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Also see: Protests; Elliott Broidy; Malaysia;
Undated: The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the U.S. government, responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice in the United States, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries. The department was formed in 1870 during the Ulysses S. Grant administration.
The Department of Justice administers several federal law enforcement agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The department is responsible for investigating instances of financial fraud, representing the United States government in legal matters (such as in cases before the Supreme Court), and running the federal prison system.[3][4] The department is also responsible for reviewing the conduct of local law enforcement as directed by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.[5]
The department is headed by the United States Attorney General, who is nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate and is a member of the Cabinet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Justice
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-- 2013 --
August 22: The Obama administration went to court Thursday to block Texas' tough new voter ID law, implemented after the Supreme Court in June struck down a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
The Justice Department complaint, filed in federal court, represents the latest step in a legal as well as legislative battle between Republican state lawmakers seeking to tighten up voting laws and Democratic officials in Washington who favor more lenient access to the polls.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/08/22/voting-rights-texas-photo-id-justice-department-lawsuit/2685349/
-- 2015 --
December 15: DOJ: Trump’s Early Businesses Blocked Blacks
A 1973 suit against Trump and the Trump Organization claimed that their supers would mark African American’s applications with a ‘C’ for ‘Colored’ and other racial codes.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/doj-trumps-early-businesses-blocked-blacks
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-- 2016 --
November 18: The Trump Era Is Already a Disaster for Civil Rights
Why Jeff Sessions is a terrible pick to lead the Justice Department.
In 1986, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III was—correctly!—deemed by a Republican Senate to be too racist to serve on the U.S. District Court. This was a highly uncommon step: Sessions at the time was the second federal judicial nominee in 50 years to be rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee. However, the bipartisan consensus that open racism is unacceptable is, alas, now completely shattered.
https://newrepublic.com/article/138854/trump-era-already-disaster-civil-rights
-- 2017 --
January 20: Trump Department of Justice Seeks and is Granted Postponement of Hearing on Texas Photo ID Case
The Department was scheduled to argue that the state had intentionally discriminated against Latino and African American voters when it passed the ID law.
The DOJ had previously argued that the hearing should occur expeditiously. The hearing has been rescheduled for Feb. 28.
http://www.brennancenter.org/press-release/trump-department-justice-seeks-postpone-hearing-texas-voter-id-case
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February 28: Department of Justice Drops Objections to Texas Voter ID Law
... Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos denied a further request for delay from the state and Justice Department lawyers.
J. Gerald Hebert, an attorney who represents multiple plaintiffs in the case, including Veasey, blasted the Department of Justice Monday afternoon.
"I am appalled and disgusted that D.O.J. would abandon their claims, that they have advocated for years, that Texas’ photo ID law was enacted with a racially discriminatory purpose," Hebert said in a statement. "The facts on which they based those claims have not changed one bit. The only facts that have changed are Trump’s election and Jeff Sessions’s appointment as Attorney General."
Despite the feds’ withdrawal, Hebert and the other plaintiffs in the case intend to continue fighting the law in federal court.
http://www.dallasobserver.com/news/department-of-justice-drops-objections-to-texas-voter-id-law-9228007
March 10: Is the Department of Justice conducting a purge of Obama-appointed officials?
Late on Friday afternoon—when all of the really good Donald Trump news drops—the Department of Justice ordered 46 U.S. state attorneys, including anti-corruption crusader Preet Bharara of New York, to resign.
https://newrepublic.com/minutes/141282/department-justice-conducting-purge-obama-appointed-officials
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April 4: These Trump DOJ Appointees Could Be Instrumental in Shaping National Firearm Laws
Here’s what we know about four pro-gun lawyers that the White House has installed at a critical federal agency.
https://www.thetrace.org/2017/04/trump-department-of-justice-appointees-gun-policy/
July 9: Federal officials say a “legislative fix” passed by state lawmakers makes Texas’ photo voter ID law “constitutionally and legally valid” and should put an end to further court action.
According to a U.S. Department of Justice brief filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, the voter ID fix enacted by Senate Bill 5 this regular session “cures the discriminatory effect and intent that the Court found” in the state’s original voter ID law and “thus, eliminates any ongoing violation of federal law.”
As originally enacted in 2011, Texas’ voter ID law (SB 14) required in-person voters to show one of seven forms of photo identification – including a state-issued “election identification certificate” offered free of charge to voters without an acceptable photo ID.
