The latest coverage of the law enforcement community and all aspects of the U.S. intelligence.
By Larry O'Connor - The Washington Times
Carter Page is either an agent of the Russian government who helped coordinate efforts between the Vladimir Putin regime and the Donald Trump campaign to thwart the 2016 presidential election, or he is an innocent victim of an American political scandal of historic proportions. Published October 18, 2018
The Justice Department has opened an investigation into decades of alleged sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests in Pennsylvania, the first time victim advocates say federal prosecutors have conducted a major examination into the nationwide scandal.
California will reconsider life sentences for up to 4,000 nonviolent third-strike criminals by allowing them to seek parole under a ballot measure approved by voters two years ago, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday.
A day after 11 people were shot in Baltimore, the troubled police department said it's shutting down its administrative functions so that more officers can hit the streets.
The Trump administration's effort to root out leakers in the federal government bagged a top-level Treasury employee who was charged Tuesday with giving a reporter confidential information about suspicious financial transactions involving former Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, accused Russian agent Maria Butina and the Russian Embassy.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley on Tuesday asked the Justice Department watchdog to hand over a report saying a senior FBI official lied about illegally accepting sports tickets from a journalist.
FBI agents are investigating the Manhattan District Attorney's Office over allegations it dropped high-profile cases after attorneys for subjects of those probes -- including Harvey Weinstein and Ivanka Trump -- made campaign donations, according to a report Wednesday.
Special counsel Robert Mueller almost ready to present his findings after months of investigation on two key aspects of the Trump-Russia probe, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. promised Tuesday to keep the Supreme Court independent from political drama and infighting after the heated partisan battle clouded the confirmation of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.
Former Trump campaign aide Carter Page sued the Democratic National Committee and its legal team for defamation this week.
Saudi Arabia's leaders doubled down Tuesday with their denials of any involvement in the disappearance of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey, even as Turkish officials suggested that Riyadh scrambled over the past two weeks to cover up evidence that could prove the journalist was kidnapped or killed inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
President Trump is smashing the record for appointing judges to the powerful federal appeals courts with 29 picks confirmed, helping him put his stamp on the judiciary well beyond the Supreme Court.
Police say more than a dozen young people were detained after a large brawl in north Philadelphia in which three officers were injured.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler says he will crack down on "street brawls" in Portland after a weekend protest turned into a fight between right-wing Patriot Prayer members and left-wing counter-demonstrators.
President Trump is smashing the record for appointing judges to the powerful federal appeals courts with 29 picks confirmed, helping him put his stamp on the judiciary well beyond the Supreme Court.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday the Department Justice may step up its attention to attacks on journalists, but did not lay out any concrete measures.
A senior FBI official lied to the Justice Department inspector general about accepting free tickets from a broadcast journalist for professional sports events, but the official will not be prosecuted.
The Department of Justice on Tuesday announced 15 indictments against members of one of the largest and most dangerous drug gangs operating in Mexico.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions unleashed a blistering assault on federal judges Monday, saying anti-Trump bias has led some to abandon their role as legal referees and become "political actors" erecting roadblocks to the president's policies.
A federal judge on Monday dismissed porn star Stormy Daniels' defamation lawsuit against President Trump, saying the president was well within his First Amendment rights when he took to Twitter to mock her.
James Wolfe, the former security head for the Senate Intelligence Committee, pleaded guilty on Monday to one count of lying to the FBI about his contacts with journalists.
Florida voters were handed another issue Monday for next month's gubernatorial contest as the state Supreme Court ruled the next governor -- not Rick Scott, the term-limited incumbent -- will pick three new justices in 2019.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a task force Monday dedicated to bringing to heel designated transnational criminal organizations such as MS-13, Hezbollah and three drug cartels.
A Moroccan man convicted of helping Mohamed Atta and the other Hamburg-based Sept. 11 suicide pilots as they plotted attacks on New York and Washington was deported Monday from Germany to his homeland.
Congressional Republicans are collecting evidence to show an extensive, election year, anti-Trump conspiracy between Hillary Clinton operatives such as Fusion GPS and Barack Obama appointees at the Justice Department and the FBI.
Records released by prosecutors reveal that Florida school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz trespassed on school grounds about six months before the massacre that left 17 dead.
The Washington state Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously scrapped the death penalty, saying it was being carried out in an arbitrary and racially biased fashion and no longer served as a deterrent.
The Judiciary Committee cleared eight more judicial nominees Thursday, giving GOP leaders a total of 49 judges ready to be confirmed by the whole Senate.
