Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday offered his condolences to the people of Jamaica, as deadly clashes continued between police and gunmen loyal to a reputed drug kingpin who faces extradition to the United States.

At least 49 people have been killed since Monday, when Jamaican authorities stormed Christopher “Dudus” Coke’s stronghold in Kingston. After nine months of negotiations with Washington, Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding recently agreed to turn Coke over to the U.S. to stand trial in New York.

Golding had opposed the move, but he reversed himself after it was revealed that his government had hired the blue-chip law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP to lobby U.S. officials to drop their extradition request. Golding’s conflicting statements about the firm’s work, as well as his ties to Coke, have jeopardized his political career; the extradition matter has strained relations between the U.S. and Jamaica.

Holder, speaking at State Department event on Caribbean-U.S. security, said the unrest in Jamaica illustrated the need for closer cooperation.

The situation in Jamaica reminds us all just how important this work is.  Today, we offer our condolences to the Jamaican people.  And we mourn the loss of the citizens and law enforcement officials who have been killed in connection with recent attempts to apprehend Christopher Coke for extradition.  As the Jamaican government seeks to uphold the rule of law, the United States stands in support of its efforts to ensure public safety and to combat drug trafficking and other criminal activity.  And we honor our brave law enforcement partners for their service, sacrifice, and commitment to the cause of justice.

Coke’s lawyer is reportedly in contact with U.S. authorities about a possible surrender. A source told The New York Post that Coke wants to avoid being killed by Jamaican police and troops.

Holder’s full remarks are below.

Thank you, Assistant Secretary [Arturo] Valenzuela.  And thank you all for being part of this critical, and historic, discussion.  A little more than a year has passed since President Obama called for a “new chapter of engagement� between the United States and our friends in the Caribbean.  And, today, it’s an honor to stand with each of you as we answer that call – and write that new chapter – with the launch of the Caribbean-United States Security Initiative.

This new initiative is an important step forward in addressing our shared concerns, advancing our common interests, and strengthening our collective commitment to protect our citizens from crime, violence, trafficking, and terror.

The situation in Jamaica reminds us all just how important this work is.  Today, we offer our condolences to the Jamaican people.  And we mourn the loss of the citizens and law enforcement officials who have been killed in connection with recent attempts to apprehend Christopher Coke for extradition.  As the Jamaican government seeks to uphold the rule of law, the United States stands in support of its efforts to ensure public safety and to combat drug trafficking and other criminal activity.  And we honor our brave law enforcement partners for their service, sacrifice, and commitment to the cause of justice.

As we continue to monitor events in Jamaica, let me assure each of you that this effort is a top priority, not only for the Department of Justice, but also for the Departments of State, Homeland Security and Defense.  And we are all proud to call you our partners.

I am especially proud.  As you may know, my father and all four of my grandparents were born and raised in Barbados.  Although I grew up in New York City, I was brought up in a Bajan home, with West Indies traditions and values.  And so, while I am a proud American who was born in the United States, in many respects, I was a child of the Caribbean and am proud of that part of my heritage as well.

Last May, I had the opportunity to return to Barbados to help build on the President’s promise of partnership, which he had made a month earlier at the opening of the Fifth Summit of the Americas.  He called for an era in which our partnership would be equal, not imbalanced; and forward-looking, not imprisoned by the past.

During that summit, the President closed with words that, to me, rang especially true.  “Our nations…and our people,� he said, “reflect the extraordinary diversity of human beings, and our shared values reflect a common humanity – the universal desire to leave our children a world that is more prosperous and peaceful than the one that we inherited.�

Today, with the launch of the Caribbean-United States Security Initiative, we renew our commitment to delivering on that promise to future generations.  And we strengthen our resolve to work together.  We share, after all, so many priorities – securing our borders, eliminating gangs and violence, curbing drug trafficking, reducing recidivism, fighting terrorism and much more.  As my nation’s chief law enforcement officer, I recognize that each of these threats not only burdens the United States and your individual law enforcement communities, but also places citizens throughout the Caribbean at risk.

