Department of Justice
The mission of the Department of Justice is:
To enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law; to ensure public safety against threats foreign and domestic; to provide federal leadership in preventing and controlling crime; to seek just punishment for those guilty of unlawful behavior; and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans.
Source: Department of Justice
It is headed by the United States Attorney General, a cabinet position nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
See also Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Timeline
| 2017.01.10 | Jeff Sessions, who has supported the use of waterboarding as interrogation tactic, said current law makes it “absolutely improper and illegal.” nytimes.com (See also Constitutional Issues, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2017.01.10 | Senator Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Justice Department, once praised a 1924 immigration law whose chief author in the House once declared was intended to end “indiscriminate acceptance of all races.” theatlantic.com (See also First 100 Days, Immigration, Jeff Sessions) "Trump’s pick for attorney general made the remarks during an interview with Breitbart’s Stephen Bannon, now an adviser to the president-elect." |
| 2017.01.11 | Sen. Cory Booker, Rep. John Lewis and the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus warn the Senate that Sessions would “move this country backward" during the second day of his confirmation hearing. m.motherjones.com (See also Jeff Sessions, Black Americans) |
| 2017.01.11 | Toomey backs Sessions for Attorney General, despite growing protests at his Philadelphia offices. phillymag.com (See also Jeff Sessions) |
| 2017.01.13 | Trump expected to nominate federal prosecutor Rod Rosenstein for deputy Attorney General. cnn.com |
| 2017.01.20 | Trump's Justice Department immediately asks for 30-day delay in Texas voting rights/voter ID case already struck down by conservative appeals court as being discriminatory against minorities. talkingpointsmemo.com |
| 2017.01.30 | Acting Attorney General Sally Yates orders Justice Department not to defend Trump's executive order on immigration in court, stating concerns about its legality. nytimes.com (See also Immigration, Muslim Immigration Ban, Immigrants, Muslims) |
| 2017.01.30 | Acting attorney general Sally Yates writes to Justice Department lawyers, describing ‘solemn obligation to seek justice and stand for what is right’, and instructs them not to defend Trump migration order and Trump fires her three hours later. theguardian.com (See also First 100 Days, Muslim Immigration Ban, Jeff Sessions, Assaults on Government) |
| 2017.01.30 | Trump fires acting Attorney General Sally Yates after she orders government lawyers not to defend Muslim immigration ban. nytimes.com (See also Muslim Immigration Ban, Muslims, Immigration, Presidential Activity, Immigrants, Assaults on Government) |
| 2017.01.30 | Trump’s hard-line actions have an intellectual godfather: Jeff Sessions washingtonpost.com (See also First 100 Days, Jeff Sessions, Nationalism, Immigration, Trade, Jared Kushner, Rick Dearborn) "Bannon described Sessions as “the clearinghouse for policy and philosophy” in Trump’s administration, saying he and the senator are at the center of Trump’s “pro-America movement” and the global nationalist phenomenon." |
| 2017.01.31 | Dozens of lawsuits were filed against immigration order. clearinghouse.net (See also Lawsuits, Muslim Immigration Ban, John Kelley, Immigrants, First 100 Days, Department of Homeland Security, John Kelly) |
| 2017.02.01 | U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee votes to advance Senator Jeff Sessions's Attorney General nomination to the full Senate. reuters.com (See also First 100 Days, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2017.02.07 | Jeff Merkley reads Coretta Scott King's letter about Jeff Sessions on Senate floor, unrebuked by Republicans, after Republicans prevented Elizabeth Warren from reading it. oregonlive.com (See also First 100 Days, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2017.02.08 | ACLU vows to sue Sessions if he violates Constitution as attorney general. thehill.com (See also First 100 Days, Assaults on Civil Liberties, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2017.02.08 | In silencing Sen. Warren, a new feminist rally cry born: 'Nevertheless, she persisted' chicagotribune.com (See also First 100 Days, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2017.02.08 | Jeff Sessions confirmed as attorney general despite controversies. theguardian.com (See also Jeff Sessions, First 100 Days) |
| 2017.02.08 | Million-name petition urges Senate to deny Jeff Sessions confirmation. theguardian.com (See also First 100 Days, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2017.02.13 | Justice Department warned White House that Flynn could be vulnerable to Russian blackmail. washingtonpost.com (See also First 100 Days, Michael Flynn, Russia) |
| 2017.02.13 | Sessions's hardline stance on youth incarceration at odds with public's views. theguardian.com (See also Jeff Sessions) |
| 2017.02.15 | Given the evidence that voter identification laws suppress minority voting, how will Jeff Sessions's Justice Department deal with these laws, in Texas and elsewhere? washingtonpost.com (See also Jeff Sessions, Voter Suppression, Assessment) |
| 2017.02.15 | House Oversight Chairman Chaffetz asks Department of Justice inspector general to investigate leaks about Flynn rather than communications between Flynn, the Trump team, and Russia. politico.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Michael Flynn) |
| 2017.02.16 | All nine Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats call on Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from any Justice Department invesitgations into Trump-Russia communications and Russian interference in the 2016 election. feinstein.senate.gov (See also Jeff Sessions, Russian Meddling in Election, First 100 Days) |