SB 14 has been tied up in litigation ever since.
https://empowertexans.com/around-texas/doj-says-sb-5-fixes-texas-voter-id-law-court-drop-challenge/
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August 8: Justice Dept. sides with Ohio’s purge of inactive voters in case headed to Supreme Court
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/justice-department-reverses-position-to-allow-ohio-to-purge-inactive-voters-from-rolls/2017/08/08/e93c5116-7c35-11e7-9d08-b79f191668ed_story.html?utm_term=.8a1ec490df8f
August 15: Donald Trump’s Justice Department Demands the IP Addresses of People Who Visited an Anti-Trump Website
Today a web hosting service called DreamHost announced in a blog post that the Department of Justice has requested they turn over 1.3 million IP addresses of visitors to a website called DisruptJ20.org that people used to organize protests of Donald Trump's inauguration.
https://www.gq.com/story/dreamhost-donald-trump
April 20: The Justice Department official who is leading the government’s investigation into potential collusion between President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Russian government will step down next month.
Mary McCord, who has served as acting assistant attorney general for national security since October, informed DOJ employees this week that she will be leaving in mid-May ...
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/20/top-doj-cyber-official-to-leave-post-next-month-237427
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August 22: DOJ backs down from request for IP addresses that visited Trump protest website
https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/22/dreamhost-vs-justice-department-excludes-request-ip-addresses/
September 17: DOJ Wants Anti-Trump Facebook Users' Info
The warrants specifically target three users who have criticized the Trump administration.
The warrants would give investigators 90 days to search through personal messages connected to users' political activity and associations as well as friend lists and everything the users searched for during the allotted window for the three accounts.
https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2017-09-29/doj-wants-facebook-info-on-thousands-of-anti-administration-activists
October 9: Donald Trump Can Destroy Records Without Judicial Review, Justice Department Tells Court
Deleted tweets? Purges of phone records? The erasing of secretly recorded conversations? The Trump Administration tells a D.C. judge that courts can't review compliance with preservation laws.
... when it comes to laws pertaining to government record-keeping, judicial review would be inappropriate even if Trump deleted secret recordings with administration officials or even if his staff purged phone records because they expected to be subpoenaed in connection with various investigations.
The arguments come in response to a lawsuit from the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, D.C.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/donald-trump-can-destroy-records-judicial-review-justice-department-tells-court-1046929
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October 10: Judge Limits Data Feds Can Get About Anti-Trump Website DisruptJ20
A Washington, D.C., judge has limited the data the Justice Department can have about an anti-Trump website, saying Tuesday that he wanted to protect innocent users' First Amendment rights.
D.C Superior Court Chief Judge Robert Morin ordered DreamHost, a web hosting company in Los Angeles, to hand over for review all information it has about DisruptJ20, a group of activists who organized protests that led to the arrests of more than 200 people during Donald Trump's inauguration as president in January.
Morin said DreamHost must include all information that could identify DreamHost subscribers directly associated with the DisruptJ20.org web account during the months leading up to Jan. 20. But he said the company can redact information that could help identify individual internet users who simply used the site.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/judge-limits-data-feds-can-get-about-anti-trump-website-n809646
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October 27: Trump Justice Department: Wars are off limits to court review
A Trump administration attorney said Friday that federal courts cannot evaluate whether a president is waging an illegal war, even if the war clearly has no grounding in a congressional authorization of force and someone directly impacted sues.
The claim was made during oral arguments in an appeal filed by Nathan Michael Smith, a now-former Army intelligence analyst who sued last year claiming former President Barack Obama was illegally fighting Islamic State terrorists without an authorization for use of military force, or AUMF, from Congress.
Smith, who left active-duty military service in June, supports fighting the jihadi group, but argues doing so has not been properly authorized by Congress. “For me, it’s not a partisan issue,” he told the Washington Examiner outside a courtroom in the nation's capital. "Procedure matters, if we're a nation of laws.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-justice-department-wars-are-off-limits-to-court-review
November 16: J20 protests: All you need to know about the nearly 200 people facing 60 years in jail for protesting Trump
The so-called J20 defendants have started their trial
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/j20-trump-protests-trials-jail-threat-inauguration-demonstrations-explained-a8057521.html
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November 28: Politicizing the Department of Justice will hurt all U.S. businesses — not just AT&T and Time Warner
Sending a strong message that the only M&A deals that can go through are the ones Trump likes is a losing idea.
