Conservative critics of Attorney General Eric Holder’s national security record are calling on him to resign, citing a federal jury’s acquittal of an accused conspirator in the 1998 terrorist bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa on all but one count.
Potential 2012 presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Tim Pawlenty are among the Republicans citing the Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani case as reason for Holder to go. A Manhattan jury last week found Ghailani guilty on one conspiracy charge related to the 1998 bombing in Kenya and Tanzania, for which he faces life in prison.
The Justice Department trumpeted the conspiracy conviction, but most commentators saw the outcome as another blow to Holder’s already shaky political standing on national security issues.
Gingrich said in a video interview with NewsMax.com that Holder had “endangered national security” by trying Ghailani in court. “I think that Attorney General Holder should resign,” the former House Speaker said.
Pawlenty, the governor of Minnesota, also said last week in a radio interview that he thought Holder should step down. And Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, called on Holder to resign in a statement. Holder is pursuing an “insane policy of appeasing terrorists,” Franks said.
The calls for Holder to resign echo a similar chorus from conservatives earlier this year, also upset over his national security polices. Today, however, Holder’s critics appear more emphatic, perhaps emboldened by the GOP’s strong showing in the mid-term elections. They are not merely suggesting he should consider resigning but saying directly that he should go.
The Justice Department transferred Ghailani from Guantanamo Bay into federal custody in New York last year as part of a strategy to close the U.S. military detention facility in Cuba. Conservatives have argued that non-U.S. citizen terrorism suspects should be tried in military tribunals. But in practice, the tribunals have been ineffective, while the DOJ has underscored that terrorism-related cases have routinely gone to civilian courts since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
In the Ghailani case, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan refused to let prosecutors introduce evidence obtained from a witness whose identity was learned after Ghailani had been subjected to harsh interrogation techniques that critics have called torture.
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The Justice Department Civil Division chief on Monday announced one of the highest annual civil fraud claims recoveries, touting the Barack Obama administration’s dedicated pursuit of swindlers.
Assistant Attorney General Tony West of the Civil Division told reporters at DOJ headquarters that the federal government recovered $3 billion in fiscal 2010 from settlements of False Claims Act cases. The DOJ only picked up more civil fraud claims in 2006, when $3.2 billion was recovered.
He said the Obama administration’s dedication to combating fraud in the health care industry and in federal programs was instrumental in bringing one of the largest annual civil fraud recoveries in U.S. history.
“Resolving cases requires individuals to engage in negotiation and to do so with the intent of holding people accountable so cases can be resolved and settled in a whole number of ways,” West said. “I think the fact that we’ve been successful in settling these cases for record amounts, resolving these cases for record amounts as well as opening more investigations, more cases in the last two years than we have previously shows this administration’s commitment to not only health care fraud, but fraud more generally.”
Attorney General Eric Holder and the other top DOJ leaders have made efforts to root out swindlers — especially fraudsters in the health care industry — a top priority. The DOJ brought in its largest annual health care recovery in U.S. history during fiscal 2010, securing $2.5 billion in health care fraud settlements.
In May 2009, Holder and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius launched the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team to improve cooperation between the Department of Health and Human Service and the DOJ on criminal and civil enforcement matters.
The DOJ resolved high-profile cases in fiscal 2010 against AstraZeneca and Pfizer Inc., which were accused of promoting the drugs they manufactured for off-label purposes.
AstraZeneca paid the federal government $302 million to resolve the claims against it. Pfizer paid $669 million. But Pfizer had to pay a total of $2.3 billion in fines, damages and forfeitures, making the agreement the largest health care settlement in U.S. history.
“I think our results both in the cases that we’ve resolved and the investigations that we’ve opened and the cases that we’ve brought indicate that we’re making good on that promise,” West said about DOJ’s focus on fighting fraud, especially in the health care industry.
West also noted DOJ efforts to settle claims of payment schemes involving government procurement contracts for the production of bullet-proof vests for law enforcement officials. In fiscal 2010, the DOJ secured a total of $11.74 million in settlements with manufacturers Lincoln Fabrics Ltd., Lincoln Textiles Inc and Aramark Company LLC.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), who wrote legislation that bolstered the False Claims Act over the decades, applauded the fiscal 2010 recovery. He said his work on the False Claims Act has helped protect taxpayers and empower whistleblowers.
“This law is the most powerful tool in rooting out fraud against the federal treasury,” Grassley said. “Not only does the law help recover billions of taxpayer dollars, but it also deters untold more.”
