The two Republicans leading the investigation into the a controversial federal gun operation want to know more about guns that were used in the killing of an immigration officer.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking what the Justice Department knows about firearms linked to the gun-running operation that were used to murder Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata.
They also asked for information about the Department of Justice’s knowledge of Ranferi and Otilio Osorio, and Kelvin Morrison, straw purchasers linked to weapons used in the killing.
The two also criticized the attorney general, saying that an October 11 response he sent Grassley was six months late and failed to address questions posed by the senator.
They also asked Holder to comment on whether any component of the Justice Department knew how or when the firearm that was used to kill Zapata was taken to Mexico.
Grassley and Issa asked why the Osorio brothers and Morrison weren’t arrested on November 9, 2010, even though undercover federal agents sold the men illegal firearms while local law enforcement officials put them under surveillance and stopped them.
Zapata was murdered on February 15 while en route from Mexico City to Monterrey to assist the Mexican government in its efforts to clamp down on organized crime. The car he was riding in was attacked by gunmen from a drug cartel called Los Zetas, despite the fact that it had diplomatic license plates.
Another ICE Agent, Victor Avila, was also wounded in the attack, but he survived.
Michael J. Leotta, who served more than seven years in the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Maryland, has joined WilmerHale as a counsel in the firm’s litigation/controversy department and member of the investigations and criminal litigation practice.
Michael Leotta
Leotta served both as appellate chief and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Maryland and was for a time detailed to the White House Counsel’s Office as Deputy Associate Counsel. Before becoming appellate chief, Leotta was a trial lawyer in the Fraud and Public Corruption section.
Prior to his government service, Leotta was a litigation associate at Williams & Connolly LLP, and served as a clerk to the Judge Francis D. Murnaghan Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. Leotta graduated summa cum laude with a degree in psychology from the University of Maryland and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School.
Have Alabama federal prosecutors been bumped from a controversial corruption case in favor of Justice Department Public Integrity Section attorneys?
The names of local federal prosecutors Louis Franklin and Stephen Feaga are missing from recent court documents filed in the case, but attorneys from public integrity continue to be listed, the Montgomery Advertiser reported Wednesday.
The high-stakes case involves VictoryLand casino owner Milton McGregor, who, the federal government charges, abandoned legitimate lobbying efforts and bribed state lawmakers in an effort to win support for a constitutional amendment that would have allowed electronic bingo machines in the state. The amendment passed the state Senate in March 2010, but died shortly after that when the FBI announced its corruption investigation.
One casino owner and two lobbyists pleaded guilty to charges in connection with the probe, while four former state lawmakers, two government employees and two lobbyists were among those who stood trial on the charges.
A year ago, Criminal Division chief Lanny Breuer held a news conference to trumpet the charges, calling the alleged bribery scheme “astonishing in scope.
But during a trial in August, other defendants were acquitted on several counts and the jury could not reach a verdict on several other charges. Following the trial, legal observers in Alabama questioned DOJ’s handling of the case, saying that Washington prosecutors didn’t understand Alabama.
DOJ officials disputed that claim, saying that public integrity attorneys try cases across the nation and have had tremendous success during the past year.
And now comes news that public integrity attorneys will be handling the case by themselves.
DOJ spokeswoman Laura Sweeney downplayed the move. “Prosecutors schedules often change due to other cases and obligations,” she said in a statement. “Based on the expected length of the upcoming trial, some members of the prosecution team aren’t available to participate. It isn’t uncommon for there to be changes when retrials occur in trials expected to last several months.”
Stephen Feaga’s name was misspelled in an earlier version of this report.
Janet Fisher, a former prosecutor and investigative attorney for the Department of Justice National Security Division, has joined Venable LLP.
The firm said on Wednesday that Fisher will help handle white collar and government investigations, and assist with data security, privacy, regulatory and compliance issues.
While at the National Security Division, Fisher worked on matters related to cybersecurity, advised officials on foreign intelligence and surveillance, and helped prosecutors on an appeals case concerning the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
“Janet’s litigation background, combined with her deep knowledge of emerging communications technologies and the security challenges they face, give her the rare ability and experience to counsel businesses in the developing area of cyber security law,” said Geoffrey Garinther, head of Venable’s litigation division.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Wednesday she did not know about Operation Fast and Furious until a firearm linked to the gun-walking operation was used to kill a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
Napolitano was questioned about her knowledge of the operation by Republican congressmen at a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on DHS.