These threats are not isolated.  Drug trafficking and organized crime, for example, are problems across our hemisphere – from the United States, Canada and Mexico to Central America, South America, and, of course, the Caribbean.  And none of us, alone, can ward off the violence.  Criminals know no borders.  They respect no flag.  They embrace no rule of law but their own.

They do, however, embrace the latest technology, which has provided sophisticated new tools to engage in cybercrime, money laundering, and illicit trafficking.  And the scope of these crimes is alarming.  In fact, Mexican and Colombian drug trafficking organizations generate, remove, and launder between $18 billion and $39 billion in wholesale drug proceeds in the United States annually.  No matter what your vantage point in examining these problems, one truth is perfectly clear: our nations’ security interests are intertwined – and they always will be.

What tools, then, do we need to address today’s threats?  From my perspective, and from the perspective of the Department I lead, our most powerful tool is our partnership.  If we fail to work together, we simply cannot ensure effective and lasting regional security.  But failure is not an option.  And, judging by your presence and engagement today, it’s not a possible outcome.

Over the last year, we’ve shown that our nations want to work together.  Today, we’re signaling that we are ready to act.  And we are poised to build on the record of successful collaboration that’s been established in recent months.  For example, we’ve seen prosecutors and law enforcement officers in Colombia work with prosecutors and law enforcement officers in the Department of Justice to successfully foster the rule of law in that country.  We’re also starting to see measurable progress from our partnership with Mexico and the countries of Central America – again, the result of critical prosecutor-to-prosecutor and investigator-to-investigator partnerships.

The only problem is that, in some cases, these partnerships are working so well that criminals are turning to new regions and routes for their illicit business, particularly the Caribbean.  But together – starting now – we will push back.  And we will push back hard.  It’s no secret that the security of our citizens depends on the security of our neighbors’ citizens.  We are in this together.  And, in that collaborative spirit, we will succeed.

How, exactly, do we move forward as partners in this Security Initiative?  First, we must begin to establish a framework of critical laws and procedures that all countries should not only agree upon but also embrace.  This includes, among other things, the UN Transnational Organized Crime Convention, the UN Convention Against Corruption, the Vienna Convention on Narcotics, the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention and the UN’s legal instruments against terrorism.

Second, with these laws, procedures, and frameworks as our guide, we must work together to investigate and prosecute transnational crime – and that includes use of the bilateral mutual legal assistance and extradition treaties that are already in place. We must share intelligence and criminal information – police department to police department, prosecutor to prosecutor, forensic office to forensic office

Working together with the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices – as well as with the Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement – we will aggressively investigate and prosecute criminal activity.  And, as we fight crime, we must – and we will – respect the human rights of all persons.

Finally, we must work together to build justice systems that comport with the rule of law.  That means ensuring that all of the nations represented here today have the capacity to investigate and prosecute complex crimes; that our legal systems are fair, efficient and transparent; that we protect our witnesses, judges and courthouses; that we secure the safety of victims; and that our citizens have faith in our ability to carry out justice.

The Department of Justice is committed to working with every one of your great nations.  With your support and collaboration, I am certain we can enhance the entire criminal justice process – from prevention, investigation and prosecution to incarceration and, where possible, to rehabilitation.  We are ready to provide our federal experts as resident advisors to work with your agencies.  And while we are committed to helping you address the pressing needs and challenges, we are also eager to focus on long-term solutions, now.

I want to stress again that our historic partnership, forged over this past year and brought to the next level today, is a top priority for the Department of Justice and for this Administration.  As I mentioned, I was raised with the values of the Caribbean – values of education, hard work and respect – that all our nations share.

I have every expectation that our common beliefs, as well as our common interests, will inspire every nation represented here to invest the energy and resources necessary to strengthen our partnership, to spur this new initiative forward, and – ultimately – to bring greater security to people across the Caribbean and the United States.

I am grateful for your time and tireless efforts over the past year.  And I look forward to all that we will accomplish, together, in the critical days ahead.

Thank you.

A former Deputy Director of the Justice Department Office of Tribal Justice this week called on the Senate to take action on President Barack Obama’s pick to lead the DOJ Tax Division.