| 2017.02.16 | Deutsche Bank looks for evidence of whether loans to Trump were underpinned by guarantees from Moscow after Trump declares his intent to run for President. theguardian.com (See also Conflicts of Interest, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Russia, The Trump Organization) |
| 2017.02.16 | Trump plans to rescind his immigration ban executive order and issue a new executive order to eliminate "erroneous constitutional concerns" after an appeals court loss, according to Justice Department court filing. theguardian.com (See also First 100 Days, Immigration, Muslim Immigration Ban) |
| 2017.02.21 | Trump's DHS guidelines aggressively target all 11 million illegal aliens, discarding Obama-era restraints. washingtonpost.com (See also Immigrants, Immigration) Officials said the new guidelines to beef up border enforcement will be handled “humanely.” |
| 2017.02.22 | According to three Republicans with knowledge of the situation, Betsy DeVos wanted to keep protections for transgender schoolchildren in place but was overruled by Trump and Jeff Sessions. slate.com (See also Betsy DeVos, LGBTQIA, Department of Education, Jeff Sessions, First 100 Days) |
| 2017.02.23 | Attorney General Jeff Sessions reverses an Obama-era directive to stop using private prisons. washingtonpost.com (See also First 100 Days, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2017.02.23 | Sean Spicer says Justice Department will "take action" against states that have legalized marijuana. townhall.com (See also First 100 Days, Sean Spicer) |
| 2017.02.23 | Spicer said he expects states to be subject to “greater enforcement” of federal laws against marijuana use washingtonpost.com (See also Domestic Policy, Sean Spicer) |
| 2017.02.28 | Jeff Sessions claims legal cannabis causes violent crime despite lack of any evidence. independent.co.uk (See also Jeff Sessions, Drugs) |
| 2017.03.01 | Justice Department officials say Attorney General Jeff Sessions, charged with leading investigation into Russian interference in U.S. election, lied under oath about contact with Russian ambassador in 2016 while he was part of Trump's campaign team. washingtonpost.com (See also Jeff Sessions, Russian Meddling in Election, Corruption) |
| 2017.03.03 | Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) shoots down a Democratic push for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to return to the Senate's Judiciary committee to discuss his conversations with the Russian ambassador. thehill.com (See also First 100 Days, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2017.03.10 | Attorney General Jeff Sessions seeks resignation of 46 United States attorneys because they were hired by the Obama administration. bigstory.ap.org (See also Jeff Sessions) WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions seeks resignation of 46 United States attorneys remaining from prior administration. |
| 2017.03.10 | Trump abruptly orders 46 Obama appointed Federal Prosecutors to resign. nytimes.com (See also First 100 Days, Assaults on Government, Fascism) The president told the holdover United States attorneys to tender their resignations immediately, including — surprisingly — Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan. |
| 2017.03.10 | U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions abruptly asks the remaining 46 chief federal prosecutors left over from the Obama administration to resign, including Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who was asked to stay on in November by Trump. reuters.com (See also First 100 Days, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2017.03.13 | Department of Justice asks for more time to respond to a request from lawmakers for evidence about Trump's allegation that then-President Barack Obama wiretapped him during the 2016 election campaign. reuters.com (See also First 100 Days, Jeff Sessions, False Statements) |
| 2017.03.14 | Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, says he is confident the Justice Department will provide evidence to support Trump’s unproven accusation that his predecessor spied on him. nytimes.com (See also First 100 Days) |
| 2017.03.15 | FBI Director James Comey briefs leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee and agrees to testify publicly regarding Russian meddling in the presidential election. secure.politico.com (See also FBI, Russian Meddling in Election) |
| 2017.07.19 | The US Justice Department rolled out a new policy that allows the government to seize more possessions and money under federal authority, in some cases circumventing state or local laws, even when a person has not been charged or convicted of a crime. buzzfeed.com (See also Jeff Sessions, Assaults on Civil Liberties) |
| 2017.07.19 | Trump harshly criticized his attorney general and one of his most loyal supporters, Jeff Sessions, for recusing himself from the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, indicating that he regretted the choice. washingtonpost.com (See also Jeff Sessions, Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia) |
| 2017.07.20 | Trump claims Jeff Sessions' recusal is "very unfair" to him. washingtonpost.com (See also Jeff Sessions, Russia, Trump Relationship with Russia, Russian Meddling in Election, Legal Issues) |
| 2017.07.21 | Russia’s ambassador to Washington told his superiors in Moscow that he discussed campaign-related matters, including policy issues important to Moscow, with Jeff Sessions during the 2016 presidential race, contrary to public assertions by the embattled attorney general. washingtonpost.com (See also 2016 Campaign, Russia, Russian Meddling in Election, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2017.07.25 | Trump launched another public assault on his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, questioning why the Justice Department chief has not done more to investigate alleged “crimes” by Hillary Clinton. washingtonpost.com (See also Unpresidential Behavior, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2017.07.27 | Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters he planned to introduce legislation that would block any Trump attempts to fire the special counsel. politico.com (See also Legal Issues, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2017.07.27 | The Justice Department, intervening in an important private employment case, urged a federal appeals court to rule that civil rights law does not bar job discrimination based on sexual orientation. washingtonpost.com (See also LGBTQIA, Legal Activity, Assaults on Civil Liberties) |