https://www.recode.net/2017/11/28/16712224/trump-time-warner-cnn-merger-doj-department-justice-antitrust
-- 2018 --
January 2: Trump accuses Department of Justice of being part of “deep state”
Donald Trump’s latest tweets pressed familiar arguments for the president
The president’s reference Tuesday to “Deep State Justice Dept” suggests that federal law enforcement is part of an entrenched bureaucracy that Trump and his supporters say didn’t want him to be elected and is actively working to undermine his presidency.
https://www.denverpost.com/2018/01/02/donald-trump-fbi-accusations/
January 18: J20 protests: Justice Department drops charges against 129 people involved in Trump inauguration day demonstrations
Fifty-nine people are still facing felony charges
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/j20-trump-protests-latest-trial-charges-dropped-justice-department-a8167011.html
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January 30: Trump's slow-motion massacre at the Justice Department ... those in key positions whose loyalty to President Trump is less than absolute are pushed out the door.
http://theweek.com/articles/751627/trumps-slowmotion-massacre-justice-department
February 5: Trump Challenges Justice Department Tradition of Independence
https://www.voanews.com/a/donald-trump-justice-department-tradition-independence/4240732.html
February 16: Bruce Ohr, the Department of Justice official who brought opposition research on Donald Trump to the FBI in 2016, did not disclose that the company that produced it at the Democratic National Committee’s behest was paying his wife, documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation show.
Ohr also did not obtain a conflict of interest waiver from his superiors at the Justice Department, according to the documents.
The omission may explain why Ohr was demoted from his post as associate deputy attorney general after the relationship between the company, Fusion GPS, and his wife emerged and after Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson acknowledged meeting with Ohr.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2018/02/16/doj-official-bruce-ohr-hid-wifes-fusion-gps-payments-from-ethics-officials/
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February 23: Trump’s Justice Department isn’t enforcing civil rights
The Trump administration is pursuing far fewer civil rights cases than its predecessors, a VICE News review of Justice Department records shows. Total activity in the agency’s civil rights division is at a 17-year low, falling well below levels seen in the last two administrations. One DOJ section charged with enforcing laws on police department misconduct has been completely inactive.
https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/wj44y4/trumps-justice-department-isnt-enforcing-civil-rights
March: In March 2018, The Wall Street Journal reported that [Elliott] Broidy had been in negotiations to earn tens of millions of dollars by lobbying the U.S. Justice Department to drop its investigation into a multibillion-dollar graft scandal involving a Malaysian state investment fund, 1MDB, according to emails reviewed by the Journal. One email showed a proposal that would have given Broidy and his wife $75 million if they got the Justice Department to drop its probe into 1MDB. Broidy also prepared talking points for Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to tell Trump during his 2017 visit to Washington, DC. This included playing up Malaysia's relationship with the U.S. in fighting North Korea and arguing against pursuing legal action against 1MDB.[32][33]
In November 2018, the New York Times reported that Federal prosecutors accused him of involvement in a scheme to launder millions of dollars into the United States to help Malaysian financier Jho Low end a Justice Department investigation into the embezzlement of billions of dollars from 1MDB.[34]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Broidy
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March 1: Andrew McCabe, Ex-Deputy Director of F.B.I., Will Be Faulted for Leaks
A Justice Department review is expected to criticize the former F.B.I. deputy director, Andrew G. McCabe, for authorizing the disclosure of information about a continuing investigation to journalists, according to four people familiar with the inquiry.
Such a damning report would give President Trump new ammunition to criticize Mr. McCabe, who is at the center of Mr. Trump’s theory that “deep state” actors inside the F.B.I. have been working to sabotage his presidency. But Mr. McCabe’s disclosures to the news media do not fit neatly into that assumption: They contributed to a negative article about Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration’s Justice Department — not Mr. Trump.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/01/us/politics/justice-dept-andrew-mccabe.html
March 6: Trump DOJ sues California over 'interference' with immigration enforcement
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-doj-sues-california-over-interference-with-immigration-enforcement
March 9: Former DOJ Officials Ask for Inquiry Into Trump Interference in AT&T-Time Warner Case
https://variety.com/2018/politics/news/trump-interference-att-time-warner-antitrust-suit-cnn-1202722588/
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March 10: Trump’s Justice Department Takes Actual Steps Toward Banning Bump Stocks
Bump stock gun attachments have the ability to turn semiautomatic firearms into automatic weapons.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/03/justice-department-bump-stocks-ban
March 11: Trump moves to ban bump stocks through Justice Department regulation
https://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/opinion-columns/debra-saunders/trump-moves-to-ban-bump-stocks-through-justice-department-regulation/
March 19: President Trump spoke Monday of using federal prosecutors to pursue “major litigation” against drug manufacturers alleged to have played a role in creating a nationwide epidemic of opioid abuse.
