The Justice Department on Monday will host a memorial service in honor of one of its own who served in the Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton administrations, one of the late DOJ official’s former colleagues told Main Justice.

James K. Robinson (Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP)

The event in the Great Hall of DOJ headquarters will pay tribute to James K. Robinson, who served as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan from 1977 to 1980 and later led the DOJ Criminal Division from 1998 to 2001. He died in August after battling gastrointestinal cancer.

Attorney General Eric Holder and Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis are among the members of the DOJ community who are expected to deliver remarks at the service, said former Eastern District of Michigan U.S. Attorney Richard Rossman. He said the DOJ will also show a slideshow of photographs from his life at the gathering.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO MONITOR POLLS IN 18 STATES ON ELECTION DAY

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced today that its Civil Rights Division plans to deploy more than 400 federal observers and department personnel to 30 jurisdictions in 18 states for the Nov. 2, 2010, general election.

Although state and local governments have primary responsibility for administering elections, under the federal voting rights laws, the Civil Rights Division is charged with and committed to protecting the rights of all citizens to access the ballot on Election Day.

In the days leading up to and throughout Election Day, Civil Rights Division staff members will be available at a special toll-free number to receive complaints related to ballot access (1-800-253-3931) (TTY line 1-877-267-8971), including allegations of voter intimidation or coercion targeted at voters because of their race, color, national origin or religion.  In addition, individuals may also report complaints, problems or concerns related to voting via the Internet.  Forms may be submitted through a link on the department’s web page: www.justice.gov/.

Allegations of voter fraud are handled by the 94 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices across the country and the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section.  Complaints may be directed to any of the local U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, the local FBI offices or the Public Integrity Section at 202-514-1412.

Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the department has regularly sent observers and monitors around the country to protect voters’ rights.  The Voting Rights Act prohibits discrimination in the election process on the basis of race, color or membership in a minority language group.  In addition, the act requires certain covered jurisdictions to provide language assistance during the election process.  Under the Voting Rights Act, the department is authorized to ask the Office of Personnel Management to send federal observers to areas that have been certified for coverage by a federal court or the Attorney General.  The department also may send monitors from its own staff to elections in other jurisdictions.

On Election Day, federal observers will monitor polling place activities in 16 jurisdictions:

• • Autauga County, Ala.;
  • Bethel, Alaska;
  • Apache and Navajo Counties, Ariz.;
  • Riverside County, Calif.;
  • Randolph County, Ga.;
  • Kane County, Ill.;
  • Salem County (Penns Grove), N.J.;
  • Cibola and Sandoval Counties, N.M.;
  • Cuyahoga County, Ohio;
  • Shannon County; S.D.; and
  • Dallas, Fort Bend, Galveston and Williamson Counties, Texas.

Justice Department personnel will monitor the election in an additional 14 jurisdictions:

• • Maricopa County, Ariz.;
  • Alameda County, Calif.;
  • Seminole County, Fla.;
  • Honolulu, Hawaii;
  • Neshoba County, Miss.;
  • Colfax County, Neb.;
  • Passaic County, N.J.;
  • Orange County, N.Y.;
  • Lorain County, Ohio;
  • Philadelphia, Pa.;
  • Bennett and Todd Counties, S.D.;
  • Shelby County, Tenn.; and
  • Harris County, Texas.

The observers and department personnel will gather information on whether voters are subject to different voting qualifications or procedures on the basis of race, color, or membership in a language minority group; whether jurisdictions are complying with the minority language provisions of the Voting Rights Act; whether jurisdictions permit voters to receive assistance by a person of his or her choice if the voter is blind, has a disability, or is unable to read or write; whether jurisdictions allow voters with disabilities to cast a private and independent ballot; and whether jurisdictions comply with the provisional ballot requirements of the Help America Vote Act.  To assist in these inquiries, the department has deployed observers and monitors who speak Spanish and a variety of Asian and Native American languages.  Both the federal observers and department personnel will coordinate monitoring activities, and department attorneys maintain contact with local election officials.

Hundreds of exuberant Justice Department employees on Wednesday flocked to DAR Constitution Hall in Washington to pick up the DOJ’s highest honors. But members of some DOJ branches had little to celebrate at the department’s premier awards ceremony.

Members of five DOJ components that won awards at the Attorney General Awards Ceremony last year did not receive honors at Wednesday’s event. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, one of the DOJ’s most well-known components, was one of the branches snubbed this week, after receiving four awards last year.

The DOJ’s other law enforcement agencies picked up several awards this year and last. The FBI raked in the most honors in both 2009 and 2010, going home with about 55 awards each of the last two years.

Michael Bouchard, president of the ATF Association, which includes former and current ATF agents, told Main Justice that it was “odd” that the agency did not receive any awards this year.

“People in the ATF do some of the finest work in law enforcement and always have,” said Bouchard, former ATF Assistant Director for Field Operations.

A DOJ spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

The ATF and Drug Enforcement Administration, which received 14 awards this year, have complained that they often play second fiddle to the FBI.