Napolitano said that she was never briefed about the failed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation — and added that she did not know why — even though she acknowledged that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were told by the ATF to allow guns to be trafficked into Mexico on two occasions in 2009.
“ATF said that these are part of a larger investigation. Stand down,” Napolitano said in response to questions from Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah).
Napolitano, a former U.S. Attorney, also said that she has never spoken to Attorney General Eric Holder about Fast and Furious.
She refused to answer questions from Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) about whether or not Department of Justice officials approved of the operation, saying that the matter is being investigated by the department’s Inspector General.
She told Gowdy that she first heard about Fast and Furious after the murder of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, when a gun used in the operation was recovered at the scene of the crime.
A federal Judge Wednesday sentenced former Jack Abramoff associate Kevin Ring to 20 months in prison for his role in the Washington lobbying scandal.
Department of Justice officials originally had recommended a 17-to-22 year sentence, sparking protests from Ring and editorial writers that prosecutors were retaliating against him for exercising his constitutional right to trial. That sentence would have put Ring behind bars far longer than any other defendant, including Abramoff himself.
Although Huvelle last month rebuked the Justice Department in an opinion that scaled back Ring’s sentencing range, on Wednesday she rejected Ring’s request for probation in lieu of prison. Prison is necessary “to respect the jury’s verdict and promote respect for the law,” Huvelle said. Ring was also ordered to serve 30 months on probation.
Still, Huvelle’s 20-month sentence is much less than the 4 years 9 months she concluded last month that Ring could receive under Federal Sentencing Guidelines calculations. And it is less than the 50 months the Justice Department later sought for Ring after Huvelle’s order. And it is more than two decades less than the upper range originally sought by the Justice Department.
“I found a ridiculous system full of gray areas and I manipulated it,” Ring said through heavy tears at his sentencing hearing on Wednesday.
Ring was convicted last year of giving expensive restaurant meals and tickets to sporting and music events to public officials to influence their actions in favor of his and Abramoff’s lobbying clients. He was not accused of directly pocketing big money from the fraud. Ring got the same amount of prison time as chief conspirator Michael Scanlon, who was sentenced to 20 months incarceration and was convicted of stealing $20 million.
Abramoff and Scanlon were convicted of, among other things, a kickback scheme that defrauded Indian tribe lobbying clients of tens of millions of dollars. Abramoff and Scanlon agreed to pay restitution for their crimes of approximately $20 million each. Both pleaded guilty and agreed to help prosecutors in their ongoing criminal probe. Abramoff received leniency from the government and reduced his sentence by 75 percent.
Ring remains free pending appeal.
The Justice Department says there are plenty of indications that the Texas redistricting maps signed by Gov. Rick Perry had the effect, and indeed the intent, of limiting the power of Hispanic voters.
“Federal lawyers contended in the newest filing that there is ‘ample circumstantial evidence of a discriminatory purpose with regard to both the State House and Congressional plans’ and that in the new maps nearly half a million fewer Hispanics would live in districts where they would have the ability to elect a candidate of their choosing,” Ryan J. Reilly reports on Talking Points Memo.
Not only that but, according to lawyers in the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, race and ethnicity “were common themes during discussions between the Republican leadership and others, including a United States Congressman and staff.” Oh, the Congressman referred to is Rep. Joe Barton, who happens to be of Republican persuasion and is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which oversees the DOJ.
All this has surfaced in connection with a lawsuit contending that Texas officials have tried to dilute the voting power of Hispanic voters in violation of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. While it would be irresponsible to speculate on the motives of parties involved in a lawsuit, it is true that people of Hispanic descent tend to vote Democratic. And, it must be said, Democrats are trying to redraw maps to their advantage in states where they are in power.
At the moment, the Lone Star State’s two senators, John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, are Republicans. So are 23 of the state’s 32 members in the House of Representatives. And Republicans are in solid control of both houses of the State Legislature. So one need not be cynical to suspect that Republicans are intent on keeping their power, now that the once-a-decade blood sport of redistricting, based on new federal census figures, is under way.
Redistricting is sometimes referred to as “gerrymandering,” although that word has a pejorative ring. For those who slept through ninth-grade civics class, the word was coined thanks to Elbridge Gerry, a Founding Father who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, governor of Massachusetts and vice president of the United States.