| 2017.08.01 | Justice Department officials are planning a new project to investigate and sue universities over affirmative action admissions policies they determine discriminate against white applicants. washingtonpost.com (See also Jeff Sessions, Black Americans, Asian Americans, Mexican Americans, Department of Education) |
| 2017.08.04 | Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a harsh rebuke of leaks and the media that report them, and signaled that the Justice Department could be changing how it deals with reporters in such cases, while offering no details about the scope or timeline of the review. buzzfeed.com (See also Attempts to Discredit Media, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2017.08.08 | The Justice Department has reversed its position in a high-profile voting case in Ohio, siding with the state in its effort to purge thousands of people from its rolls for not voting in recent elections. washingtonpost.com (See also Fascism, Jeff Sessions) The move is part of a broader campaign by the Trump administration to support restrictions on who is eligible to vote, a radical change in philosophy from the previous Justice Department, which sued a number of states over voting laws that it deemed discriminatory against minorities. |
| 2017.08.14 | San Francisco has joined Chicago as it became the latest city to sue the Trump administration over its threat to withhold federal grant money from jurisdictions that refuse to fully cooperate with immigration authorities. buzzfeed.com (See also Immigration, Legal Issues) |
| 2017.08.14 | Web hoster DreamHost says it has been asked to hand over to the Justice Department more than 1.3 million IP addresses on visitors to a site that helped organize anti-Trump protests earlier this year. forbes.com (See also Assaults on Civil Liberties, Fascism) |
| 2017.09.03 | The Justice Department said in a court filing that it has no evidence to support Donald Trump's assertion that his predecessor, Barack Obama, wiretapped the phones in Trump Tower before last year's election. cnn.com (See also Legal Issues, False Statements) |
| 2017.09.05 | The Trump administration announced Tuesday it would begin to unwind an Obama-era program known as DACA that allows younger undocumented immigrants to live in the country without fear of deportation, calling the program unconstitutional. washingtonpost.com (See also Immigration, Jeff Sessions, Department of Homeland Security, Racism) |
| 2017.09.15 | The Trump administration on Friday escalated a battle with government ethics groups by declining, even in the face of a federal court order from the Justice Department, to release the identities of individuals visiting with President Trump at his family’s Mar-a-Lago resort. nytimes.com (See also Legal Issues, Corruption, Conflicts of Interest) |
| 2017.10.03 | In January, the Justice Department cleared the way for Donald Trump to hire Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, by declaring earlier opinions erroneous or obsolete. politico.com (See also Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Nepotism) |
| 2017.10.05 | US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has reversed a federal government policy that said transgender workers were protected from discrimination under a 1964 civil rights law. buzzfeed.com (See also LGBTQIA, Legal Activity, Jeff Sessions) Sessions' directive says, "Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination encompasses discrimination between men and women but does not encompass discrimination based on gender identity per se, including transgender status.” |
| 2017.10.09 | A judge ordered the web hosting company DreamHost to redact identifying information about visitors to a website used to coordinate a protest during Donald Trump’s inauguration, imposing further limits on an extensive warrant obtained by the Justice Department that initially aimed to collect visitors’ IP addresses. gizmodo.com (See also Assaults on Civil Liberties, Fascism) |
| 2017.10.10 | A little-noticed mandate from the Trump administration has cleared the way for some people with outstanding arrest warrants to purchase guns, a change that worries law enforcement officials who say it could be allowing dangerous criminals to arm themselves. myajc.com (See also Jeff Sessions) |
| 2017.10.18 | A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the U.S. government to allow an undocumented teenager in its custody to have an abortion, after saying she was “astounded” the Trump administration was trying to prevent the procedure. washingtonpost.com (See also Immigrants, Women, Legal Issues, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2017.10.18 | Attorney General Jeff Sessions refused to discuss his conversations with Donald Trump about James Comey or Russia, despite 5 hours of testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee. nytimes.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Legal Issues, LGBTQIA, Assaults on Civil Liberties) |
| 2017.10.18 | In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he can’t ‘make a blanket commitment’ not to jail journalists for doing their jobs. washingtonpost.com (See also Assaults on Civil Liberties, Attempts to Discredit Media, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2017.11.02 | The Justice Department has identified more than six members of the Russian government involved in hacking the Democratic National Committee’s computers and swiping sensitive information that became public during the 2016 presidential election, according to people familiar with the investigation. wsj.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, 2016 Campaign, Legal Activity) |
