Tag: DoJ

U.S. Senate Confirms Controversial DOJ Nominee Who Once Wrote Black Supremacist Essay

Michigan Star Staff
Kristen Clarke

On Tuesday, the United States Senate confirmed one of Joe Biden’s most controversial federal nominees, Kristen Clarke, to a key leadership post in the Department of Justice, as reported by the Daily Caller.

Clarke was confirmed as head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division with 51 votes, when Republican Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) sided with the chamber’s 50 Democrats to confirm her nomination. As previously reported, her nomination originally stalled in the Judiciary Committee after the committee vote to advance her nomination ended in a tie, before Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) brought the motion to a full floor vote to advance it out of the committee.

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Former Ohio State Professor Sentenced to Prison for Lying About China Ties

Michigan Star Staff

Song Guo Zheng, a former professor and researcher at Ohio State University, will spend 37 months in prison after being convicted of lying about his ties to the Chinese government on applications for NIH grant funding and failing to disclose his China ties to his employers. Zheng will also be required to pay roughly $413,000 to Ohio State University and $3.4 million to the National Institutes of Health.

“Zheng pleaded guilty last November and admitted he lied on applications in order to use approximately $4.1 million in grants from NIH to develop China’s expertise in the areas of rheumatology and immunology,” said the DOJ when it announced the sentencing.

Zheng’s teaching and scholarship were in the medical field, with emphasis on rheumatology and immunology at Ohio State University. Zheng’s researcher biography states that he has also taught at the University of Southern California and Penn State University. 

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DOJ Considering New Domestic Terrorism Laws Aimed at Violent Domestic Extremism

Michigan Star Staff
Capitol protest

In response to continued threats of domestic extremism following the deadly riot on Jan. 6, the Department of Justice is considering new domestic terrorism laws, an official announced Thursday.

The FBI reported an elevated risk of violence associated with domestic extremists after the attack on the Capitol and increased assaults on Asian Americans, Department of Justice (DOJ) Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brad Wiegmann told the House Committee on Appropriations.

Virginia Republican Rep. Ben Cline asked Wiegmann about his proposal to codify a domestic terrorism charge in the criminal code.

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Two Weeks After Trump Declassified Russia Memos, Most Aren’t Released

Michigan Star Staff

More than two weeks after Donald Trump officially declassified the evidence, the vast majority of documents detailing FBI and Justice Department failures in the now-discredited Russia collusion investigation remain out of public view in a delay that has thwarted the former president’s goal of sweeping transparency.

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Biden DOJ Drops Yale Discrimination Lawsuit

Michigan Star Staff

The Department of Justice (DOJ), now under the control of the Biden Administration, has dropped a longstanding discrimination lawsuit against Yale University, as reported by ABC News.

The DOJ informed the district court in Connecticut on Wednesday that it was voluntarily dropping the suit, which was originally filed in October of 2020 after a two-year investigation by the Trump-era DOJ determined that Yale was discriminating against White and Asian applicants based solely on their race. Such racial discrimination was found to be in violation of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, by “subjecting domestic, non-transfer Asian and White applicants…to unlawful discrimination on the ground of race.”

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Ex-Colleague of Hunter Biden’s Criminal Defense Attorney Partner Lands Top DOJ Gig

Michigan Star Staff

President Joe Biden’s administration appointed a former business partner of Hunter Biden’s criminal defense attorney to serve as acting chief of the Justice Department’s criminal division, which is reportedly investigating the younger Biden over allegations of money laundering.

The Justice Department official, Nicholas McQuaid, was a close associate with Chris Clark, a partner at the law firm Latham & Watkins who is assisting Hunter Biden with the federal criminal investigation into his foreign business dealings. McQuaid worked closely with Clark at the law firm up until Jan. 20 when he was appointed to lead the Justice Department’s criminal division.

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DOJ Officials Walk-Back Assertion That MAGA Rioters Wanted to ‘Capture and Assassinate Lawmakers’

Michigan Star Staff

Justice Department officials have formally walked back the outlandish assertion that claimed protesters sought to “capture and assassinate elected officials” during the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol.

Michael Sherwin, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told reporters during a press conference on Friday that there is no “direct evidence of efforts to capture or assassinate lawmakers” during the riot.

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Senate Panel Releases 11 Interview Transcripts from Investigation of Crossfire Hurricane

Michigan Star Staff

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday released transcripts of 11 interviews conducted as part of an investigation into the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane probe.

The interviews were conducted with current and former FBI and Justice Department officials between Mar. 3 and Oct. 29, 2020, according to a press release from Sen. Lindsey Graham, who chairs the committee.

