Carrie Johnson

Sick Inmates Dying Behind Bars Despite Release Program

Carrie Johnson — Thu, 23 May 2013 07:05:00 +0000

Prison is a tough place, but Congress made an exception nearly 30 years ago, giving terminally ill inmates and prisoners with extraordinary family circumstances an early way out. It's called compassionate release.

But a recent investigation found that many federal inmates actually die while their requests drift through the system.

One of them was Clarence Allen Rice.

Rice operated a leasing company in Iowa for decades.

Holder Acknowledges U.S. Citizens Killed In Drone Strikes

Carrie Johnson — Wed, 22 May 2013 22:00:00 +0000

For the first time, the U.S. government has acknowledged killing four American citizens in lethal drone strikes far outside traditional battlefields, confirming information that had been widely known but has only recently been unclassified under orders of the president.

Attorney General Eric Holder sent a letter to Congress on Wednesday explaining that only one of the four dead U.S. citizens was explicitly targeted.

Key Charge Against Ex-BP Official In Spill Case Dismissed

Carrie Johnson — Mon, 20 May 2013 23:11:00 +0000

It's another bad day for the Justice Department.

A federal judge in Louisiana has thrown out the central criminal charge against a former BP executive because prosecutors failed to prove he knew about a pending congressional investigation into oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico three years ago. U.S.

Justice Department Secretly Obtains AP Phone Records

Carrie Johnson — Tue, 14 May 2013 07:25:00 +0000

The Associated Press is protesting what it calls a massive and unprecedented intrusion into its gathering of news. The target of that wrath is the U.S. Justice Department, which secretly collected phone records for several AP reporters last year. The AP says it's caught in the middle of a Justice Department leak investigation.

The scope of the Justice Department subpoenas is what gives David Schultz, a lawyer for AP, pause.

"It was a very large number of records that were obtained, including phone records from Hartford, New York, Washington, from the U.S.

Head Of Environmental Crimes Unit Is Leaving Government

Carrie Johnson — Wed, 08 May 2013 11:03:00 +0000

Assistant U.S. Attorney General Ignacia Moreno, the point person at the Justice Department for prosecuting environmental crimes, says she will leave government service next month.

Moreno, the first Latina to lead the department's Environment and Natural Resources Division, was unanimously confirmed by the Senate in November 2009. Her tenure spanned one of the worst disasters in U.S. history, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in April 2010.