https://www.statnews.com/2018/03/19/trump-opioid-department-of-justice/
March 26: Here’s What’s Happening With Trump’s Bump Stock Ban
The administration says it’s following through with a promise to outlaw the devices, but it’s unclear exactly how ― or if ― that’s going to play out.
In the best-case scenario for the Trump administration, it would be at least four months before bump stocks are officially banned.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bump-stock-ban-trump_us_5ab92cf5e4b0decad04cb02a
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April 7: President Trump criticized the Department of Justice and FBI for failing to meet a Thursday subpoena deadline from the House Judiciary Committee for documents related to the FBI's actions in events surrounding the 2016 presidential election, including alleged FISA abuses and the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
https://www.axios.com/trump-twitter-doj-fbi-house-judiciary-subpoena-fisa-f70be817-dc0e-4e14-a083-2ea1642c7c26.html
April 12: LA wins injunction against Trump’s Department of Justice over community policing grant, saying it ‘won’t be bullied’
https://www.dailynews.com/2018/04/12/la-wins-injunction-against-us-department-of-justice-over-community-policing-grant-saying-it-wont-be-bullied/
April 13: President Trump's lawyer [Michael Cohen] is under criminal investigation, Department of Justice says
https://www.wcpo.com/news/national/president-trumps-lawyer-is-under-criminal-investigation-department-of-justice-says
April 15: [... fired acting attorney general Sally Yates -- the woman who didn't back down]: Trump Seems To View The Justice Department As His Own Personal Lawyers
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/04/15/sally_yates_trump_seems_to_view_the_justice_department_as_his_own_personal_lawyers.html
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April 26: President Donald Trump said he was “very disappointed” in his Justice Department and that he wouldn’t stay away from it, blasting the agency during a spirited interview on Fox News on Thursday.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-today-president-says-he-wont-stay-away-from-justice-department-2018-04-26
May 2: What is Trump threatening to do to the Justice Department, exactly?
Twice in the past week, President Trump has offered vague threats against the Justice Department, apparently as a function of his frustration with the ongoing investigation being conducted by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/05/02/what-is-trump-threatening-to-do-to-the-justice-department-exactly/?utm_term=.50dc5ee644b4
May 2:
The presidential criticism comes after the Justice Department refused to give Congress a memo on scope of special counsel investigation.
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May 2: Dept. of Justice won’t back down
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein — after weeks of public pressure from President Trump and his supporters in Congress over the probe by special counsel Robert Mueller — pushed back yesterday, saying the Justice Department would not be “extorted.”
“I can tell you there have been people who have been making threats privately and publicly against me for quite some time, and I think they should understand by now, the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted,” Rosenstein said at an event in Washington.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/2018/05/dept_of_justice_won_t_back_down
May 16: Trump’s Stormy Daniels Payment Referred to Justice Department by Office of Government Ethics
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-stormy-daniels-payment-justice-department-930088
May 18: Trump suggests Justice Department is trying to frame him
http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/388276-trump-suggests-justice-dept-is-trying-to-frame-him
May 19: Donald Trump wants tough justice—with one exception
https://www.economist.com/united-states/2018/05/19/donald-trump-wants-tough-justice-with-one-exception
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May 20: Trump demands Justice Department examine whether it or FBI spied on campaign
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/20/politics/donald-trump-justice-department-campaign/index.html
May 21: The Department of Justice plans to comply—at least in part—with President Trump’s “demand” that it investigate whether the Obama administration or others infiltrated his campaign for political purposes.
http://fortune.com/2018/05/21/justice-department-responds-to-trump-political-infiltration-investigation-demand/
May 22: Trump's meddling in the DOJ is a direct threat to the rule of law.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/05/trumps-meddling-in-the-doj-is-a-direct-threat-to-the-rule-of-law.html
May 29: 5 latest twists in the Russia story
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/29/politics/russia-twists/
May 29: Corporations Win Again as 'Toxic Mega Merger' Wins Approval From Trump DOJ
The American people, said Friends of the Earth, "deserve better than corporate monopolies that drive up food prices and put family farmers out of business."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/05/29/corporations-win-again-toxic-mega-merger-wins-approval-trump-doj
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May 30: What Would Happen If Trump Fired [Deputy Attorney General Rod] Rosenstein Rosenstein?
