Eric Tucker Posts

As the Justice Department probes the police shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old in Missouri, history suggests there's no guarantee of a criminal prosecution, let alone a conviction. Federal authorities investigating possible civil rights violations in the Aug. 9 death of Michael Brown in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson must meet a difficult standard of proof, a challenge that has complicated the path to prosecution in past police shootings.

Though reaping record profits off of the subprime lending schemes that helped bring down the economy in 2007, Citigroup was fined (a mere seven years later) $7 billion. A pittance for the damage they helped cause.

The Justice Department has formally asked the FBI to review materials provided by the Veterans Affairs inspector general, a U.S. law enforcement official said Wednesday. The VA watchdog last month issued a scathing report that confirmed allegations of excessive waiting time at VA hospitals and inappropriate scheduling practices. The report, which followed allegations that 40 patients died while awaiting care at a Phoenix hospital where employees kept a secret waiting list to cover up delays, found that 1,700 veterans seeking treatment at the Phoenix facility were at risk of being "forgotten or lost."

The United States is preparing to announce first-of-its-kind criminal charges Monday against Chinese military officials in an international cyberspying case, a government official said. The indictments will accuse individuals of participating in cyber-espionage on behalf of a foreign government, said the official, who revealed this information only on grounds of anonymity because this person wasn't authorized to publicly discuss the case in advance of the official announcement.

The Justice Department is encouraging nonviolent federal inmates who have behaved in prison, have no significant criminal history and have already served more than 10 years behind bars to apply for clemency, officials announced Wednesday. The initiative is part of a broader Obama administration effort to trim the nation's prison population, ease sentencing disparities arising from drug possession crimes and scale back the use of strict punishments for drug offenders without a violent past.

The Justice Department launched a program Thursday to train local police departments to better respond to transgender individuals, a population authorities say is disproportionately harmed by violence. The new initiative is aimed at helping police identify hate crimes and build trust with a community that law enforcement officials say is too often reluctant to report crimes.

Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday endorsed a proposal that would result in shorter prison sentences for many nonviolent drug traffickers, saying the change would rein in runaway federal prison costs and create a fairer criminal justice system. Holder's backing for a U.S. Sentencing Commission proposal to lower the guideline penalties is part of a broader Justice Department effort to lessen punishment for nonviolent drug dealers. He has been pressing to ease long mandatory sentences and has called for greater discretion for judges in sentencing.

Former security contractors charged in a deadly shooting in Iraq are asking a federal judge to dismiss the indictment against them as the case moves forward to trial. The four former Blackwater Worldwide contractors are accused of taking part in a Sept. 16, 2007 shooting that prosecutors say killed 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad's Nisoor Square. The shooting, which prosecutors contend was unprovoked, inflamed anti-American sentiment abroad and led to a criminal prosecution in Washington that has been winding through federal court for years.