DEA agents expressed annoyance earlier this month when President Barack Obama only mentioned the FBI when he spoke at an MTV town hall about federal efforts to fight the drug war. The DEA leads federal government work to stop illegal drugs.

The DOJ took efforts earlier this year to decrease some of the tension between the ATF and FBI. Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler drew the jurisdictional boundaries between the agencies on explosives cases after a battle over who gets to do what in the investigations.

But irritation at the ATF persists over immense pressure from the gun lobby and members of Congress that has limited its growth and authority.

“We were always given just enough food and water to survive,” Bouchard told The Washington Post. “We could barely just keep going. The ATF could never get that strong, because the gun lobby would get too concerned.”

Charts ranking the DOJ components and U.S. Attorney’s office by the number of awards they won in 2010 and 2009 are below.

Data Compiled by Andrew Ramonas, Main Justice

Data compiled by Andrew Ramonas, Main Justice

The government’s second attempt to convict Kevin A. Ring, a onetime associate of the disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, hit a decidedly bumpy stretch on Thursday when the presiding judge sharply criticized the prosecutor, declaring at one point that he had “crossed the line of professional responsibility.”

U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle said she would not grant a defense motion for a mistrial. But she instructed the jury in unusually sharp and specific language to remember that she had struck testimony to which the defense had objected.

Kevin Ring (Getty Images)

While the prosecution’s case is still alive, the admonition that Huvelle dealt the prosecutor, Nathaniel B. Edmonds, in her Washington courtroom must have caused the government some worry, particularly since the first trial of Ring ended in a mistrial a year ago and a recent Supreme Court ruling might make some corruption cases harder to prove.

Ring, who just turned 40, is accused of conspiracy, fraud and obstruction of justice in connection with a four-year scheme to lavish tickets and trips on lawmakers and government officials in return for help for his clients. Ring was once an aide to former Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.) and worked with Abramoff on behalf of Indian tribes seeking to operate gambling casinos.

The testimony that drew the judge’s ire on Thursday had to do with Kathy Lopez, the wife of David Lopez, once Doolittle’s chief of staff. The witness, Neil Volz, was once a lobbyist with Ring. During Edmonds’ questioning, Miller & Chevalier’s Andrew T. Wise contended, Edmonds implied that Ring had obtained a do-nothing job for Kathy Lopez, even though he knew that that was not the case.

When Volz said he couldn’t remember certain incidents, but that he would be happy to look at whatever documentation the government had to refresh his recollection, Edmonds said, “We don’t need to take the time now.”

That line, Wise heatedly argued, implied that Edmonds had some damaging information that he did, in fact, not have. While not granting a mistrial, the judge sided with the defense.

“You have crossed the line of professional responsibility, and I will do something about it if it keeps up,” Huvelle told the prosecutor, outside the presence of the jury. Moments earlier, she described Edmonds’ apparent hint that he had more damaging material than he really had “a real cheap shot” and “gamesmanship” that she would not tolerate in her courtroom.

Nor was the judge mollified by Edmonds’ explanation that “I misspoke,” and that he would have no objection to an instruction to the jury that Ring had had no role in securing a job for Kathy Lopez. “You are too smart to make a careless error like that,” Huvelle told Edmonds.

Wise argued that the damage done by Edmonds’ remark was very hard to undo without very specific and detailed instructions from the bench: “You can’t throw a skunk in the jury box and then tell the jury to ignore it. And that’s exactly what this is.”

Finally, the judge told the jury that “the defendant had nothing to do with setting this job up,” and that “there is nothing here to suggest there was anything illegal or improper about her job.” Moreover, Huvelle told the jurors, “there is no evidence whatsoever” that the prosecution had any document that could have refreshed the witness’s recollection, as Edmonds had implied.

Nearly a score of lawmakers and others in positions of influence have been brought down in the Abramoff-related scandals involving expensive golf junkets, free tickets to sporting events and other improper perks of power. Abramoff  himself expressed remorse, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to several years in prison.

Doolittle, the former California congressman, was the beneficiary of Abramoff-run fundraising events and other expressions of generosity, prosecutors contended. But Dootlittle, who has retired from Congress, was never charged with a crime.

Ring is one of the few people caught up in the scandals to fight the charges against him. Most other defendants pleaded guilty. From the outset, Ring has maintained his innocence, insisting that the government was trying to pressure him to provide evidence against others.

As Main Justice reported in August, the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Skilling v. United States, limited prosecutors’ use of the honest services law to strict cases of bribery and kickbacks, and thus could complicate things for the prosecution in the Ring case.

“We are not on a clean slate here,” Huvelle observed in August — presciently, it now seems.  “This is very complicated. This is going to be a very hard case for the jury.”

This article was edited to clarify that the defense asked Huvelle to declare a mistrial.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on Friday postponed a vote on a draft report that blasts the Justice Department’s handling of a controversial voter-intimidation case against members of the New Black Panther Party after a Democrat thwarted the vote in protest.

