Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, today blasted Attorney General Eric Holder’s defense of the Justice Department’s handling of the alleged Christmas Day bomber.

Jeff Sessions (Getty Images)

Holder on Wednesday wrote in a letter to Senate Republican leaders — including Sessions — that he made the decision to bring criminal charges against the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Holder added that his decision is “fully consistent” with the practices and policies of the federal government.

That did not satisfy Sessions. “I think this letter, in terms of accuracy and professionalism, fails,” Sessions said in remarks at a Senate Judiciary Committee business meeting today. “We’re entitled to better than this.”

Conservative senators have been critical of the administration’s decision to charge the alleged bomber criminally rather than put him in military custody for interrogation. Senators have sent numerous letters to Attorney General condemning the decision to treat Abdulmutallab as a civilian. Read our previous reports on three of the letters here, here and here.

Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans yesterday demanded a hearing with Holder. Panel Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said one is already in the works for March.

Here are some passages from Holder’s letter that Sessions criticized:

• Holder: “I made the decision to charge Mr. Abdulmutallab with federal crimes, and to seek his detention in connection with those charges, with the knowledge of, and with no objection from, all other relevant departments of the government.”
  • Sessions: “This statement stands in stark contrast to the testimony of Homeland Security Secretary [Janet] Napolitano, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Michael Leiter, and FBI Director Robert Mueller, all of whom said they were not consulted on the decision. And in fact, it does appear from the letter, if you read it carefully, that the decision was made before they were notified. It had already been made and a lawyer had already been appointed and he’d clammed up.”

• Holder: “Since the September 11,2001 attacks, the practice of the U.S. government, followed by prior and current Administrations without a single exception, has been to arrest and detain under federal criminal law all terrorist suspects who are apprehended inside the United States. The prior Administration adopted policies expressly endorsing this approach.” He added: “In fact, two (and only two) persons apprehended in this country in recent times have been held under the law of war. Jose Padilla was arrested on a federal material witness warrant in 2002, and was transferred to law of war custody approximately one month later, after his court-appointed counsel moved to vacate the warrant. Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri was also initially arrested on a material witness warrant in 2001, was indicted on federal criminal charges (unrelated to terrorism) in 2002, and then transferred to law of war custody approximately eighteen months later.”
  • Sessions: “These two statements cannot be reconciled.”

• Holder: “In Mr. Padilla’s case, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit found that the President did not have the authority to detain him under the law of war.”
  • Sessions: “He cites the holding of the reversed Second Circuit decision—that the President lacks the authority to detain a U.S. citizen as an enemy combatant on U.S. soil—without mentioning that the Supreme Court ruled one year later, in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, that ‘[t]here is no bar to this Nation’s holding one of its own citizens as an enemy combatant… A citizen, no less than an alien, can be part of or supporting forces hostile to the United States or coalition partners’ and ‘engaged in an armed conflict against the United States,’ … ’such a citizen, if released, would pose the same threat of returning to the front during the ongoing conflict’.”

• Holder: “[W]hen the Bush administration attempted to deny Jose Padilla access to an attorney, a federal judge in New York rejected that position, ruling that Padilla must be allowed to meet with his lawyer. Notably, the judge in that case was Michael Mukasey, my predecessor as Attorney General. In fact, there is no court-approved system currently in place in which suspected terrorists captured inside the United States can be detained and held without access to an attorney; nor is there any known mechanism to persuade an uncooperative individual to talk to the government that has been proven more effective than the criminal justice system.”
  • Sessions: “That is a misrepresentation of the situation. He never acknowledges that he is comparing apples to oranges. Judge Mukasey didn’t grant Padilla a lawyer as part of his arrest or interrogation. He granted Padilla a lawyer much later when he was filing a petition for habeas corpus to challenge the legality of his detention, and eventually he was appointed one. But not the night of his arrest.”