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CIV
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2010
WWW.JUSTICE.GOV
REMARKS AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY BY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR THE CIVIL DIVISION
TONY WEST AT THE PEN AND PAD BRIEFING ON CIVIL FRAUD RECOVERIES
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Thank you all for coming. My name is Tony West, and I’m the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the Department of Justice. In that capacity, I oversee much of the Federal Government’s civil litigation across the country—that includes national security cases like GTMO habeas and state secrets; consumer protection cases like mortgage fraud; and cases to recapture billions of taxpayers’ dollars lost to fraud, waste, and abuse.
Today, I want to announce an important milestone of success in our fight against fraud on the taxpayers using one of our most successful civil enforcement tools, the False Claims Act: This past year – fiscal year 2010, that ended on September 30 – marked the largest health care fraud recovery under the False Claims Act in a single year ever – $2.5 billion. Overall, the Civil Division and the United States Attorneys have recovered $3 billion for the American taxpayer — money that otherwise would have padded the bank accounts of defendants who sought profit over quality, reasonably-priced health care; or profiteering from the wars in Southwest Asia; or personal gain over supporting law enforcement with the best protection money could buy.
In fact, since January 2009, when this Administration took office, the Civil Division, together with the U.S. Attorneys’ offices, has recovered $5.4 billion in funds secured through fraud and false claims – the largest two-year recovery of taxpayer dollars in the history of the Justice Department.
Nowhere is this more apparent than our success in fighting health care fraud. Since January 2009, we have opened more health care fraud cases, secured larger fines and judgments and recovered more taxpayer dollars lost to health care fraud than in any other two-year period — $4.6 billion. And that doesn’t even include the work of the Civil Division’s Office of Consumer Litigation, which pursues both criminal as well as civil health care fraud violations under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Their efforts have yielded another $3 billion since January 2009 in criminal fines, forfeitures and penalties with over half of that coming in this past fiscal year.
As you know, fighting health care fraud has been a top priority for the President, the Attorney General and for me here in the Civil Division. A year ago in May the Attorney General and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced HEAT, the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team, to increase coordination between DOJ and HHS and optimize criminal and civil enforcement. And that effort has obviously paid off.
Now, in the FY 2010 numbers we’re announcing today, you’ll see a variety of cases. There are the big pharma cases – matters like our off-label drug marketing settlement with Pfizer announced near the beginning of the fiscal year, where we recovered $669 million in federal health care funds, as well as additional amounts not included in our FY2010 numbers, like the $331 million returned to state Medicaid programs as a part of that case, or the $1.3 billion in criminal fines and forfeitures we also recovered from Pfizer, which all together make it the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history.
Or the AstraZeneca settlement, another off-label drug marketing case that recovered over $300 million in federal taxpayer dollars, plus another $218 million returned to state Medicaid programs.
But in addition to those mega-cases, there are other cases in the numbers that go to the heart of why it’s so important to be aggressive in this fight against fraud. Cases like those involving the supplies of goods and services to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. In FY2010, we recovered over $10 million in taxpayer funds in connection with procurement fraud involving the wars in Southwest Asia.
Or cases like those we’ve brought against companies and individuals involved in the sale of defective bulletproof vests – we believe knowingly – to the federal government and to state, local and tribal law enforcement organizations that were reimbursed by the federal government, putting the people who protect us in harm’s way.
Or cases that go to the heart of providing quality care to our most vulnerable citizens – the Small Smiles case, where our investigation found that dentists were performing unnecessary tooth extractions or excessive baby root canals on children who were Medicaid patients. Or the Omnicare matter, where we found that the company solicited and received kickbacks from pharmaceutical manufacturers to recommend the use of their drugs to elderly patients in nursing homes, including powerful antipsychotic drugs used to control their behavior.
In those FY2010 there are cases against individual doctors who are neither qualified nor competent to perform complex medical procedures but do so in order to maximize billing against government health care programs; financial fraud cases involving mortgage fraud and economic stimulus funds; even a case where an oil and gas company committed fraud by undervaluing the minerals it extracted from federal and Indian lands—cases that illustrate that it’s not just about taxpayers who are cheated but about the quality of care we provide through Medicare and Medicaid; the integrity of the products we provide to those who protect us; and the fairness of our government programs.
These cases wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the many Civil Division lawyers, U.S. Attorneys, investigators, auditors, and other public servants who investigate and prosecute these cases. We also have to thank the whistleblowers who often risk their careers to bring allegations of fraud to the Government’s attention through the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act. This past year, whistleblowers’ qui tam suits accounted for more than $2.3 billion of the $3 billion recovered.