The federal judge who oversaw Paul Manafort's financial fraud trial earlier this summer expressed skepticism on Thursday about the former Trump campaign chairman's plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller, calling it "highly unusual."
Manhattan's district attorney dropped part of the criminal sexual assault case against Harvey Weinstein on Thursday after evidence emerged that cast doubt on the account one of his three accusers provided to the grand jury.
President Trump said Thursday that his political rival Hillary Clinton should have been "taken right off the campaign" and thrown in jail back in 2016.
President Trump spoke with Attorney General Jeff Sessions' Chief of Staff Matthew Whitaker about replacing Mr. Sessions, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
President Trump touted prison reform on Thursday ahead of his meeting with rapper and designer Kanye West, and steamrolled over any objection his attorney general may have on the issue.
The Pentagon has decided to disclose a piece of evidence it withheld from Trump-supporting analyst Adam Lovinger, who alleges his security clearance was revoked as retaliation for whistle-blowing.
A New York man who authorities say built a 200-pound bomb to detonate on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on election day was arrested and charged Wednesday. Paul Rosenfeld, 56, of Tappan, New York, now faces federal charges of manufacturing an explosive device, said the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
With the Supreme Court nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh completed, GOP senators are quickly pivoting to filling out the rest of the federal courts, eyeing more than 40 district and circuit judges they want to confirm before the end of the year.
The Justice Department announced charges Wednesday against a Chinese government operative who authorities say tried to steal tried secrets from U.S. aviation and aerospace companies, including GE Aviation.
The Trump administration will try to scuttle the deal Chicago reached to set new limits on the city's police powers, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday, adding that the consent decree reached under the Obama administration would leave residents more vulnerable to crime.
Former Trump campaign adviser Rick Gates reached out to an Israeli company in 2016 and asked for proposals to run a disinformation campaign, including creating fake online identities, to help President Trump win the primary and general election, The New York Times reported Monday.
Attorneys for a Tennessee inmate set to be executed this week say he prefers to die by electric chair, calling the method the "lesser of two evils" compared to lethal injection.
Surrounded by dozens of stone-faced FBI agents on a frigid winter's day, Dennis and Kem Parada stared down at the empty hole and knew something wasn't right.
In a speech announcing her vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Republican, reminded me of some of the great orators of the past. Her speech was measured in tone, substantive in content and delivered with conviction.
A great battle was won, but the struggle continues. Years will pass before the full implications of the nomination and confirmation of Brett M. Kavanaugh for the U.S. Supreme Court will play out, and perhaps more years will follow after that before the implications are clearly understood.
Who was the most important spy of the Cold War era? Ben Macintyre convincingly nominates Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB officer who spied for MI6 (the British Secret Intelligence Service) for 11 years, lastly as chief of the London rezidentura.
President Trump apologized to Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh for Democrats' smear campaign Monday night during a ceremonial swearing-in at the White House, capping a week of victories for President Trump and giving a major boost to Republicans heading into the mid-term elections.
A special education teacher in Minnesota may soon receive some "special" attention by federal law enforcement officials after calling for the killing of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.
President Trump on Monday urged Chicago officials to the implement the controversial police practice known as "stop and frisk" to curb the gun violence plaguing the city.
Newly confirmed Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh jumped into work with his team of all-female law clerks.
President Trump on Monday said he will not fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, ending weeks of speculation about the high-ranking Justice Department official's fate in the wake of a report that he discussed secretly taping the president and talked about invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.
The confirmation of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is the capstone of President Trump's two-year effort to put not just the high court but the entire federal judiciary firmly under conservatives' control.
The assertion from forces against Brett M. Kavanaugh that false allegations of rape or attempted rape are extremely rare is rebutted by a number of studies, researchers say.
Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Republican, accused Planned Parenthood of a Supreme Court double-standard Sunday, arguing that the organization has never supported a pro-choice justice nominated by a Republican president.
An Alexandria, Virginia, man pleaded guilty in federal court on Friday to one count of receiving child pornography, the Justice Department announced.
Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana revealed Friday that he has a backup plan for Saturday just in case his vote is needed to confirm Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination.
An Arkansas man who killed himself during a 1999 police standoff at a Missouri motel was a serial killer and rapist who strangled a South Carolina woman in 1990 and gunned down a Missouri mother and daughter eight years later, authorities said Friday.
For Democrats intent on whipping up opposition to Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh by leveraging the #MeToo movement, Juanita Broaddrick is their worst nightmare.