Dismissing him would be a more obvious attempt to control the outcome of Mueller’s investigation than insisting on a separate probe of the FBI. But even in the case of a hypothetical Rosenstein firing, there isn’t a clear line between the president’s legitimate authority over law enforcement agencies and criminal interference in an ongoing investigation. Dismissing the deputy attorney general would be a political bombshell, but the extent of the legal fallout would depend largely on what the president did next.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-fallout-of-a-rosenstein-firing-would-depend-on-what-happens-next/
May 31:
Prosecutors may still choose to pursue misdemeanor charges for rioting and property damage against the defendants. Additionally, more than 50 other people still stand accused of the felony rioting charges; it remains uncertain whether today's ruling will affect those charges.
https://psmag.com/social-justice/felony-charges-against-seven-anti-trump-protesters-are-dismissed
June 1: Why the DOJ says Trump was justified in Syria airstrikes
U.S. President Donald Trump’s missile strikes against Syria this spring didn’t need congressional approval because they fell below the threshold of “war in the constitutional sense,” the Justice Department said in a new memo Friday.
The strikes were on three Syrian targets in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack on civilians in a Damascus suburb. The justification for the strikes as warranted drew immediate criticism from several lawmakers. The Department of Justice said the strikes addressed vital national interests, though none were tied to self-defense.
Virginia Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate’s Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees, called the legal opinion “nonsense” and “ludicrous.”
“Is there any doubt that America would view a foreign nation firing missiles at targets on American soil as an act of war?” Kaine said in a statement. “The ludicrous claim that this President can magically assert ‘national interest’ and redefine war to exclude missile attacks and thereby bypass Congress should alarm us all.”
https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2018/06/01/why-the-doj-says-trump-was-justified-in-syria-airstrikes/
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June 1: The Justice Department said President Trump can unilaterally commit the military whenever he claims vital U.S. interests are at stake, releasing a new legal briefing defending his decision to launch military strikes against Syria’s chemical weapons capability in April.
The Office of Legal Counsel, which serves as the government’s chief internal legal watchdog, said the strikes were well within historical precedents dating back to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jun/1/donald-trump-claims-broad-war-powers-new-doj-memo/
June 1: President Donald Trump has made no secret of his contempt for his own Department of Justice.
In speeches and in online missives, he accuses the FBI of leading a witch hunt, and regularly berates his chief law enforcement officer, Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
In his first year-and-a-half in office, Trump has found another tool to hamstring the Justice Department: His pardon power.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/01/trump-brings-the-power-of-the-pardon-to-his-battle-with-the-justice-department.html
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June 1: As Justice Dept. inspector general moves from Clinton email to Russia and Trump, he risks becoming a political weapon
In the coming weeks, [Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz] is expected to release a nearly 500-page report criticizing the Justice Department and FBI for their handling of the Clinton email investigation ... Meanwhile, he has intensified his review of the Russia investigation, interviewing the FBI agent who once led the case and inviting him back for a second conversation, one of these people said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/as-justice-dept-inspector-general-moves-from-clinton-email-to-russia-and-trump-he-risks-becoming-a-political-weapon/2018/06/01/a9dbb112-636e-11e8-a69c-b944de66d9e7_story.html?utm_term=.c48b4524bd21
June 2: Donald Trump and the erosion of democratic norms in America
For some, the president’s efforts to undermine the justice department and the Mueller investigation represent a threat to democracy
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/02/trump-department-of-justice-robert-mueller-crisis
Undated: Pardons Granted by President Donald Trump
https://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardons-granted-president-donald-trump
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Undated: Fighting for Justice at the Justice Department
Unfortunately, under the leadership of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department has already made all too clear its intent to walk away from this critical work and take our country in reverse. PFAW will not stand idly by while President Trump and Attorney General Sessions abandon the Justice Department’s legal and moral responsibility to uphold core constitutional principles.
http://www.pfaw.org/fighting-for-justice-at-the-justice-department/
June 20: J20 trials: Charges dropped for more anti-Trump defendants
During Trump's inauguration, hundreds of thousands of people trekked from across the US to demonstrate in the capital.