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DOJ Researcher Releases Study Indicating Massive Election Fraud in Georgia and Pennsylvania

Michigan Star Staff

A researcher at the Department of Justice on Tuesday released a 25-page report indicating a high probability of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. World-renown economist John Lott Ph.D., examined election results from Pennsylvania and Georgia, as well as potential election fraud in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin.

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Walmart Fueled Opioid Epidemic by Filling Illegitimate Prescriptions Regularly, DOJ Lawsuit Alleges

Michigan Star Staff

The Department of Justice sued Walmart Tuesday alleging that the big-box retailer fueled the U.S. opioid epidemic by knowingly filling illegitimate prescriptions and with price-cutting techniques.

Walmart transformed its 5,000 in-store pharmacies into a leading network of opioid suppliers, the Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit alleged, according to a press release. In addition, Walmart allegedly didn’t heed warnings from its pharmacists that there was an insufficient screening process for questionable prescriptions.

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Trump Authorizes Russiagate Special Counsel to Use Classified Information for Grand Jury Proceedings

Michigan Star Staff

President Donald Trump on Tuesday authorized the Department of Justice to use classified information in grand jury proceedings connected to a special counsel’s investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.

In a memo released through the White House, Trump authorized the attorney general “to use classified information as he deems necessary in connection with his review, including in a grand jury or other proceeding.”

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Stacey Abrams Staffer Helping Biden Pick Justice Department Team

Michigan Star Staff

After winning the vote in the Electoral College last week, former Vice President Joe Biden said the election process “should be celebrated, not attacked.” 

Biden derided what he called “baseless claims about the legitimacy of the results” of the presidential election and said, “Respecting the will of the people is at the heart of our democracy, even if we find those results hard to accept.”

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Here’s Everything We Know About the Hunter Biden Investigation

Michigan Star Staff

Hunter Biden, the son of President-elect Joe Biden, is the subject of a probe into possible connections to a prominent Chinese energy firm as well as an investigation into his tax affairs.

The President-elect’s son announced on Dec. 9 that federal authorities in his home state of Delaware were conducting an inquiry into his finances. Hunter Biden’s business dealings with China remains the primary focus of the investigation, which began in 2018, CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz reported.

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Barr Learned of Hunter Biden Investigation Months Ago, But Managed to Keep It Secret: Report

Michigan Star Staff

Attorney General William Barr knew months ago about investigations into Hunter Biden’s business dealings, but kept the information from spilling into public view even as President Donald Trump publicly called for investigations into the son of the president-elect.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Barr was briefed before the spring about investigations into Biden, which Biden revealed in a statement on Wednesday issued through his father’s presidential transition team.

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More Than Two Dozen House Republicans Demand Special Counsel Appointed to Investigate Election Irregularities

Michigan Star Staff

A group of 27 Republican congressmen urged President Donald Trump to order a Justice Department-appointed special counsel investigation of “legitimate questions” about election irregularities.

The Republican congressmen asked Trump to direct Attorney General William Barr to appoint the special counsel, according to a letter obtained by Politico that was sent to the White House on Wednesday. Reps. Lance Gooden, Paul Gosar, Louie Gohmert, Scott Perry and Jody Hice were among the 27 congressmen who signed onto the letter.

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Barr Authorizes DOJ Prosecutors to Investigate Election Irregularities

Michigan Star Staff

Attorney General William Barr has issued a memo in which he said that he authorized federal prosecutors “to pursue substantial allegations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities prior to the certification of elections in your jurisdictions in certain cases, as I have already done in specific instances.”

Barr noted that this did not serve to indicate the Justice Department has determined that voting irregularities affected election outcomes.

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Commentary: Your FBI Will Entrap You

Michigan Star Staff

The FBI-generated indictment of six men on charges of terrorism for planning to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has all the earmarks of what has become that corrupt agency’s standard operating procedure. Their lawyers are sure to claim they were victims of entrapment. If the case comes to trial, I doubt a jury will convict them.

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Report: DOJ Closes ‘Unmasking’ Investigation

Michigan Star Staff

The Justice Department has closed its investigation into whether Obama administration officials improperly unmasked the identities of Trump associates mentioned in intelligence reports, according to a report.

According to The Washington Post, the investigation was recently closed and is unlikely to lead to criminal charges. A report of the investigation will also not be released, according to the newspaper, which cited government sources familiar with the matter.

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Bruce Ohr Retires from DOJ After Informed Disciplinary Decision Imminent on Russia Case

Michigan Star Staff
Bruce Ohr

Bruce Ohr, the senior Justice Department official whose conduct in the Russia case spurred significant controversy, has retired after being informed that a decision on disciplinary action was imminent, the department announced Wednesday.