| 2017.11.08 | The U.S. Department of Justice has told AT&T that it would be required to sell CNN as a condition of approval for its proposed $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner, adding that AT&T is opposed to such a divestiture, and is prepared to take the Trump Administration to court. axios.com (See also Conflicts of Interest, Fascism, Unprecedented Actions, Jeff Sessions, Legal Issues) |
| 2017.11.13 | Attorney General Jeff Sessions is entertaining the idea of appointing a second special counsel to investigate a host of Republican concerns — including alleged wrongdoing by the Clinton Foundation and the controversial sale of a uranium company to Russia — and has directed senior federal prosecutors to explore at least some of the matters and report back to him and his top deputy. washingtonpost.com (See also Assaults on Government, Corruption, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2017.11.14 | U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he now recalls a meeting in March 2016 that has come under scrutiny as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether President Donald Trump’s election campaign colluded with Russia. reuters.com (See also Jeff Sessions, Trump Relationship with Russia, Russia, Legal Issues) |
| 2017.11.15 | A federal judge in Philadelphia ruled against the Trump administration's policy of withholding law enforcement grants from so-called sanctuary cities, because it refuses full cooperation with federal authorities on immigration. thehill.com (See also Immigration, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2017.11.19 | Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team investigating whether Donald Trump sought to obstruct a federal inquiry into connections between his presidential campaign and Russian operatives has now directed the Justice Department to turn over a broad array of documents, suggesting that the Special Counsel is still actively digging into, among other matters, whether Trump or any other administration official improperly tried to influence an ongoing investigation. abcnews.go.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, Corruption, Jeff Sessions, Legal Activity) |
| 2017.11.20 | Randall Stephenson told antitrust enforcers that AT&T Inc. would see them in court after the Justice Department sued to block the company’s $85.4 billion bid to buy Time Warner Inc. saying, the lawsuit “stretches the very idea of antitrust law beyond the breaking point.” bloomberg.com (See also Censorship, Feuds) He reiterated that he wouldn't sell CNN to appease Washington. |
| 2017.11.24 | Jeff Sessions is methodically reshaping the Justice Department to reflect his nationalist ideology and hard-line views, from calling for prosecutors to pursue the most serious charges possible to altering the department's legal stances in cases involving voting rights and LGBTQ issues some would call discrimination. washingtonpost.com (See also Jeff Sessions, LGBTQIA, Racism, Nationalism, Immigration, Muslim Immigration Ban, Assaults on Civil Liberties) |
| 2017.11.27 | A federal judge ruled that the military must move forward with plans for allowing transgender recruits starting on Jan. 1, 2018. buzzfeed.com (See also LGBTQIA, Legal Activity, Department of Defense) |
| 2017.11.30 | Attorney General Jeff Sessions declined to answer Congressman Adam Schiff's question asking whether President Trump ever asked him to obstruct the ongoing investigation into Russian inference in the 2016 presidential election. msn.com (See also Jeff Sessions, Russian Meddling in Election, Corruption, Trump Relationship with Russia) |
| 2017.12.15 | The Department of Justice acknowledged in a statement that copies of private text messages exchanged between two former special-counsel investigators were disclosed to certain members of the media before they were given to Congress, even though those disclosures "were not authorized." businessinsider.com (See also Legal Issues, Reversals, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2017.12.21 | On the orders of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Justice Department prosecutors have begun asking FBI agents to explain the evidence they found in a now dormant criminal investigation into a controversial uranium deal that critics have linked to Bill and Hillary Clinton. nbcnews.com (See also Jeff Sessions, Fascism, Belief in Conspiracy Theories) |
| 2017.12.21 | The Justice Department wiped a wide swath of "guidance documents" off the books on Thursday, withdrawing 25 documents — including one addressing integration of people with disabilities in state and local government programs and another on standards for assessing citizenship status discrimination. buzzfeed.com (See also People with Disabilities, Jeff Sessions, Immigrants) |
| 2018.01.02 | Donald Trump on Tuesday appeared to suggest that Huma Abedin, a former top aide to Hillary Clinton, should face jail time, days after the State Department posted emails found on her estranged husband’s computer that included confidential government information. washingtonpost.com (See also Fascism, Belief in Conspiracy Theories, Assaults on Civil Liberties, Department of State) |
| 2018.01.02 | Donald Trump's pick to run Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) called for a crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities, saying politicians who help run them should be charged with crimes. thehill.com (See also Fascism, Immigration, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2018.01.04 | Donald Trump gave firm instructions in March to the White House’s top lawyer: stop the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, from recusing himself in the Justice Department’s investigation into whether Mr. Trump’s associates had helped a Russian campaign to disrupt the 2016 election. nytimes.com (See also Jeff Sessions, 2016 Election, Corruption, Russian Meddling in Election) |
| 2018.01.16 | The Department of Justice said on Tuesday that it will ask the Supreme Court to immediately review a federal judge’s ruling that ordered the government to restart a program that shields some young illegal immigrants from deportation. nytimes.com (See also Supreme Court, Immigration) |
