in New Orleans.

Robert Flanagan and three other men were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony. He allegedly dressed as a telephone repairman and interfered with the office phone.

“This isn’t a child – this is 24-year-old, I’m sure his parents are terribly disappointed, they most certainly should be,� Landrieu told Politico, adding that it was “very disconcerting� that Flanagan’s father is a top federal official in her state.

Flanagan’s attorney, Garrison Jordan, told The Washington Post that his client did not think he was doing anything illegal. “It was obviously a big mistake on his part,” Jordan said. “He just got caught up in a stupid stunt.”

A source familiar with the case told The Post that Flanagan met O’Keefe last week when O’Keefe arrived to speak at the Pelican Institute, the libertarian think tank where Flanagan wrote a blog.

The Times-Picayune quoted a longtime Democrat who said that acting U.S. Attorney William Flanagan is completely nonpartisan and nonideological. “He’s about the straightest arrow there is,” he said.

William Flanagan has not returned a phone call from Main Justice seeking comment.

Marc Larkins speaks after Gov. Chris Christie announces his nomination. (gov)

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has named Marc Larkins to be the executive director of the New Jersey School Development Authority Board, according to a news release.

Larkins is an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey who has held a number of positions in the office since he joined in 2003. He has served as Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney, Acting First Assistant U.S. Attorney, Acting Executive U.S. Attorney and council. In addition, he has been the chief of the government fraud unit.

Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s office, Larkins was a trial attorney in the Justice Department’s Civil Division from 1999 to March 2003. Simultaneously, from February 2000 to March 2002, Larkins was Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

Christie, who was U.S. Attorney for New Jersey from 2002-2008, had already named eight of his former colleagues from the U.S. Attorney’s office to serve in his administration. They are:

• Robert Hanna to be the director of the Division of Law in the Attorney General’s office.
• Stephen Taylor to be the director of Criminal Justice in the AG’s office.
• Deborah Gramiccioni to be director of the Authorities Unit in the AG’s office.
• Jeffrey S. Chiesa to be Christie’s chief counsel.
• Kevin M. O’Dowd to be deputy chief counsel.
• Charles McKenna to be head of the state’s Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.
• Michele Brown to be appointments counsel.
• Lee Solomon to be the president of the board of public utilities.

The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved three U.S. Attorney nominees during its business meeting today.

They are:

Andre Birotte Jr. (Gov)

– Andre Birotte Jr. (Central District of California): The Los Angeles Police Commission’s inspector general would succeed Thomas P. O’Brien, who stepped down as U.S. Attorney last September. Birotte was nominated on Dec. 23. Read more about him here.

Ron Machen (Wilmer Hale)

– Richard Hartunian (Northern District of New York): The interim U.S. Attorney for the district would be the first presidentially appointed U.S. Attorney to lead the office since Glenn T. Suddaby resigned in 2008. Hartunian also was tapped on Dec. 23. Read more about him here.

– Ron Machen (District of Columbia): The partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr would succeed Jeffrey A. Taylor, who stepped down as U.S. Attorney last May. Machen was nominated on Dec. 23. Read more about him here.

The panel has now approved 34 U.S. Attorney nominees, 31 of whom have already won Senate confirmation. The committee has yet to schedule votes for another 12 would-be U.S. Attorneys.

The committee also postponed — as expected — consideration of Justice Department nominees Dawn Johnsen (to head the Office of Legal Counsel), Mary L. Smith (to lead the Tax Division) and Christopher Schroeder (to head the Office of Legal Policy). Committee rules allow senators to delay a vote on a nominee for a week.

Attorney General Eric Holder issued a video on Wednesday ahead of the State of the Union Address.

Ahead of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address Wednesday evening, Attorney General Eric Holder gives a progress report of his own — on the Justice Department’s YouTube Channel.

The minute-long video, titled the “Attorney General’s Progress Report to the American People,” was posted on Wednesday afternoon. Holder speaks about combating terrorism, fighting crime and bringing criminals to justice.

“Security. Accountability. Transparency. That’s what the American people deserve, and it’s what you can expect from your Department of Justice,” says Holder.

Watch the video below.

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) will delay Senate action on the nominee who would replace the acting U.S. Attorney whose son allegedly tried to interfere with phones at Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu’s New Orleans office, The Associated Press reported today.

David Vitter (Getty Images)

Vitter’s office said Wednesday that he will block Senate action on Stephanie Finley and President Obama’s other nominees for federal justice system posts in Louisiana until he hears from the White House whether Obama will let Eastern District of Louisiana U.S. Attorney Jim Letten keep his job.

Finley was nominated last week to be U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana. She would replace acting U.S. Attorney William Flanagan. Vitter is also holding up other federal nominees in Louisiana over Letten. Letten was appointed by President George W. Bush, and has held the Eastern District post since April 2001. Both Vitter and Landrieu have urged Obama to retain Letten.

Flanagan, a career prosecutor, became the top federal prosecutor in the Shreveport, La., office after Donald Washington resigned earlier this month. Robert Flanagan, the prosecutor’s son, along with conservative activists James O’Keefe, Joseph Basel and Stan Dai were charged this week with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purposes of committing a felony. O’Keefe made national headlines last year when he posed as a pimp and allegedly received instructions on how to obtain housing aid for a purported brothel from staffers for activist group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now).

The son of the acting U.S. Attorney and Basel told a staffer at Landrieu’s office that they were with the telephone company to repair the phone system, according to an FBI affidavit. O’Keefe was already inside the office’s reception area and was holding a phone to record Flanagan and Basel talking to Landrieu staffers, the FBI said. Dai helped plan the operation, according to the FBI.

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg shifted his position today on holding a trial in Manhattan for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“It would be great if the federal government could find a site that didn’t cost a billion dollars, which using downtown will,� he told reporters on Wednesday, according to The New York Times.

“It’s going to cost an awful lot of money and disturb an awful lot of people,” he said. “Can we provide security? Yes. Could you provide security elsewhere? Yeah, and I mean — the suggestion of a military base is probably a reasonably good one. Relatively easy to supply — to provide security. They tend to be outside of cities so that they don’t disrupt other people.”

When the trial was announced about two months ago, Bloomberg seemed on board with the idea, saying it was “fitting that 9/11 suspects face justice near the World Trade Center site where so many New Yorkers were murdered.”

But political pressure has ramped up recently, with a community board voting 42-to-0 on Tuesday evening to ask Attorney General Eric Holder to consider a list of alternative sites, including several southern New York sites outside New York City: the United States Military Academy at West Point, the National Guard base at Stewart International Airport near Newburgh and a federal prison in Otisville, writes The Times.