Ohr’s decision will spare him any potential punishment for his role in providing information to the FBI about Christopher Steele’s dossier at the same time his wife, Nellie Ohr, worked for the same firm as Steele — Fusion GPS, run by Glenn Simpson.

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The 40 Key Russia Documents President Trump Must Still Declassify

Admin

President Trump earlier this week vowed complete and final transparency in the Russia probe, ordering the declassification (without redaction) of all relevant documents that show how the false Russian collusion narrative was created by Hillary Clinton operatives and then investigated for three years by the FBI.

With less than four weeks to Election Day 2020, there is little time to complete the mission so that voters can understand the foreign influence, dirty tricks and misconduct that began in the last presidential election and continued for years.

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Mike Flynn Seeks to Remove Judge Overseeing Case, Alleging Bias

Michigan Star Staff

In a dramatic escalation of a long-running feud, lawyers for former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn on Wednesday filed a motion to disqualify U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan from considering the request to dismiss their client’s case, arguing the jurist has demonstrated “contempt and disdain for the defense.”

The filing by attorneys Sidney Powell and Jesse Binnall came after the defense and judge clashed several times at a hearing last week. It also follows Flynn, retire Army lieutenant general, having tried to get an appeals court to issue a writ of mandamus forcing Sullivan to immediately dismiss the case.

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James Comey Testifies That He’s ‘Proud’ of FBI’s ‘By the Book’Crossfire Hurricane Investigation

Michigan Star Staff

Fired FBI Director James Comey on Wednesday testified that he is “proud” of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane (CH) investigation, the manifestly corrupt deep state operation that targeted the Trump campaign in 2016.

Comey appeared remotely before the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer questions about his role in the anti-Trump operation, which included the FBI’s use of fraudulent applications to obtain surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page.

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DOJ Lawyer Who Signed Carter Page Spy Warrants Now Regrets Doing So

Michigan Star Staff

The Justice Department attorney who signed the four surveillance warrant applications against Carter Page says they would not have done had they known of the information withheld by the FBI, according to a letter sent to the Senate this month.

Sen. Lindsey Graham read portions of the letter at the beginning of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with former FBI Director James Comey on Wednesday.

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U.S. Intel Flagged Alleged Clinton Campaign Plan to Link Trump to Russian Hacking, Intel Chief Says

Michigan Star Staff

U.S. intelligence officials submitted an investigative referral to the FBI in September 2016 regarding an alleged plan by Hillary Clinton to link Donald Trump to Russia’s election interference efforts, according to John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence.

Ratcliffe noted in the letter, which he sent to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, that U.S. intelligence is not certain whether the allegation underlying the referral was based on fabrications from Russian intelligence agencies.

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DOJ Identifies New York City, Portland, Seattle as Violent Anarchist Jurisdictions in Move to Revoke Federal Funding

Michigan Star Staff

The Department of Justice on Monday identified three cities—New York City, Portland, and Seattle—as jurisdictions that have permitted “violence and destruction of property,” thereby meeting President Trump’s criteria for withholding federal funding to those areas.

Earlier this month, the president issued a memorandum asking the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Secretary of Homeland Security, and Attorney General Barr to list the areas that “have permitted violence and the destruction of property to persist and have refused to undertake reasonable measures to counteract these criminal activities.”

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Feds Explored Possibly Charging Portland Officials in Unrest

The Associated Press

The Justice Department explored whether it could pursue either criminal or civil rights charges against city officials in Portland, Oregon, after clashes erupted there night after night between law enforcement and demonstrators, a department spokesperson said Thursday.

The revelation that federal officials researched whether they could levy criminal or civil charges against the officials — exploring whether their rhetoric and actions may have helped spur the violence in Portland — underscores the larger Trump administration’s effort to spotlight and crack down on protest-related violence. The majority of the mass police reform demonstrations nationwide have been peaceful.

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John Durham Aide Resigns, Reportedly Because of Pressure to Complete Trump-Russia Probe

Michigan Star Staff

A top prosecutor in the office of U.S. Attorney John Durham submitted her resignation on Friday, The Daily Caller News Foundation has confirmed.

The Hartford Courant reported that Nora Dannehy resigned because of political pressure from Justice Department headquarters regarding Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.

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Mueller Team Members ‘Wiped’ Cell Phones, DOJ Records Show

Michigan Star Staff

Data from more than 25 government-issued phones used by members of the special counsel’s team was wiped or deleted during the course of the Trump-Russia probe, according to Justice Department records released on Thursday.

Several prosecutors on the special counsel’s team claimed they accidentally wiped their devices by entering incorrect passwords too many times. Others said they intentionally deleted data from their phones.