| 2018.01.21 | Even though the Trump administration released a report supposedly from the Department of Homeland Security saying that "73% of terrorists were ‘foreign-born," DHS analysts had nothing to do with the report or the conclusion. thedailybeast.com (See also Immigration, Nationalism, Department of Homeland Security, Jeff Sessions, Muslims) |
| 2018.01.22 | Attorney General Jeff Sessions has consistently urged FBI Director Christopher Wray to make a “fresh start” by cleaning house and firing his core team, including Andrew McCabe - the man who the White House just picked to lead the FBI when Donald Trump fired James Comey, causing Wray to threaten his resignation. splinternews.com (See also Corruption, Legal Issues, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2018.01.23 | Attorney General Jeff Sessions was questioned for several hours as part of the special counsel investigation, and the former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, was interviewed by the office last year, marking the first time that investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, are known to have questioned a member of President Trump’s cabinet. nytimes.com (See also Jeff Sessions, Trump Relationship with Russia, Legal Issues) |
| 2018.01.24 | A request by the Justice Department to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census could shift the nation’s balance of political power from cities to more rural communities over the next decade and give Republicans a new advantage drawing electoral boundaries. washingtonpost.com (See also Racism, Voter Suppression, Mick Mulvaney) |
| 2018.01.24 | The Justice Department is threatening 23 so-called sanctuary cities, including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, with subpoenas if they fail to provide documents to show whether local law enforcement officers are sharing information with federal immigration authorities. usatoday.com (See also Immigration, Nationalism) |
| 2018.01.29 | Andrew G. McCabe abruptly stepped down on Monday as the F.B.I.’s deputy director after months of withering criticism from Donald Trump, telling friends he felt pressure from the head of the bureau to leave, adding to what has already been a chaotic upheaval at the F.B.I. under Mr. Trump, who has responded to an investigation into his campaign with broadside attacks against both the bureau and the Justice Department. nytimes.com (See also Unprecedented Actions, Unpresidential Behavior, Corruption, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2018.01.30 | FBI Director Christopher Wray told the White House he opposes release of a classified Republican memo alleging bias at the FBI and Justice Department because it contains inaccurate information and paints a false narrative. bloomberg.com (See also Corruption) |
| 2018.01.31 | Donald Trump asked Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein if he was "on my team" during a December meeting at the White House, becoming the fourth report of Trump demanding loyalty from a Justice Department official. axios.com (See also Corruption, Legal Issues) |
| 2018.01.31 | The FBI released a statement condemning a push by House Republicans to release a secret memo that purports to show how the bureau and the Justice Department abused their authorities to obtain a warrant to spy on a former Trump campaign adviser. nytimes.com (See also 2016 Campaign, Corruption) |
| 2018.02.01 | The Department of Justice has “effectively shuttered” an office created during the Obama administration to expand access to legal services to people who can’t afford them. splinternews.com (See also Jeff Sessions, Americans in Poverty) |
| 2018.02.09 | Rachel L. Brand, the No. 3 official at the Justice Department, plans to step down after nine months on the job as the country’s top law enforcement agency has been under attack by Donald Trump. nytimes.com (See also Resignations and Dismissals, Jeff Sessions, 2016 Election) |
| 2018.02.11 | ICE has arrested more than 37,000 "non-criminal" people in 2017 - a rate more than double the previous year. washingtonpost.com (See also Immigration, Legal Issues) |
| 2018.02.25 | More than 13 months into the Trump administration, the Justice Department is now officially without its Senate-confirmed No. 3 in charge revealing that there are very few people serving in “permanent” roles in the Justice Department. buzzfeed.com (See also Jeff Sessions, Assaults on Government) |
| 2018.03.01 | Donald Trump suggested using the death penalty on drug dealers to address the opioid epidemic, equating providing lethal drugs with murder. politico.com (See also Domestic Policy, Unpresidential Behavior, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2018.03.06 | The Justice Department is suing California over immigration laws that oppose Mr. Trump’s agenda, saying state laws make it impossible for federal immigration officials to deport criminals born outside of the United States. nytimes.com (See also Immigration, Jeff Sessions, Legal Activity) |
| 2018.03.16 | Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, a little more than 24 hours before McCabe was set to retire — a move that McCabe alleged was an attempt to slander him and undermine the ongoing special counsel investigation into the Trump campaign. washingtonpost.com (See also 2016 Campaign, Jeff Sessions, Conflicts of Interest, Resignations and Dismissals) |
| 2018.03.21 | Attorney General Jeff Sessions directed states to pursue the death penalty in certain drug-related cases as an answer to the opioid epidemic—a plan Donald Trump first announced this week in New Hampshire. splinternews.com (See also Jeff Sessions, Domestic Policy) |
| 2018.03.21 | Nearly a year before Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired senior FBI official Andrew McCabe for what Sessions called a "lack of candor," McCabe oversaw a federal criminal investigation into whether Sessions himself lacked candor when testifying before Congress about contacts with Russian operatives. abcnews.go.com (See also Jeff Sessions, False Statements, Resignations and Dismissals) |