Lawrence R. Baca, who worked at the DOJ from 1976 to 2008, wrote in an Indian Country Today column that he can no longer remain silent about Tax Division nominee Mary L. Smith, a Cherokee Nation member, who has been stalled for several months. He said Smith should receive “immediate confirmation,” noting that she would be the highest-ranking American Indian to ever work at the DOJ if she is confirmed.

Mary L. Smith (Chicago Bar)

Smith was first tapped for the post in April 2009, but has languished in the Senate over Republican concerns about her lack of tax law experience. The Senate Judiciary Committee first approved her in June 2009 without any Republican support and her nomination was returned to the White House in December. Obama re-nominated her in January and she was reported out of committee again in February without any backing from Republicans.

“There is no reason to treat any presidential nominee with such disrespect,” said Baca, the national president of the Federal Bar Association. “Surely a nomination of such historic importance should not be allowed to languish. This ‘first’ for Indian country deserves a confirmation vote.”

A Democratic aide said earlier this month that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) would have to file for cloture to cut off debate on her nomination. The aide said the minority leadership is holding up any nominee who is opposed by all Republicans in committee.

But Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said earlier this month that he hadn’t heard any discussion about moving her nomination. The Senate will be on recess next week for the Memorial Day holiday.

Smith is the only Assistant Attorney General nominee who is still waiting for a vote in the Senate.

She was one of three nominees returned to the White House in December and re-nominated in January. One of the nominees, Christopher Schroeder for the Office of Legal Policy, was confirmed last month. The other nominee, Dawn Johnsen for the Office of Legal Counsel, withdrew her nomination last month.

Schroeder was only opposed by a few Republicans in committee. Johnsen — like Smith — didn’t receive any GOP support in committee.

Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey joined the growing chorus of Republicans pushing for a special prosecutor to look into allegations that the White House promised Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) a job in the administration if he agreed not to challenge Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.).

Michael Mukasey (DOJ)

At a reception Wednesday night, Mukasey told The Washington Post blog “Right Now” that the Sestak case warrants a special prosecutor.

“It seems to me that if the offer came from the White House, you need a special prosecutor,” Mukaskey said. “People were railing on me for months, demanding a special prosecutor for this, a special prosecutor for that. But here’s a case where … well, he hasn’t said what happened.”

“To call somebody in and tell them, ‘Look, you bow out and we’ll offer you a job’ is very serious,” he continued. “No rational prosecutor should indict unless it’s that blatant.’ ”

In a letter to a member of Congress last week, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich said the Justice Department would not be appointing a special prosecutor to probe the matter.

“We assure you that the Department of Justice takes very seriously allegations of criminal conduct by public officials,� Weich wrote. “The Department of Justice, however, has a long history of handling investigations of high-level officials professionally and independently, without the need to appoint a special counsel.�

On Wednesday, the Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee penned a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking him to reconsider.

The Office of Congressional Ethics — an independent government board that monitors congressional ethics — will refer to the Justice Department its investigation into potential ethics violations by seven House members, the office announced Thursday.

Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) (Library of Congress)

In 2009, the office opened a probe into allegations that several members of the House Appropriations Committee accepted campaign contributions from PMA, a now defunct lobbying group, in exchange for defense-related earmarks. The members at the center of the probe include Reps. Norman Dicks (D-Wash.), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), James Moran (D-Va.), Todd Tiahrt (R-Kansas), Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) and C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.). The investigation also looked into allegations against the late Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), the chairman of the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee who died earlier this year.

In November 2008, the FBI raided the offices of the PMA Group. Records on Murtha released by the FBI earlier this week indicate the bureau’s investigation into PMA is still ongoing, the Hill reported.

“The board of the Office of Congressional Ethics has voted unanimously to refer to the United States Department of Justice certain evidence collected in the course of its investigation concerning appropriations earmarks and the now defunct PMA lobbying group,” the office said in a brief statement. “The evidence pertains to factual findings by the OCE board that certain persons and companies saw their campaign contributions as affecting decisions about earmarks.”