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AG Barr Says There ‘Could Be’ More Charges in Durham Probe

Michigan Star Staff

Attorney General William Barr said Wednesday that more charges are possible in the investigation led by John Durham, the U.S. attorney investigating the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.

Barr was asked about the status of the probe during an interview with NBC News. He declined to say whether Durham, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut, is nearing the end of the probe, which began in April 2018.

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Operation Legend Made 2,000 Arrests, Seized Around 182 Pounds of Drugs Since July, DOJ Says

Michigan Star Staff

Operation Legend, a federal initiative to combat murder and violent crime in major U.S. cities, has recorded over 2,000 arrests and seized large quantities of narcotics since the program’s July inception, according to the Department of Justice.

A total of 147 people have been arrested for homicide, 544 firearms have been seized and around 182 lbs (83 kilograms) of narcotics, including heroin, cocaine, meth and fentanyl, have been removed from the streets during the operation, according to a Thursday Department of Justice press release.

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DOJ and DHS Confirm Active Federal Probe into Criminal Activity and Funding Related to Violent Riots

Michigan Star Staff

The Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security confirmed this week that the DOJ is investigating the organizers and funders behind the violent riots that have engulfed the country since May.

“We are investigating coordinated, criminal activity—not First Amendment activity—and violence related to riots, destruction of federal property and violence against law enforcement officers,” said DOJ spokesperson Kerri Kupec on Tuesday.

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Ratcliffe Says He Is Coordinating with John Durham, Plans to Declassify More Trump-Russia Documents

Michigan Star Staff

John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence, has been coordinating with U.S. Attorney John Durham and plans to soon declassify more documents related to the Trump-Russia probe, he said Sunday.

“The question now is did the FBI have a proper predicate to begin a counterintelligence investigation at all, and that’s the issue that John Durham is looking at, and also the issue that I’m continuing to look at,” Ratcliffe said in an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”

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FBI Agents Pushed for a FISA to Investigate Foreign Government Targeting Hillary Clinton

Michigan Star Staff

by Chuck Ross   FBI agents in 2015 sought authorization to surveil foreign government operatives who sought to influence Hillary Clinton, but ultimately settled for a defensive briefing given to lawyers for the Democratic presidential candidate, according to documents released on Sunday. One FBI agent involved in the investigation asked…

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Trump: Clinesmith Guilty Plea Is ‘Just the Beginning’ with ‘More to Come’

Michigan Star Staff

President Trump on Friday said that news of former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith’s plea deal with Department of Justice prosecutors was “just the beginning,” signaling that U.S. Attorney John Durham is zeroing in on other targets in his investigation.

Clinesmith is expected to plead guilty in connection with his alteration of an exonerating email during the Crossfire Hurricane (CH) investigation, which targeted members of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, including foreign policy adviser Carter Page.

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Ex-FBI Lawyer to Plead Guilty in Durham Probe of Russia Investigation’s Origins

Michigan Star Staff

A former FBI attorney will plead guilty to making false statements in documents used to obtain a surveillance warrant against former Trump aide Carter Page, his lawyer told the Associated Press Friday.

The guilty plea from Kevin Clinesmith is the first legal action taken in an investigation led by John Durham, a U.S. attorney looking into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe and other intelligence-gathering activities related to the Trump campaign.

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Justice Department Sends Federal Officers to Memphis and St. Louis to Help Quell Nationwide Violence

Michigan Star Staff
Memphis

Federal officers from five different agencies are set to arrive in Memphis and St. Louis to aid in crime reduction and investigations, the Department of Justice announced Thursday.

Memphis will receive an influx of 40 federal agents from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and Homeland Security — 24 of which are permanent assignments, according to a DOJ press release. St. Louis is set to receive an unspecified number of agents from the ATF, DEA, FBI and U.S. Marshals Service with an additional 50 Homeland Security agents, the release said.

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US Attorney Fired by Trump Administration Awarded a Professorship at Stanford Law

Michigan Star Staff

Stanford Law School welcomed a former Manhattan federal prosecutor to a visiting professorship for the fall semester after he was fired by President Donald Trump in June.

Geoffrey S. Berman received his law degree from Stanford Law in 1984 and will return as a visiting professor to teach an elective course titled “Prosecutorial Discretion and Ethical Duties in the Enforcement of Federal Criminal Law,” the school announced in a Wednesday press release.

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MS-13 Members Charged with Crimes Ranging from Terrorism to Murder

Michigan Star Staff

One suspected MS-13 member has been charged with terrorism, another faces the death penalty and other reported gang leaders face charges of kidnapping, murder and racketeering, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

The investigation and indictments targeted leaders of the MS-13, and represent the first time a member of the organization has been charged with terrorism, according to a DOJ press release.