I also want to thank Congress for strengthening the False Claims Act – the Government’s foremost weapon in the fight against fraud. In particular, I want to thank Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Chairman of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee, and Senator Charles Grassley and Representative Howard Berman for their support of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009. This important legislation amended the False Claims Act and other fraud statutes in significant ways to meet the challenges of evermore sophisticated fraud schemes in a complicated global economy.
Robert E. Maxwell, a longtime federal judge in West Virginia, died Saturday, the Inter-Mountain newspaper in Elkins, W.Va., reported.
Born in 1924, Maxwell was the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia from 1961 until 1964. Nominated for the Northern District bench by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, he served as chief judge from 1965 until 1994. He went to senior status the next year, keeping the position until his death.
Early in his career, Maxwell was a prosecuting attorney in Randolph County. A graduate of West Virginia University College of Law, he had also worked in private practice.
Renowned for his dedication to the community, Maxwell was a much appreciated figure.
“Judge Maxwell was a special person, and I always considered him a dear friend. He was a true defender of justice and an excellent public servant who will be sorely missed”, said U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin.
A memorial is expected to be held soon.
The Senate on Friday passed legislation that would authorize billions of dollars to settle lawsuits involving discrimination against black farmers and American Indians.
The body approved by unanimous consent the legislation that would allow the distribution of $1.15 billion to settle the Pigford v. Glickman case, involving African-American farmers, and $3.4 billion to resolve Cobell v. Salazar, which involves American Indians.
Black farmers claimed that the government discriminated against them in the allocation of government loans and other aid. American Indians alleged mismanagement of trust funds.
“Black farmers and Native American trust account holders have had to wait a long time for justice, but now it will finally be served,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in a statement. “I am heartened that Democrats and Republicans were able to come together to deliver the settlement that these men and women deserve for the discrimination and mismanagement they faced in the past. This issue has been of great importance to me, and I am pleased these long-suffering Americans can now receive the closure that they deserve.”
The House must still pass the legislation before it can reach the president’s desk. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said in a statement he will try to bring up a vote on the legislation “very soon.”
The lead media representative at the Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney’s office became a top adviser to the U.S. Attorney, a Justice Department spokeswoman told Main Justice Friday.
Yusill Scribner left her post as Chief Public Information Officer in October to become the Chief of Staff to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. Ellen Davis, a former ABC News producer and DOJ staffer in the 1990s, replaced Scribner.
The leader of the Justice Department’s research branch will receive an award for his work in criminology, the Stockholm Criminology Symposium announced Thursday.
John Laub (University of Maryland)
Director John Laub of the National Institute of Justice will accept Stockholm Prize in Criminology in June for his studies on why criminals give up a life of crime. Laub and Harvard University professor Robert Sampson, who also will get the award, learned that events in offenders’ lives — including marriage and employment — can make criminals turn away from crime.
“We are delighted to have this distinguished award bestowed upon a member of the Office of Justice Programs’ leadership,” Assistant Attorney General Laurie Robinson said in a statement. “As our current Director of the National Institute of Justice, Dr. Laub’s knowledge and experience represent a lifetime commitment to scientific research. We applaud Dr. Laub, his commitment to science, and the recognition that it brings.”
Laub, who is also an University of Maryland professor, has led the National Institute of Justice since the Senate confirmed him in June.
Laurence Tribe will leave the Justice Department next month after experiencing health issues, The New York Times reported this week.
Laurence Tribe (photo by Channing Turner / Main Justice)
Tribe, a senior counselor focusing on access to legal services for the poor, will return to Harvard University as a law professor on Dec. 3, following the reappearance of symptoms from a benign brain tumor. He started at the DOJ in March
The DOJ official told The Times that his tenure was “extremely productive.”
“It’s been as difficult as I imagined it would be to get a lot done in an environment with limited funding,” on the whole “given that it’s been only nine months I feel very good about what we’ve accomplished,” Tribe told the newspaper.
Tribe said he disclosed his health because he wanted to preemptively quell any speculation his resignation was the result of his penning a letter to President Barack Obama in 2009 that criticized then-Supreme Court justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor. The letter was leaked last month.
The senior counselor at the DOJ met with defense lawyers, judges and prosecutor around the U.S. to seek out ways to enhance the justice system for individuals with limited means.
The DOJ said it will continue its efforts to improve indigent defense. But it is unclear whether there will be a successor to Tribe, according to The Times.