| 2018.04.19 | Donald Trump's effort to crack down on sanctuary cities suffered another legal setback as a federal appeals court in Chicago upheld a nationwide injunction against making federal grant funding contingent on cooperation with immigration enforcement. politico.com (See also Immigration, Legal Activity, just) A three-judge panel—all of whom are Republican appointees—ruled that there were strong indications that the administration exceeded its legal authority in trying to implement the new conditions without approval from Congress. |
| 2018.04.26 | Donald Trump hinted that he may get more deeply involved in the management of his Justice Department — which is overseeing a special counsel probe into possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election — in a freewheeling and defiant phone interview with Fox and Friends. washingtonpost.com (See also Conflicts of Interest, Legal Activity, Corruption, Russian Meddling in Election) |
| 2018.04.29 | The Justice Department deleted language about press freedom and racial gerrymandering from its internal manual. buzzfeed.com (See also Jeff Sessions, Assaults on Civil Liberties) |
| 2018.05.21 | A new lawsuit is seeking to force the Trump administration to release the results of the FBI’s February-March 2018 “climate survey,” an anonymous review that takes the temperature of worker morale at the agency, that previously had been released to the public every year. talkingpointsmemo.com (See also Reversals, Legal Activity) |
| 2018.05.21 | Donald Trump went beyond his usual tactics of suggesting wrongdoing and political bias by those investigating him, and crossed over into applying overt presidential pressure on the Justice Department to do his bidding. nytimes.com (See also Conflicts of Interest, Fascism, Legal Issues) Legal experts said President Trump’s promise of intervention had little precedent, and could force a clash between the sitting president and his Justice Department. |
| 2018.05.23 | Donald Trump warned that unaccompanied migrant children arriving at the southern border are exposing the nation to gang crime saying, "They look so innocent. They're not innocent." washingtonpost.com (See also Immigration, Department of Homeland Security, Unpresidential Behavior) |
| 2018.05.24 | Donald Trump suggested in an interview that sweeping changes to what he described as a "corrupt" immigration legal system were necessary, while also questioning the need for a legal process for people apprehended trying to cross into the US illegally. cnn.com (See also Immigration, Assaults on Civil Liberties) |
| 2018.05.25 | Mark S. Inch, the man in charge of the federal prison system, has resigned, stating he was tired of the Trump administration flouting "departmental norms" and complained that Jeff Sessions and Jared Kushner had marginalized his role. nytimes.com (See also Resignations and Dismissals, Jeff Sessions, Jared Kushner) |
| 2018.05.29 | Donald Trump objected to Jeff Sessions' decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, said that he needed a "loyalist" overseeing the inquiry, berated Mr. Sessions and told him he should reverse his decision, an unusual and potentially inappropriate request. nytimes.com (See also Legal Issues, Jeff Sessions, Russian Meddling in Election) |
| 2018.06.05 | The Trump administration has put its search for the Justice Department’s No. 3 official on the back burner after failing to persuade several candidates to take the challenging position, in the latest sign of the difficulties besetting the agency. wsj.com (See also Jeff Sessions) |
| 2018.06.11 | Several prominent Russians, some in President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle or high in the Russian Orthodox Church, now have been identified as having contact with National Rifle Association officials during the 2016 U.S. election campaign, emerging amid a deepening Justice Department investigation into whether Russian banker and lifetime NRA member Alexander Torshin illegally channeled money through the gun rights group to add financial firepower to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential bid. mcclatchydc.com (See also Russian Meddling in Election, 2016 Campaign, Trump Relationship with Russia) |
| 2018.06.11 | The Trump administration Monday overturned asylum protections for domestic violence victims in a decision that could affect thousands of asylum seekers from Central America. cnn.com (See also Immigration, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2018.06.18 | Across immigration, policing, criminal justice, and voting rights, the attorney general is pushing an agenda that could erase many of the legal gains of modern America's defining movement. theatlantic.com (See also Assaults on Civil Liberties, Jeff Sessions, Reversals, Racism) |
| 2018.06.19 | Members of Jeff Sessions' own church filed a formal complaint against the attorney general, accusing him of "child abuse," "immorality," and "racial discrimination" and the “dissemination of doctrines contrary to the established standards of doctrines” of the United Methodist Church. abcnews.go.com (See also Immigration, Racism, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2018.06.29 | The Department of Justice, under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is drafting a plan that would totally overhaul asylum policy in the United States, barring people from getting asylum if they came into the US between ports of entry and were prosecuted for illegal entry, adding presumptions that would make it extremely difficult for Central Americans to qualify for asylum, and codify — in an even more restrictive form — an opinion written by Sessions in June that attempted to restrict asylum for victims of domestic and gang violence. vox.com (See also Jeff Sessions, Immigration) |