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Government Memo Shows FBI Did Not Think Michael Flynn Intentionally Lied

Michigan Star Staff

The Justice Department this week provided Michael Flynn’s lawyers with a long-rumored government memo which shows that FBI officials did not believe that the former national security adviser intentionally lied in a White House interview at the center of his legal battle.

The memo, dated Jan. 30, 2017, and published Friday, also said that FBI investigators did not believe that Flynn was working as an agent of Russia.

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AG Barr: There Are Roughly 500 Active Investigations into Arson, Destruction of Property Stemming from Riots

Michigan Star Staff

Attorney General William Barr said Thursday that the Department of Justice is conducting about 500 investigations into acts of arson and destruction associated with the protests and riots over the past several weeks.

The DOJ is ramping up investigations into the activists who participated in destruction of private and public property over the last several weeks, Barr said during an episode of the Verdict podcast with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

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Indictments Likely Coming Down in Durham Probe and Antifa Financing Probe, Former Fed Says

Michigan Star Staff

A former federal prosecutor said Tuesday that he believes that the reason congressional Democrats are working so hard to smear Attorney General William Barr is to “preempt” what will soon be coming down in two Department of Justice investigations.

Jim Trusty, formerly the Chief of the Organized Crime Section at the DOJ, now a partner at Ifrah Law, said Dems are doing “damage control” because U.S. Attorney John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the FBI’s Russia probe, and a DOJ investigation into antifa’s financing are about to result in some “bombshell” indictments.

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ANALYSIS: DOJ Investigators Involved in Antitrust Probe Don’t Appear to be Scrutinizing Claims of Bias in Google’s Search

Michigan Star Staff

by Peter Hasson and Chris White   Department of Justice investigators who are conducting an antitrust probe targeting Google do not appear to be scrutinizing claims that the tech giant manipulates its search function, leaks about the probe and a source familiar with it indicate. Google critics argue that Google…

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Commentary: FBI Director Christopher Wray Should Be Replaced

Michigan Star Staff

There must be someplace warm and inviting that needs an ambassador where FBI Director Christopher Wray can be sent to lounge around without getting in the way of the Nation’s important business.

We urge this action because it has becoming increasingly clear that Director Wray has no stomach for the hard work necessary to focus the FBI on the important work at hand, namely crushing the terrorist organizations now destroying American cities and cleaning up the mess Obama and Comey left in the wake of the set up of LTG Mike Flynn the spying on President Trump and his campaign.

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DOJ Backs Michigan Businesses Against Whitmer’s ‘Arbitrary and Irrational’ Restrictions

Michigan Star Staff

The Department of Justice filed a statement of interest Friday challenging Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s “arbitrary and irrational” restrictions on her state’s businesses.

The move came as part of Attorney General William Barr’s efforts to ensure that civil liberties are protected during the coronavirus pandemic, the Department of Justice (DOJ) stated in a press release. The statement of interest supports a lawsuit filed by seven Michigan businesses challenging Whitmer’s restrictions.

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Biden Campaign Cancels Fundraiser with Top Mueller Prosecutor

Michigan Star Staff

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign has cancelled a fundraiser with Andrew Weissmann, one of the top prosecutors on the special counsel’s investigation of Trump associates, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Weissmann, an MSNBC analyst, was supposed to headline a virtual fundraiser for the Biden Victory Fund on June 2.

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Commentary: Key Questions Former DAG Rod Rosenstein Should Be Asked at Senate Oversight Hearing

Michigan Star Staff

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has called up former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to testify in the first of a series of hearings examining the Obama administration’s the Trump-Russia investigations and misuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Graham announced the June 3 hearing in a press release on Wednesday.

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AG Barr Appoints Federal Prosecutor to Review Obama Admin ‘Unmasking’ of Trump Associates

Michigan Star Staff

Attorney General William Barr appointed a federal prosecutor to review so-called “unmasking” requests that Obama administration officials submitted against Trump associates, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department said Wednesday.

Kerri Kupec, the Justice Department spokeswoman, said on Fox News that Barr appointed John Bash, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, to conduct the review.

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Mueller’s ‘Pit Bull’ to Headline Fundraiser for Joe Biden

Michigan Star Staff

A top prosecutor on the special counsel’s team will headline a fundraiser in June for former Vice President Joe Biden.

Andrew Weissmann, a former Justice Department official, will take part in a “fireside chat” for the Biden Victory Fund to be held online on June 2. The event will be moderated by Anne Milgram, the former attorney general for New Jersey.

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