Anyhow, Gerry once had a big hand in drawing a political district that someone said looked like a salamander. No, someone else wittily rejoined. It looks more like a gerrymander. By the way, Gerry’s political affiliation is sometimes described as “Democratic-Republican,” although the labels of the 18th Century don’t translate easily into those of the present.
Fast-forward to today, and the question arises: Will the Texas litigation make for awkwardness whenever DOJ lawyers appear before Barton’s committee?
In a legal battle with gun owners, Justice Department lawyers described a new gun sale rule as a necessary and effective foreign policy measure.
Lawyers from the DOJ said in a federal courtroom in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday that the two month old regulation on gun merchants in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas is necessary to prevent guns from being sold to Mexican drug cartels, according to the Associated Press.
The regulation — which forces gun merchants to give the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives information about customers who buy two or more semi-automatic rifles greater than .22 caliber within five days — gives ATF agents the ability to monitor gun sales more quickly, Justice Department attorney Daniel Reiss, said.
Reiss added that federal agents have already launched two investigations since the new regulations have been implemented.
But Stephen Halbrook, an attorney for Arizona based gun store J & G Sales and Foothills Firearms, said that the rule, which requires gun store owners to obtain the birth dates, addresses, race and gender of purchasers of multiple higher caliber semi automatics, amounts to an invasion of privacy. He said that the previous rules only demanded the turning over of such information to federal authorities in the event of a criminal investigation.
“We don’t deny the fact there is a serious problem and it needs to be dealt with,” Halbrook said, but argued that the problem should be dealt with differently, and characterized the new rules as “just a fishing expedition”.
The new requirement was imposed in the wake of Operation Fast and Furious, a botched gun operation that allowed guns to be “walked” into Mexico. Two guns from the operation were recovered in December at the scene of a shootout between Border Patrol agents and Mexican bandits near Rio Rico, Ariz., that resulted in the death of Border Patrol agent Brian A. Terry. Other guns sold during the operation have been linked to violent crime scenes in Mexico.
James Vogts, an attorney for another gun store suing the ATF, argued that the requirement, which applies to 8,500 dealers, was inspired by the fallout over Operation Fast and Furious.
“I think the decision was hastily made, perhaps for political reasons,” he said.
But Reiss told U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer that the number of American firearms in Mexico is far greater than the number alleged to have been lost by the ATF during Operation Fast and Furious.
Are mobile phone “stalking apps” legal?
That was a question in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz from a bipartisan group of senators led by Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), as reported by CNN. The lawmakers are urging an investigation of smart phone applications that allow people to secretly track others’ movements, CNN said.
“Some apps also allow users to track the e-mails and monitor the phone calls of their targets,” CNN noted. The senators cited one ad proclaiming: “Worried about your spouse cheating? Track every text, every call and every move they make.”
Joining Franken and Grassley in signing the letter were Senators Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Charles Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California, all Democrats, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas, both Republicans.
You have to wonder: What would sleazy private eye Jake Gittes of “Chinatown” fame do with this technology? Or would it drive him out of business?
More seriously, perhaps the legality of “stalking apps” may be yet another question to be addressed in a world that’s changing faster and faster. And imagine if the issue reaches the Supreme Court: Do any of the justices know what a “stalking app” is?
Online gambling is gaining traction on Capitol Hill, with the head of a House subcommittee signaling that her panel will consider legislation to legalize some forms of gaming on the Internet.
“Lawmakers and industry players at a Tuesday hearing on Internet gambling seemed to be in broad agreement that the time has come to let the nation’s casinos, cardrooms and racetracks operate online as a regulated industry,” according to a report in The Hill.
Earlier this year, the Justice Department moved to block online players in the United States from accessing Full Tilt Poker and other online poker sites. The DOJ accused 11 people of bank fraud and of illegally operating gambling websites and it seized the accounts run by the sites that held money stored by players.
“Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.), chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Manufacturing subpanel, said the committee would deliberate before acting on any legislation,” The Hill said.
The push for online gambling is driven in part by the fact that Americans gamble online, with billions of dollars going to illegal offshore sites every year. Then, too, gambling has the kind of bipartisan support rare on Capitol Hill these days. A bill backing online poker, introduced by Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) has the support of Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).
Former Sen. Alfonso D’Amato (R-N.Y.), chairman of the Poker Players Alliance, said the Obama administration’s crackdown on the industry has only driven the game underground. “The status quo is badly broken and benefits no one,” D’Amato said, according to The Hill. “Internet poker has not gone away and it’s hard to envision a scenario where it will.”