| 2018.07.11 | The Senate voted 51-48 on Wednesday to confirm Brian Benczkowski as an assistant attorney general at the Justice Department, ending an 18-month delay in which its Criminal Division operated without a permanent leader, despite his legal work for a Russian bank. npr.org (See also Russia, Conflicts of Interest, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2018.07.16 | A federal judge ordered a temporary halt to deportations of immigrant families reunited after being separated at the border, as the Trump administration races to meet a July 26 deadline for putting thousands of children back in their parents’ arms. washingtonpost.com (See also Immigration, Legal Activity) |
| 2018.07.22 | Donald Trump made false claims and stated with no evidence that his administration’s release of top-secret documents related to the surveillance of a former campaign aide had confirmed that the Justice Department and the F.B.I. “misled the courts” in the early stages of the Russia investigation. nytimes.com (See also False Statements, Assaults on Facts, Trump Relationship with Russia) |
| 2018.07.22 | The Trump administrations released the court documents in which the F.B.I. made its case for conducting the surveillance — records that plainly demonstrated that key elements of Republicans’ claims about the bureau’s actions were misleading or false. nytimes.com (See also Administration Errors, Legal Issues) |
| 2018.07.30 | Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Department of Justice is creating a "religious liberty task force." thehill.com (See also Assaults on Civil Liberties, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2018.08.01 | Donald Trump called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday to end the special counsel investigation, an extraordinary appeal to the nation’s top law enforcement official to halt an inquiry directly into the president. nytimes.com (See also Criminality, Legal Issues, Jeff Sessions, Trump Relationship with Russia) |
| 2018.08.09 | A federal judge in Washington halted a deportation in progress and threatened to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt after learning that the Trump administration started to remove a woman and her daughter while a court hearing appealing their deportations was underway. washingtonpost.com (See also Immigration, Legal Activity, Jeff Sessions) “This is pretty outrageous,” U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said after being told about the removal. “That someone seeking justice in U.S. court is spirited away while her attorneys are arguing for justice for her?” |
| 2018.08.13 | The FBI fired agent Peter Strzok, a 21-year veteran of the law enforcement agency who has come under fire for texts he sent that were critical of Donald Trump, despite the fact an independent review by career FBI officials recommended Strzok be suspended for 60 days and demoted. mic.com (See also Fascism, Russian Meddling in Election, Trump Relationship with Russia) |
| 2018.08.15 | The Trump administration has requested the restarting of thousands of deportation cases that immigration judges previously had suspended, according to statistics provided by the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees the immigration courts. buzzfeednews.com (See also Racism, Immigration) |
| 2018.08.25 | Unions representing federal workers declared victory in what they have described as an assault by the Trump administration after a federal judge struck down key provisions of a set of executive orders aimed at making it easier to fire employees and weaken their representation. washingtonpost.com (See also Reversals, Legal Activity) |
| 2018.09.03 | Donald Trump attacked Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department in connection with the indictments of two GOP congressmen on corruption charges, saying that the Justice Department should take politics into consideration in their work. washingtonpost.com (See also Jeff Sessions, Unprecedented Actions) |
| 2018.09.05 | Federal prosecutors have issued sweeping subpoenas demanding that millions of North Carolina voter records be turned over to immigration authorities by Sept. 25, with just two months to go before the midterms, sowing chaos in the state’s election machinery, while renewing the Trump administration’s repeatedly discredited claims of widespread voting by illegal immigrants. nytimes.com (See also Unprecedented Actions, Voter Fraud, Voter Suppression, Immigration) |
| 2018.09.19 | U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced new limits on the ability of immigration judges to terminate deportation cases on Wednesday, the latest in a series of decisions to facilitate the removal of immigrants in the country illegally. reuters.com (See also Jeff Sessions, Immigration, Legal Activity) |
| 2018.09.21 | Donald Trump walked back his order earlier this week to declassify information in the ongoing probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, saying Justice Department officials and others had persuaded him not to do so for the time being. washingtonpost.com (See also Reversals, Trump Relationship with Russia, 2016 Election) |
| 2018.10.04 | A federal judge in San Francisco blocked the Trump administration from ending special protections for immigrants from four countries devastated by war and natural disaster, temporarily relieving more than 300,000 people from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan from the threat of deportation. nytimes.com (See also Reversals, Racism, Legal Activity, Department of Homeland Security) |
| 2018.10.09 | Federal officials insist they are reuniting families and will continue to do so, but an Associated Press investigation drawing on hundreds of court documents, immigration records and interviews in the U.S. and Central America identified holes in the system that allow state court judges to grant custody of migrant children to American families — without notifying their parents. apnews.com (See also Immigration, Department of Homeland Security) |
| 2018.10.11 | The Department of Justice said in a new court filing that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross talked with Stephen Bannon, then President Trump’s chief White House strategist, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions about adding the citizenship question to the 2020 census, which is contrary to what he testified to Congress. thehill.com (See also False Statements, Voter Suppression, Wilbur Ross, Department of Commerce, Jeff Sessions, Steve Bannon) |