Democratic Commissioner Michael Yaki, who would have made quorum, left the meeting room before the body could vote on the document. The report says the DOJ did not fully cooperate with the commission’s investigation into the government’s decision to dismiss most charges against members of the anti-white fringe group who wore military clothing as they stood outside a polling place in a black neighborhood in Philadelphia in November 2008. The panel postponed the vote on the report to next Friday.

Michael Yaki, a Democrat on the U.S. Civil Rights Commission (photo by Andrew Ramonas / Main Justice)

“This process for this entire investigation has been a farce from the beginning and done in a way to diminish the opportunity of those who oppose this investigation to participate,� Yaki told reporters outside the meeting room.

Commissioner Arlan Melendez, a Democrat, and Vice Chairman Abigail Thernstrom, a Republican, who both have concerns about the body’s investigation, were unable to attend the meeting, which he said was called on short notice. The Democratic commissioner said “their voices deserve to be heard.�

Chairman Gerald Reynolds, a Republican, told reporters after the meeting that no one tried to keep the commissioners from attending the meeting.

“There was no game playing here,� Reynolds said.

The draft report, obtained by Talking Points Memo, says the DOJ did not adequately address “serious accusations” made by former DOJ staffer J. Christian Adams and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Coates, the former chief of the Civil Rights Division Voting Section, about hostility in the DOJ to prosecuting voting rights cases against minorities. Adams and Coates were told by the DOJ not to appear before the commission.

DOJ spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler told Main Justice on Thursday that she “strongly” disagrees with the report’s claims about the DOJ’s responsiveness. She said the DOJ has handed over more than 4,000 documents about the case at the request of the commission.

Schmaler also noted that Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez testified about the case before the commission. He defended decisions made in the case in his testimony earlier this year.

The report cites The Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine, as the source of many of its findings. The commission’s $173,653 investigation has received praise from Republicans, who have expressed concern about the DOJ’s decisions in the case.

Commissioner Peter Kirsanow, a Republican, said the commission should discuss keeping its probe open on an “indefinite� basis because the body is still waiting for more information from the DOJ. David Blackwood, the commission’s general counsel, said the body will subpoena former acting Civil Rights Division Assistant Attorney General Loretta King and her former deputy, Sam Hirsch, in addition to division officials Julie Fernandes and Steve Rosenbaum, who are key figures involved with the New Black Panther Party case.

“I understand that the Department of Justice did agree to at least receive our next set of subpoenas,� said Commissioner Todd F. Gaziano, an Independent. “That’s a good thing. I hope they actually stop instructing their employees not to [testify].�

This post has been corrected.

A territorial judge in the Virgin Islands dismissed the controversial murder case against a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives special agent on Thursday, the Associated Press reported.

Virgin Islands Superior Court Judge Edgar Ross ruled in favor of a motion from the lawyers for William G. Clark that requested dismissal on a technicality. Clark’s legal team of Mark E. Schamel, a lawyer at the firm of Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice PLLC in D.C., and former Virgin Islands Attorney General Kerry Drue successfully argued that territorial authorities failed to follow the correct method in identifying the body of Marcus Sukow. Clark claimed he shot the neighbor in self-defense in 2008 during a domestic dispute between Sukow and his girlfriend. (Read our four-part series on the case here.)

Ross threw out the case with prejudice, which means that prosecutors in the U.S. Caribbean territory cannot bring further charges.

Schamel did not immediately respond to requests for comment. But he told Main Justice on Tuesday that Clark “never committed a crime.”

“His conduct was appropriate and legal,” Schamel said.

Members of Congress and the federal law enforcement community made the case a national issue, expressing outrage at the decision by territorial prosecutors to bring manslaughter charges against Clark, who was cleared of wrongdoing by an ATF internal investigation.

They held rallies for Clark and secured high-ranking support from Attorney General Eric Holder and ATF Deputy Director Kenneth Melson, who leads the agency.

“As I have said from the beginning, Will is a hero, not a murderer, and I’m so grateful the Judge looked at the facts of the case and agreed,� Rep. Christophe Lee (R-N.Y.), who sponsored a resolution honoring Clark, said in a statement. “Our law enforcement officers need to know that they will not be prosecuted for taking lawful actions to protect the innocent, whether they are on duty or off. I’m proud to say that today, justice was served with the dismissal of the charges against Will Clark.�

Bank of America has hired Brian Boyle, a former Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General at the Justice Department from 2003 to 2005, to represent it in dealings with state Attorneys General, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

Brian Boyle (O'Melveny)

Two weeks ago, the 50 state Attorneys General launched a joint investigation into foreclosure practices after documents showed that several mortgage companies may have mishandled affidavits to U.S. courts.

Boyle, who served at the DOJ under President George W. Bush, participated in a conference call between the bank and representatives from the Florida Attorney General’s office.

Boyle is now a partner in O’Melveny & Myers LLP Washington office, where he represents companies in the insurance, health care and financial services industries.

O’Melveny represented Bank of America when investors sued the company, requesting that it buy back mortgages impacted by an Attorney General’s settlement involving subprime lending. A judge in New York recently dismissed the litigation.