In February, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct released a report clearing all seven members of any wrongdoing.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved by voice vote two more of President Barack Obama’s U.S. Attorney nominees at its meeting Thursday.

They are:

• Stephanie Finley was tapped on Jan. 20 to replace acting U.S. Attorney William Flanagan in the Western District of Louisiana U.S. Attorney’s office. Flanagan has led the Shreveport, La.-based office since Donald Washington stepped down as U.S. Attorney in January. Flanagan’s son, Robert, made national headlines in January for allegedly tampering with the phones in the office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) with three men including conservative documentary film-maker James O’Keefe. The nominee has been an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana since 1995. Read more about her here.


Laura Duffy (voiceofsandiego.org)

• Laura Duffy was nominated on Feb. 24 to be U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California. She would be the first Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney in the Southern District since Carol Lam, who was one of the U.S. Attorneys dismissed during 2006 by the Bush administration. The district’s current interim U.S. Attorney is Karen P. Hewitt. Read more about her here.

The panel has now approved 51 of Obama’s U.S. Attorney nominees, 49 of whom have won Senate confirmation. The committee has yet to schedule votes for another 16 would-be U.S. Attorneys.

Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) (Library of Congress)

The FBI released on Tuesday almost 900 pages of its files on the late Democratic Pennsylvania congressman, John Murtha, outlining both extortion threats and corruption investigations that implicated the more than three-decade House member.

Eight files — and 611 pages — detail threats against Murtha, including threatening letters he received from mental patients, anti-Gulf War activists and other individuals who threatened to kill Korean and Vietnam war veteran.

The FBI also released more than 250 pages about the ABSCAM public corruption controversy of the late 1970s and early 1980s, which led to the convictions of several other lawmakers.

The FBI only released 24 pages related to the PMA lobbying inquiry. At the time of Murtha’s death, both the FBI and congressional ethics committees were looking into allegations that members of the House Appropriations Committee had accepted campaign contributions in exchange for defense-related earmarks.

“This release contains public source information found in a Pittsburgh Division investigation into allegations of kickbacks involving government defense contractors. Redactions were made to protect personal privacy,” the FBI website states. “As this investigative file is still in ‘pending status,’ the bulk of the file’s FBI documents are not releasable until the conclusion of the investigation.”

The files were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the Pittsburgh ABC affiliate and other news organizations. To access the file, click here.

Antonin Scalia (Supreme Court)

At least one person is not bothered by Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s lack of judicial experience — Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

During a speech Wednesday sponsored by Catholic University’s Law School, Scalia said he supported appointing individuals without federal judicial experience to the Supreme Court, ABC News reported.

“When I first came to the Supreme Court, three of my colleagues had never been a federal judge,� Scalia said. “William Rehnquist came to the Bench from the Office of Legal Counsel. Byron White was Deputy Attorney General. And Lewis Powell who was a private lawyer in Richmond and had been president of the American Bar Association.�

“Currently, there is nobody on the Court who has not served as a judge –indeed, as a federal judge — all nine of us,â€� Scalia continued. “. . . I am happy to see that this latest nominee is not a federal judge – and not a judge at all.â€�

If confirmed, Kagan will be the justice to come from outside the federal judiciary — sometimes called the “judicial monastery” — since Rehnquist, who was nominated by President Richard Nixon in 1971. The U.S. Constitution does not require a Supreme Court justice to have previously served as a judge — or even that a nominee be a lawyer.

UPDATE: Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor echoed Scalia’s sentiments in an interview with ABC’s Good Morning American Thursday, the Associated Press reported.

“I think it’s fine. Just fine,” O’Connor said when asked about Kagan’s lack of judicial experience. She also said Kagan seemed “very well qualified academically.”

Warren Bamford (Saint Anselm College)

The Special Agent in Charge of Boston’s FBI office will retire next month, The Boston Globe reported Thursday.

Warren Bamford will retire from the office on June 18 and take a job with National Grid, a regional utility company. Bamford has headed the FBI’s Boston office since 2007. Before that, he was head of the counterterrorism division in the bureau’s Los Angeles office and worked for the FBI at offices in Washington, D.C.; New Haven, Conn.; and Baltimore. Earlier in his career, Bamford worked as a sniper on the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team and was deployed to both the Ruby Ridge standoff and the incident at Waco, Texas, according to the Globe.