• Holder: “Richard Reid, a British citizen, was arrested in December 2001 for attempting to ignite a shoe bomb while on a flight from Paris to Miami carrying 184 passengers and 14 crewmembers. He was advised of his right to remain silent and to consult with an attorney within five minutes of being removed from the aircraft … pled guilty in October 2002, and is now serving a life sentence in federal prison.”
  • Sessions: “He cites how Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, was charged in the civilian criminal system, but fails to acknowledge that there was no military commission system in place at the time of his arrest in December 2001. The military commission system wasn’t brought under congressional authorization until 2006, when we passed legislation to do that.”

• Holder: “[T]he Bush Administration used the criminal justice system to convict more than 300 individuals on terrorism-related charges.”
  • Sessions: “Since May 2009, [Republican] Senator [Jon] Kyl [of Arizona] and I have been asking the Attorney General to explain the basis for this most questionable claim. To date, we have received no response to our repeated requests … for this information. If this figure is valid, why is the Attorney General not willing to explain it?”

Dennis Burke, the new U.S. Attorney in Arizona, said the immigration system in the United States is “broken” and “does not reflect economic reality.”

In an interview for a cover story in Arizona Attorney magazine, Burke also said:  ”We’ve created a market for human smuggling that accompanies an already-existing drug-smuggling industry, which flourishes in Arizona. What we have here is a third-world economy next to the most prosperous economy in the world.”

Burke is a former top aide to Janet Napolitano, the former Arizona governor who is now the Homeland Security secretary. Burke is also chairman of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee border and immigration law enforcement subcommittee.

In Arizona, “we have a combination of very intense border issues that can be violent and drive a lot of the immigration debate in this country,” Burke told the magazine.

More from the interview:

“I’ve believed for a long time that a lot of it boils down to an immigration system that’s been broken. It’s less broke than it has been in the past, because resources have gone into it. But we have a visa system and caps on the number of individuals allowed into this country that have been arbitrary. The result is that the trade for and the smuggling of actual humans in and out of the country becomes an incredibly profitable business. And since it’s an illegal business, it ends up becoming very violent.”

Burke said he hopes his office can help advance comprehensive immigration reform. “We have an obligation to show that we can secure our border under the current system, so that reform can be achieved through Congress. I think the District can… lay a predicate for the fact that overall comprehensive reform can be accomplished because we’re doing our best to secure the border here.”

Attorney General Eric Holder, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary for Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and FBI Director Robert Mueller at a meeting with entertainment industry representatives on Tuesday (photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).

Vice President Joe Biden led a round table meeting of high ranking government officials and entertainment industry executives at the White House conference center today, where he pledged that the Obama administration would work to combat piracy in the rapidly changing technological age.

Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller were just two of the officials in attendance at the meeting, which the White House billed as the first of its kind. Others included Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett and Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan.

“This is a problem that the United States cannot solve by itself,” said Holder. “We want to confront these nations, quite frankly, where too much of this occurs.”

Holder announced that the Justice Department would be setting up an intellectual property enforcement training and technical assistance program to provide resources to train state and local officials on how to investigate and prevent intellectual property crimes.

While the FBI has been offering such training previously, Biden said this was the first time the government had been making a coordinated effort, which he called “long overdue.”

NBC President Jeff Zucker at Tuesday's meeting (photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).

Biden said he was offended by the violation of copyrights, which he called “flat unadulterated theft.” He said it was important to get the “all the major players in one place, in one room, with one overall, overarching strategy on how to deal with what is a serious, serious problem facing this country.

In a statement, the Motion Picture Association of America said: “We especially appreciate the Vice President’s long history of support for the protection of intellectual property, and thank him for his continued leadership defending American workers and businesses.”

“I’ve been in this battle with y’all since I don’t know how long,” said Biden. “The problem has gotten worse. Intellectual piracy is costing this country and all of you billions of dollars and thousands of jobs, and unless we better coordinate with all the resources of the federal government to deal with this problem, it’s likely to only get worse.”

