Federal Government

Ex-CIA chief David Petraeus gets probation, is fined $100K for giving classified info to biographer

Once a highly regarded military leader in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, retired four-star general David Petraeus on Thursday was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay a $100,000 fine for revealing classified information to his biographer and then-lover, Paula Broadwell. The fine imposed by a federal…

Apr 23, 2015 3:40 PM CDT

3rd Circuit says feds missed forfeiture deadline, awards gold coins worth $80M to dealer’s heirs

Saying that the federal government cannot seize property without filing a civil forfeiture action, a federal appeals court in Philadelphia on Friday reversed a jury verdict awarding vintage gold coins worth perhaps $80 million to the U.S. Treasury. Instead, because the feds missed a 90-day filing deadline under the Civil…

Apr 20, 2015 12:50 PM CDT

Federal judge strikes ‘impertinent’ allegations against Prince Andrew and attorney Alan Dershowitz

A federal judge in West Palm Beach, Florida, has struck third-party allegations concerning claimed sexual activities by Prince Andrew and attorney Alan Dershowitz from an ongoing lawsuit against the U.S. government. Without making any factual finding as to the validity of the allegations, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra found that…

Apr 7, 2015 4:20 PM CDT

US Courts: Federal litigants face record civil-case backlog due to shortage of judges

During the past 15 years, the federal prison population has grown by more than 50 percent. But the federal bench has not, leading to record delays in hearing civil cases as criminal matters are given priority, reports the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.). A backlog of some 330,000 civil cases…

Apr 6, 2015 3:55 PM CDT

President Obama commutes sentences of 22 drug offenders

President Obama has commuted the sentences of 22 drug offenders, including four supported by the ABA-backed Clemency Project. Press releases from the ABA and the Clemency Project have more. Politico also has a story. All 22 were serving long sentences—in several cases, life in prison—for a drug-related conviction. The commutations,…

Apr 3, 2015 1:58 PM CDT

California issues first-ever water reduction to handle drought

In the face of a long, fierce drought, California Gov. Jerry Brown has ordered the mandatory reduction of water usage for the first time in state history. On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that Brown had issued an executive order directing the State Water Resources Control Board to decrease…

Apr 2, 2015 12:39 PM CDT

Major US contractor settles first SEC case over confidentiality pacts that silence whistleblowers

In what is being hailed as a landmark federal enforcement action protecting the rights of whistleblowers, the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday announced a settlement with a major federal contractor over provisions in its confidentiality agreements for workers. Overly broad language in the Kellogg Brown & Root confidentiality pacts…

Apr 1, 2015 2:40 PM CDT

Feds say 2 of their agents in Silk Road probe laundered Bitcoins; one is accused of working as mole

In the course of investigating now-convicted mastermind Ross Ulbricht in the Silk Road case, the feds seized Bitcoins worth some $33 million. But the official probe wasn’t the only drain on the anonymous digital currency used by the online black-market bazaar, the government now alleges. In a criminal complaint unsealed…

Mar 30, 2015 3:55 PM CDT

Report: DOJ is investigating mental-health screening of bar applicants by Florida’s top court

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the mental-health screening imposed by the Florida Supreme Court on bar applicants. In a December letter, the DOJ notified Chief Justice Jorge Labarga of the probe and asked for information about the mental-health questions posed to applicants, conditional admission procedures and whether hearings…

Mar 26, 2015 4:20 PM CDT

Army soldier Bowe Bergdahl, rescued by US through Gitmo prisoner swap, is charged with desertion

Captured by the Taliban in 2009 after disappearing from his post in Afghanistan, an American soldier was then rescued last year in a controversial prisoner exchange. Now he has been charged with desertion by the U.S. Army. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was a private first class when he disappeared, also…

Mar 25, 2015 3:30 PM CDT

Federal judge questions trust in Obama, threatens Justice Department sanctions on immigration action

A federal judge who blocked executive action on immigration last month threatened to sanction the Justice Department on Thursday as he questioned whether the government misled him by expanding deportation deferrals. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen of Brownsville, Texas, said that, “like an idiot,” he believed Justice Department lawyer Kathleen…

Mar 20, 2015 7:26 AM CDT

Citing landmark ‘Gault’ case, DOJ files framework for deciding if juveniles have adequate counsel

The U.S. Department of Justice has weighed in on behalf of a civil rights group in an ongoing Georgia case over a claimed lack of representation for juvenile defendants in the four-county Cordele Judicial Circuit. Filed in January 2014 by the Southern Center for Human Rights, the Superior Court of…

Mar 17, 2015 2:35 PM CDT

Predictions of health-care law’s possible demise ignore this contingency plan

Some have said the Affordable Care Act will enter a death spiral if the U.S. Supreme Court rules against the Obama administration on the reach of tax credits for lower-income individuals. But the ACA could survive if the Obama administration considers a contingency plan that may, at first glance, appear…

Mar 17, 2015 7:54 AM CDT

Associated Press files FOIA suit against State Department over Hillary Clinton emails and documents

The U.S. Department of State has “failed to respond substantively” to five of six Freedom of Information Act requests made as long ago as 2010 concerning Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Associated Press contends. So the news agency on Wednesday filed a federal FOIA suit in Washington, D.C., seeking to force…

Mar 11, 2015 3:50 PM CDT

Obama takes steps to allow more student loans to be discharged during bankruptcy

President Obama signed an executive action on Tuesday that would make it easier to expunge certain types of student loans for those who file for bankruptcy. Currently, student loan debt is dischargeable in bankruptcy only by those who can show undue hardship, a standard that is very difficult to meet,…

Mar 11, 2015 1:50 PM CDT