When the anti-fascist and anti-capitalist bloc rally advanced through the city, a small number of demonstrators engaged in property damage.
The police met the demonstrators with a heavy-handed response, kettling more than 230 people, firing tear gas, detaining them for hours and eventually carting them off.
Among those detained were demonstrators, journalists, medics, legal observers, bystanders and others.
Rights groups and critics roundly decried the charges, deeming them part of a broader pattern of cracking down on freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by the First Amendment of US Constitution.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/06/j20-trials-charges-dropped-anti-trump-defendants-180601173222390.html
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July 10: Trump Justice Department supports taking private property
Mississippi Gopher Frog case dates to 2001.
In June 2018, Noel Francisco, Solicitor General for the Department of Justice and Jeffrey Wood, Acting Assistant Attorney General, argued in a brief filed in the U.S. Supreme Court in the Louisiana invisible frog case that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services could take a citizen’s private property if “…the costs of designation were not disproportionate to its benefits…”
https://www.farmfutures.com/commentary/trump-justice-department-supports-taking-private-property
August 23: Sessions Rebukes Trump, Vows Justice Department Won't Be Swayed By Politics
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/23/641272425/sessions-rebukes-trump-vows-justice-department-wont-be-swayed-by-politics
August 23: Trump’s warped understanding of how the Justice Department — and justice — works
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/08/23/trumps-warped-understanding-of-how-the-justice-department-and-justice-works/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.75994a67255b
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August 30: President Donald Trump attacked his own Justice Department and FBI leadership and implied Hillary Clinton could face criminal charges during a campaign rally Thursday night in Indiana.
"Our Justice Department and our FBI have to start doing their jobs and doing it right and doing it now, because people are angry. People are angry," Trump said at a rally in Evansville, where he was campaigning for Republican Senate nominee Mike Braun.
Trump also suggested he could take a heavier role in the Justice Department -- comments that came hours after he told Bloomberg that Attorney General Jeff Sessions would remain in his job until after November's midterm elections.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/30/politics/trump-evansville-rally/index.html
September 4: Flake slams Trump’s Justice Department attack
Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake says Trump’s criticism of the agency for jeopardizing the two lawmakers’ seats exceeds what previous presidents have said. He said Tuesday, “We can’t normalize that.”
A spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan says the Justice Department must be apolitical. AshLee Strong says Ryan is taking seriously the charges lodged against New York Rep. Chris Collins and California Rep. Duncan Hunter.
https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2018/09/04/the-latest-flake-slams-trumps-justice-department-attack
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September 17: Trump Orders Declassification of Intelligence Documents Related to Former Adviser Carter Page
President also orders declassification of FBI interviews with Justice Department official Bruce Ohr
President Trump ordered the declassification of sensitive documents related to the investigation into Russian election interference, a move that could eventually allow the public unprecedented access to a probe that he has repeatedly railed against.
The declassification order pertains to FBI transcripts, text messages and other law-enforcement and intelligence material related to an active investigation into some of the president’s closest advisers.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-orders-declassification-of-parts-of-fisa-application-related-to-carter-page-1537220786
September 17: President Donald Trump called today for the Justice Department to investigate the author of an anonymous op-ed in the New York Times that suggested that members of the administration were working against the president.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-calls-justice-department-investigate-author-times-op/story?id=57673138
September 21: Trump vows to rid Justice Department of 'lingering stench'
https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/21/politics/donald-trump-rod-rosenstein-lingering-stench/index.html
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September 29: The Justice Department is trying to force Facebook to disclose information about thousands of people who “liked” a page opposing president Donald Trump.
http://fortune.com/2017/09/29/facebook-department-justice-aclu-donald-trump/
October 12: Trump’s Justice Department sends more violent crime prosecutors to Chicago
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/trump-sessions-chicago-justice-department-violent-crime-prosecutors/
November 20: Trump reportedly tried to order the Justice Department to prosecute Clinton and Comey
Apparently he’s still considering the idea.
https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18105462/trump-clinton-comey-order-justice
November 27: Justice Department asks to enforce Trump's new asylum policy while it appeals ruling
The Justice Department asked a federal court on Tuesday to stay a ruling that blocked the Trump administration's new rules on the ability of immigrants to request asylum and announced they would be appealing the decision.