Holder said he would reinvigorate a DOJ task force on the enforcement of intellectual property rights. “We want to convene an international meeting to start work with our international partners,” said Holder.

At the conclusion of the remarks by government officials, press members were escorted out of the room before the conversation with the industry officials began. CEOs declined to speak with a small group of reporters when they emerged over 50 minutes later, a half hour longer than anticipated.

One consumer group, Public Knowledge, said it was “extremely disappointed to learn of the White House meeting to be held later today on the issue of intellectual property and ‘piracy’,” according to Daily Finance.

“No consumer or public-interest groups, technology companies, technology associations or Internet service providers are on the guest list,” said Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge. “No one who questions the need for draconian governmental policies on behalf of the privileged special interest group for whom this meeting is being held is on the guest list.”

UPDATE 12/16: The White House meeting came a day after DOJ Criminal Division chief Lanny Breuer and John Morton, assistant secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Department of Homeland Security, held a news conference to announce that authorities had seized $26 million in counterfeit goods earlier this month in a joint operation with Mexico.

The announcement about Operation Holiday Hoax took place at the ICE-led National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center in Crystal City, Va., on Monday. Dan Glickman, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA); and Mitch Bainwol, his counterpart at the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), were also on hand. Both entertainment industry groups have pushed hard for strong intellectual property enforcement.

List of Attendees

Main Justice obtained a list from the White House of those who were confirmed to be in attendance at the Tuesday summit:

The Honorable Joe Biden
Vice President of the United States

The Honorable Eric Holder
United States Attorney General

The Honorable Gary Locke
United States Secretary of Commerce

The Honorable Janet Napolitano
United States Secretary of Homeland Security

The Honorable Robert S. Mueller
Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Honorable John T. Morton
Assistant Secretary, United States Immigration & Customs Enforcement
Department of Homeland Security

The Honorable David Kappos
Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and
Director, United States Patent & Trademark Office

The Honorable Douglas A. Smith
Assistant Secretary, Office of the Private Sector
Department of Homeland Security

Valerie Jarrett
Senior Advisor and Director, Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement
The White House

Mark J. Sullivan
Director, United States Secret Service

Michael Lynton
Chairman & CEO, Sony Pictures Entertainment

Barry Meyer
Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. Entertainment

Carol Melton
Executive Vice President, Time Warner Inc.

Philippe Dauman
Chairman & CEO, Viacom

Jeffrey Zucker
CEO, NBC Universal

Rick Cotton
General Counsel, NBC Universal

Edgar Bronfman
CEO, Warner Music Group

Linda Bloss-Baum
Vice President, Warner Music Group

Brian Murray
President & CEO, Harper Collins

Zachary Horowitz
President & COO, Universal Music Group

Matthew Gerson
Executive Vice President, Universal Music Group

Richard Bates
Senior Vice President, The Walt Disney Company

Toni Bush
Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Daniel Glickman
Chairman & CEO, Motion Picture Association of America

Mitch Bainwol
Chairman & CEO, Recording Industry Association of America

Matthew Loeb
International President, The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage
Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of
the United States

Kim Roberts Hedgpeth
National Executive Director, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists

Taylor Hackford
President, Directors Guild of America

David Israelite
President & CEO, National Music Publishers’ Association

David White
National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator, Screen Actors Guild

Alan Hoffman
Deputy Chief of Staff, Office of the Vice President

Victoria Espinel
Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, Office of Management &
Budget

Terrell McSweeny
Domestic Policy Advisor, Office of the Vice President

Andrew Kline
Senior Advisor for Crime Policy, Office of the Vice President

James Garland
Counselor to the Attorney General and Deputy Chief of Staff, Department of Justice

Michael Gallagher
President & CEO, Entertainment Software Alliance

Robert Holleyman
President & CEO, Business Software Alliance

Aneesh Chorpra
White House CTO

Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Tuesday unveiled a new framework for sharing “sensitive but unclassified” information to detect national security threats.