Wednesday wasn’t a good night for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Several frustrated agents presented the agency as a place where speaking out against wrongdoing can be career suicide in a segment titled “ATF Under Fire” which aired on the CNN show Anderson Cooper 360.

Headquarters of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (photo by Ryan J. Reilly).

CNN’s report aired longstanding complaints about retaliation within the agency at a time when violence and gun trafficking on the Mexican border is a major focus for lawmakers.

The star of the segment was California-based ATF agent Vince Cefalu, a 24-year veteran of the force, who told CNN he gets paid $150,000 per year plus benefits to do nothing all day. He claimed that he was blacklisted after he reported an illegal wiretap plan on a 2005 racketeering case. ATF disputed Cefalu’s illegal wiretap claims and said he has had performance issues.

The network gave a video camera to Cefalu and asked him to document his work over five days. Footage showed he spent his time watching television, surfing the Internet, making personal phone calls and grabbing lunch at Taco Bell. His do-nothing job is punishment, he said, for speaking out against ATF.

Hiram Andrades, a supervisor in ATF’s Washington field office who has a pending discrimination complaint, said that working at ATF is “almost like being in an abusive relationship, actually. It’s almost like domestic violence, really. It’s just you think things are going to improve with each director, you think things will get better and improve, but they don’t.”

Andrades said the type of retaliation at ATF “isn’t good for the agency, it’s distracting and it’s not good for the American people. We need to make better use of our tax dollars. We need to use it for the mission versus this kind of stuff.”

“It appears that complaining at ATF can be career suicide,” said CNN correspondent Abbie Boudreau.

Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson, in an interview with the network, disputed that there was a systematic retaliation problem within the agency. “I will not stand for retaliation against people who are abiding by our orders and reporting violations of law or regulations.”

Since fiscal 2005, ATF paid $1.6 million to settle discrimination claims, more than the $1.3 million paid out by the much larger Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to CNN.

CNN also reported that ATF Associate Chief Counsel Eleanor Loos told supervisors at an Atlanta meeting that she considers the Equal Employment Opportunity process a “bitching platform” for employees and bragged that the process could be dragged on for three years. The statement was obtained from ATF supervisor Rafiq Ahmad, but ATF spokesman Scot Thomasson told CNN that the comments were taken out of context and that Ahmad was presenting them in a slanted manner.

The White House has struggled to find a permanent chief for the agency, which hasn’t had a permanent director since 2006. ATF’s unpublished strategic plan for fiscal 2010 through 2016 layout plans for it to focus on violent crime and leave terrorism investigations to the FBI.

CNN host Cooper added that Cefalu had received calls from two investigators at ATF headquarters in Washington once previews for the special began airing. A follow-up segment on ATF will air on CNN Thursday night.

Read a print version of CNN’s segment on ATF on their website. Video segments are embedded below.

Roberto Villasenor, Chief of Police in Tucson, Ariz., discusses his opposition to the recent Arizona immigration law (photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).

Police chiefs and sheriffs with the Police Executive Research Forum met for over an hour with Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday morning to discuss their opposition to Arizona’s recently enacted immigration law.

The meeting came after a team of lawyers recommended Tuesday that the Justice Department challenge the Arizona immigration law in federal court, Fox News reported. The Attorney General’s office and several other offices are reviewing a draft of a legal challenge.

A representative from the association described the meeting as candid and frank.

“When you enact legislation that makes any subset of that community feel like they are being targeted specifically or have concerns about coming forward and talking to the police, that damages our capability to obtain information to solve the crimes that we need to work with,” Tucson Police Chief Roberto Villasenor said.

Members of the delegation told The Washington Post that they believe the Arizona law would boost crime.

“This law is the culmination of a very broken immigration system,” Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris told USA Today. “It doesn’t fix the immigration problem, it only diverts our scarce resources.”

Video of the news conference outside of the Justice Department is embedded below.