"This court’s injunction, which will last for at least 30 days, directly undermines the president’s determination that an immediate temporary suspension of entry between ports of entry is necessary to address the ongoing and increasing crisis facing our immigration system," the Justice Department argued in a Tuesday night federal court filing.
Last week's ruling and comments made by President Donald Trump led to an extraordinary war of words between the president and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/11/27/doj-asks-enforce-trumps-new-asylum-policy-while-appeals/2131470002/
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Undated: The Trump Justice Department and Chicago crime
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/93343091-132.html
December 1: With Trump’s Justice Department Retreating, Who Will Now Police the Police?
The Department of Justice is moving away from taking on abuses by local law enforcement. This is what that means ...
https://www.propublica.org/article/elkhart-who-will-now-police-the-police
December 2:
Due to a technical issue raised by a federal appeals court, Tomas Castillo was re-sentenced Nov. 8 to a term of more than 10 years in prison for smuggling more than five kilograms of cocaine by boat into St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2016.
That re-sentencing took place the morning after Trump forced the resignation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and installed Whitaker, who had been Sessions’ chief of staff, to serve as attorney general on an acting basis.
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Less than a week later, Castillo’s court-appointed lawyer — Joseph DiRuzzo of Fort Lauderdale — asked to set aside Castillo’s new sentence on the grounds that Trump’s appointment of Whitaker was unconstitutional.
https://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2018/12/02/whitaker-justice-department-drug-trafficker-1037421
December 7: Trump Picks William Barr, Attorney General Under H.W. Bush, To Return To DOJ Helm
Barr, 68, has extensive experience in government, particularly in the upper echelons of the Justice Department.
In addition to his stint as attorney general, he also served as deputy attorney general from 1990 to 1991, and as assistant attorney general in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel for two years before that.
https://www.npr.org/2018/12/07/674243195/trump-says-hell-nominate-william-barr-to-return-as-attorney-general?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20181207&utm_campaign=breakingnews&utm_term=nprnews
December 7: The Department of Justice Calls Donald Trump a Felon
Federal prosecutors released sentencing recommendations for two alleged criminals who worked closely with Donald Trump: his lawyer Michael Cohen, and campaign manager Paul Manafort. They are filled with damning details. But the most important passage by far is this, about Trump’s fixer: “Cohen himself has now admitted, with respect to both payments, he acted in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1.” [President Donald J. Trump]
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/trump-felony-michael-cohen-paul-manafort-collusion-payment.html
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December 7: The payments in question, as the document explains [in the nymag article above], concern a payoff to two women who claimed to have affairs with Trump. The payments, according to prosecutors, were intended to influence the campaign, and thereby constituted violations of campaign finance law. They have not formally charged Trump with this crime — it is a sentencing report for Cohen, not Trump — but this is the U.S. Department of Justice calling Trump a criminal.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/justice-dept-trump-is-a-crook/
December 7: Attorney general nominee William Barr will fit right in with Trump’s immigration agenda
As George H.W. Bush’s attorney general, Barr built border barriers and turned away asylum seekers.
https://www.vox.com/2018/12/7/18128926/william-barr-trump-nomination-attorney-general-jeff-sessions
December 11: Trump Pushes Back Against Crime Allegations From Justice Department
President Trump is defending against allegations by federal prosecutors that he directed his lawyers to pay hush money to two women during the 2016 election.
https://miami.cbslocal.com/video/3991949-trump-pushes-back-against-crime-allegations-from-justice-department/
December 11: Rep. Chris Van Hollen: Comey Is "Scared To Death" Trump Is Taking A "Wrecking Ball" To The Justice Department
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/12/11/rep_chris_van_hollen_comey_is_scared_to_death_trump_is_taking_a_wrecking_ball_to_the_justice_department.html
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December 16: President Donald Trump on Saturday angrily cited a story by a right-wing outlet claiming that some 20,000 texts by a former FBI agent and bureau lawyer were intentionally erased by an official of the Justice Department before its inspector general could examine them. But that account has been contradicted by his own administration— the Office of the Inspector General.
The OIG determined that the texts were initially missing due to faulty technology, not malicious intent. More than 20,000 texts have been recovered, according to an OIG report issued this month.
The report determined that there was “no evidence” that since-ousted FBI agent Peter Strzok and his girlfriend, lawyer Lisa Page, “attempted to circumvent” the FBI’s data-retention policies.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-cites-misleading-story-about-missing-fbi-texts-contradicted-by-his-own-officials_us_5c15a1d9e4b049efa752e06d
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