“Sensitive but classified” refers to information that is sufficiently sensitive to warrant some level of protection but not classification. Two new Program Management Offices will coordinate information-sharing among federal, state, local and tribal agencies and the private sector, the Justice Department said.

From the department/DHS news release:

The new PMOs will work jointly to provide sustained funding and personnel support to 72 state and local Fusion Centers nationwide and provide training and resources to frontline law enforcement officials to better document activities possibly linked to terrorism through NSI, a DHS-DOJ collaboration designed to detect, analyze and share intelligence about suspicious behavior and other indicators while protecting privacy and civil liberties.

The offices grew from work by the Presidential Interagency Task Force on Controlled Unclassified Information, which is led by Holder and Napolitano. In a report, the task force also recommended standardizing the way such information is handled with one set of markings. There are currently more than 100 different markings for sensitive but classified information.

The task force consulted civil liberties and open-government groups. Advocates have raised concerns about the federal government stockpiling information about Americans and using the sensitive-but-classified designation to withhold records without justification.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) asked the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee not to hold a vote on the Colorado U.S. Attorney nominee until Sessions receives more information about the candidate, The Denver Post reported today.

Jeff Sessions (Getty Images)

Sessions, the panel’s top Republican, wrote in a letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) yesterday that the record for Stephanie Villafuerte is “incomplete.” Read her questionnaire submitted to the panel here.

The Alabama senator told Leahy he had concerns about the firing of a federal agent connected to a controversy swirling around Villafeurte. President Barack Obama nominated Villafeurte on Sept. 30 to be Colorado’s top federal prosecutor.

Sessions also asked Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano at a hearing Wednesday why Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Cory Voorhis lost his job for using a restricted government database. Voorhis had assisted the 2006 campaign of Republican Bob Bob Beauprez, who ran an ad about an undocumented immigrant whose information was in the law enforcement database.

Republicans have raised questions about whether Villafuerte asked people in the Denver District Attorney’s office to access the same database for political purposes, which could be a crime. Villafuerte is a long-time aide to Gov. Bill Ritter (D), who was Beauprez’s opponent in 2006. Ritter has defended Villafuerte in the matter.

Republicans say it appears Voorhis was treated differently from the U.S. Attorney nominee. Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder this week urging the Justice Department to probe Villafuerte over the database allegations.

Sen. Jeff Sessions questioned Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano at a hearing Wednesday about a fired federal agent connected to a controversy swirling around the U.S. Attorney nominee for Colorado, The Denver Post reported today.

Jeff Sessions (Getty Images)

The Alabama Republican asked Napolitano why Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Cory Voorhis lost his job for accessing a restricted government database when his boss, Tony Rouco, wasn’t fired, despite a finding that Ruoco hadn’t been truthful about the use of the database, according to The Post.

Republicans have raised questions about whether Colorado U.S. Attorney nominee Stephanie Villafuerte asked people in the Denver District Attorney’s office to access the same database for political purposes. Republicans say it appears Voorhis was treated differently from Villafuerte.

Villafuerte, a long-time aide to Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D), has denied the allegations.

Voorhis was charged in 2007 with using the National Crime Information Center database to check the background on an undocumented immigrant whose case was featured in an ad by Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez. Voorhis said he was authorized to use the database by his supervisor. He was later acquitted by a federal jury.

“I am not personally familiar with this,” Napolitano said at the Department of Homeland Security oversight hearing, according to The Post. “But I will become personally familiar with it.”

Villafuerte has said her disputed contacts with the DA’s office in October 2006 concerned an alleged threat against then-candidate Ritter, not about accessing a database for political purposes, which could be a crime. Read our previous report here.

Colorado Republicans have called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate Villafuerte. Sessions is the top Republican on the Judiciary panel. Yesterday, Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder urging the Justice Department to probe Villafuerte over the database allegations.

The Judiciary committee has yet to schedule a vote on her nomination. President Barack Obama tapped Villafuerte for the post on Sept. 30.

A former Arizona U.S. Attorney joined the Native American law practice of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, the Cleveland-based firm announced today.