The FBI's updated background investigation into Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh reached out to 11 people, compiled 46 new pages of notes from its interviews -- and appears to have made little headway in settling what really happened at high school and college parties more than 30 years ago.
Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh said Thursday he was passionate during his testimony last week in his forceful denial of any sexual wrongdoing, and the judge attempted to explain the level of frustration he's felt since being accused of sexual assault.
A lawyer with ties to the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign passed on documents about Russian election meddling to the FBI's general counsel during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to a report Thursday.
An illegal immigrant "Dreamer" in the U.S. under protection of the Obama-era DACA deportation amnesty was arrested Tuesday on charges of trying to smuggle more than 17 pounds of methamphetamine through a Border Patrol checkpoint.
Vice President Mike Pence sharply criticized Chinese interference in U.S. politics and increasing military aggression Thursday, leveling up a blistering rhetorical assault at a moment when Washington and Beijing are hardening the battle lines after months tension over tariffs and trade.
The retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy from the U.S. Supreme Court is about to bring a 60-year battle to a head.
Justice Anthony Kennedy finally announced his long-awaited and highly anticipated exit from the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, enabling President Trump to appoint a steady conservative successor. The High Court is stuck, like a needle on an old phonograph record, with a succession of 5 to 4 decisions reflecting the deep and unbridgeable division of the nine justices.
In the end, the resistance didn't work. Despite much hemming and hawing, the nomination of Gina Haspel to be the director of the Central Intelligence Agency passed the Senate this week. The vote was 54 to 45, with six Democrats supporting her. Two of those Democrats are members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner of Virginia and Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Their support sealed the success of the nomination earlier in the week.
The Russian Collusion mythology is the most dominant story in the news media and has been for the past eighteen months... dating back to November 7, 2016. And when one examines the contemporaneous reporting by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes in their excellent book Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign.
Federal judges sit on the bench for life and can either uphold the law or rule like tyrants. This puts judicial appointments right near the top of the most important things a president can do.
After Roe v. Wade plaintiff Norma McCorvey became a Christian and revealed that she had not been gang raped as her legal team had claimed, many Americans came to understand that this landmark ruling that legalized abortion was based on a lie.
Jack Phillips, the Christian baker who fought in the Supreme Court to preserve his right to refuse to make cakes for same-sex weddings, says he is now the target of harassment by Colorado and some of its more mischievous residents, who have made a crusade out of trying to force him to bake cakes offensive to him.
Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser, said the warrant FBI agents used to snoop on him is "so ridiculous" and "misleading" and that he never acted as a Russian agent.
President Trump is pointing to the indictment of 13 Russians and three companies for interfering in the 2016 election as vindication for his campaign after it has faced accusations of collusion for more than a year.
Republicans released a long-awaited memo Friday detailing government surveillance abuses, showing that the FBI would not have obtained a surveillance warrant for the Trump campaign without using information from a dubious partisan dossier.
Purchasing opioids from China requires little more than a Google search, a credit card and a mailbox, senators said Thursday in a report that accuses the U.S. postal system of failing to "recognize and prepare for" a tide of packages containing deadly fentanyl.
Major U.S. cities reported 4.4 percent fewer homicides so far this year, the Brennan Center for Justice says in a new report being released Wednesday that appears to belie fears of a national crime wave.
A revised chronology given by investigators for the Las Vegas massacre is intensifying pressure for police to explain how quickly they responded to what would become the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Three women have accused Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein of rape, according to a bombshell report released Tuesday by The New Yorker.
Two Republican senators say they've reviewed evidence that indicates former FBI Director James B. Comey began drafting a statement to announce the closure of the bureau's investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server months before key witnesses, including the former Democratic presidential candidate, were interviewed.
The FBI executed a search warrant and raided the home of Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman for President Trump, his spokesman confirmed Wednesday.
The Senate voted 92-5 Tuesday to approve Christopher Wray as President Trump's nominee to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with lawmakers confident he can independently lead the bureau and shield its investigations from political interference.
President Trump on Thursday presented the Medal of Valor to five first responders who took on the gunman that opened fire on Republican lawmakers at a baseball practice last month.
The FBI is routinely asking witnesses in its Russia investigation about the accusations in a dossier against Donald Trump, further expanding the reach of a discredited opposition research paper sourced from the Kremlin and financed and distributed by Democrats.
President Trump tweeted Thursday that since there's no evidence of collusion in the Russia case yet, investigators are trying to "go for" obstruction of justice.
The rifle shots came from the fence over the third base line, shattering the June morning, wounding one congressman and several staffers, and terrifying the two dozen lawmakers and staffers who were also on the field.