| 2018.10.24 | The Justice Department told the U.S. Supreme Court that businesses can discriminate against workers based on their gender identity without violating federal law. news.bloomberglaw.com (See also Supreme Court, LGBTQIA, Assaults on Civil Liberties) |
| 2018.10.29 | Immigration courts under the Trump administration have approved asylum cases at the lowest rate in nearly two decades, according to an analysis of Department of Justice data. buzzfeednews.com (See also Immigration, Department of Homeland Security) The asylum approval rate is just over 33% for the 2018 fiscal year. Under the Obama administration, the rate hovered between 44% and 55%. The last time the rate dipped below 33% was in 1999, during the Bill Clinton administration, when it was 31%. |
| 2018.11.03 | Across the corporate landscape, the Trump administration has presided over a sharp decline in financial penalties against banks and big companies accused of malfeasance, according to analyses of government data and interviews with more than 60 former and current federal officials. nytimes.com (See also Domestic Policy, Corruption) The approach mirrors the administration’s aggressive deregulatory agenda throughout the federal government. |
| 2018.11.07 | Donald Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions, replacing him with a loyalist who has echoed the president’s complaints about the special counsel investigation into Russia’s election interference and will now take charge of the inquiry. nytimes.com (See also Resignations and Dismissals, Jeff Sessions, Russia, Russian Meddling in Election) |
| 2018.11.08 | Before being appointed to lead the Justice Department, Matthew Whitaker promoted a company accused of fraud and deceiving clients. washingtonpost.com (See also Corruption, Criminality, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2018.11.08 | Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions has drastically limited the ability of federal law enforcement officials to use court-enforced agreements to overhaul local police departments accused of abuses and civil rights violations. nytimes.com (See also Assaults on Civil Liberties, Jeff Sessions) Jeff Sessions, fired as attorney general, has expressed skepticism about Obama-era efforts to improve relations between the police and their communities, saying the pacts vilify law enforcement. |
| 2018.11.13 | Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, Donald Trump's choice to temporarily replace Jeff Sessions at the Justice Department, is facing a legal challenge to his appointment after less than a week on the job, as Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh's office filed court papers arguing that because Whitaker isn't a Senate-confirmed official, his appointment violates both federal law and the US Constitution. buzzfeednews.com (See also Legal Activity, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2018.11.15 | The White House is looking for ways to remove an enemy of Turkish President Recep Erdogan from the U.S. in order to placate Turkey over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. nbcnews.com (See also Department of Homeland Security, Saudi Arabia, Unprecedented Actions) |
| 2018.11.20 | Donald Trump told the White House counsel in the spring that he wanted to order the Justice Department to prosecute two of his political adversaries: his 2016 challenger, Hillary Clinton, and the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey. nytimes.com (See also Fascism, Legal Issues) |
| 2018.11.20 | In the three years after he arrived in Washington in 2014, Matthew G. Whitaker received more than $1.2 million as the leader of a charity that reported having no other employees, some of the best pay of his career. washingtonpost.com (See also Corruption) |
| 2018.11.23 | The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to take up three cases challenging the administration's repeated efforts to bar transgender people from serving in the military. buzzfeednews.com (See also Supreme Court, LGBTQIA, James Mattis) |
| 2018.12.04 | The Trump administration freed federal prosecutors on Thursday to more aggressively enforce marijuana laws, effectively threatening to undermine the legalization movement that has spread to six states, rescinding an Obama-era policy that had discouraged federal prosecutors from bringing charges of marijuana-related crimes in states that have legalized sales of the drug. nytimes.com (See also Reversals, Jeff Sessions) |
| 2018.12.08 | The Justice Department is investigating whether crimes were committed when potentially millions of people’s identities were posted to the FCC’s website without their permission, falsely attributing to them opinions about net neutrality rules. buzzfeednews.com (See also Cybersecurity, Net Neutrality) People's names and addresses were listed on the FCC's website beside net neutrality comments they didn't make. Now the FBI is interested. |
| 2018.12.20 | Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker chose not to recuse himself from the Russia investigation even though a top Justice Department ethics official advised him to step aside out of an "abundance of caution." abcnews.go.com (See also Conflicts of Interest, Corruption, Trump Relationship with Russia) |
| 2018.12.21 | Donald Trump has at least twice vented to his acting attorney general, angered by federal prosecutors who referenced the President's actions in crimes his former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to, frustrated that prosecutors Matt Whitaker oversees filed charges that made Trump look bad. cnn.com (See also Conflicts of Interest, Legal Activity, Criminality) |
| A lawsuit in the 1990s had Alabama poised to fund poor black school districts as fairly as wealthy white schools. As attorney general Jeff Sessions helped kill it. propublica.org (See also Jeff Sessions) |