Diane Humetewa

Diane Humetewa, the first American Indian woman to be a U.S. Attorney, will work on natural resources, energy, water and real estate issues out of the firm’s Washington and Phoenix offices. She resigned as U.S. Attorney last month after serving almost two years as the top federal prosecutor in Arizona. Humetewa was nominated in 2007 to replace Paul Charlton, who was forced out during the 2006 U.S. Attorney purge.

Click here for our previous report about attempts by Bush White House officials to sink her nomination in 2007.  But Humetewa’s sponsor and former boss, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), refused to budge, and she was appointed to the U.S. Attorney post.

“Diane is joining us at an opportune time, given the increasing Native American demand for legal and legislative services in the Southwest and in Washington, D.C.,” Phoenix office managing partner Robert L. Matia said in a statement. “Her extensive background in these areas complements our existing practices. We are very excited to welcome her to Squire Sanders.”

Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed Dennis Burke, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s senior adviser on border security and law enforcement, to be the next Arizona U.S. Attorney. The Senate has yet to schedule a floor vote on the Burke nomination.

The Senate Judiciary Committee reported four U.S. Attorney nominees out of committee today by voice vote.

They are:

Daniel Bogden (Getty Images)

-Daniel Bogden (Nevada): The former Nevada U.S. Attorney, who was fired during the 2006 U.S. Attorney purge, was re-nominated July 31. Bogden would replace Gregory Brower. Read more about Bogden here.

Neil MacBride (Business Software Alliance)

-Dennis Burke (Arizona): Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s senior adviser on border security and law enforcement was nominated July 14. Burke would replace Diane Humetewa, who resigned Aug. 2. Read more about the nominee here.

-Neil MacBride (Eastern District of Virginia): The Justice Department Associate Deputy Attorney General was nominated Aug. 6. MacBride would replace Chuck Rosenberg, who resigned in October 2008. Read more about MacBride here.

-Peter Neronha (Rhode Island): The Rhode Island Assistant U.S. Attorney was nominated July 31. Neronha would replace Robert Clark Corrente, who resigned June 26. Read more about the nominee here.

“I think they are nominees worthy of confirmation,” Judiciary Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said at the meeting today.

The panel has now endorsed a total of 11 U.S. Attorney nominees, including five who were confirmed by the full Senate last month. Another seven U.S. Attorney nominees have yet to be considered by the committee.

Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) criticized Senate delays on DOJ nominees in prepared remarks for the confirmation hearing of Environment and Natural Resources Division nominee Ignacia Moreno and four federal judges.

DOJ nominees who are still awaiting Senate confirmation include Dawn Johnsen for the Office of Legal Counsel, Thomas Perez for the Civil Rights Division, Mary L. Smith for the Tax Division, and Christopher Schroeder for the Office of Legal Policy. In addition, two U.S. Attorney nominees — Steven M. Dettelbach for the Northern District of Ohio and Carter M. Stewart for the Southern District of Ohio – have already been reported out of committee and “deserve prompt consideration by the full Senate,” Leahy said.

John Tuchi will take the reins of the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s office until the Senate confirms a new U.S. Attorney for the district, The Arizona Daily Star reported this afternoon.

He was named the interim U.S. Attorney after Diane Humetewa stepped down yesterday. Read our post on her resignation here. The Senate has yet to consider President Obama’s nominee for the post, Phoenix lawyer Dennis Burke, a senior advisor to Janet Napolitano, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Click here to read more about Burke.

Tuchi, a federal prosecutor since 1998, was the office’s criminal division chief.

Dennis K. Burke (Georgetown, University of Arizona Law) is nominated to replace Diane J. Humetewa as U.S. Attorney in the District of Arizona, who steps down on Aug. 2.

Burke has a political background. From 2003 to 2008, he was then-Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano’s (D) chief of staff, and he followed her to Washington when she became secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Burke gave $2000 to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in January 2008, election records show.