Latest U.S. Department of Justice News

Will the antitrust showdown launched under Biden turn into 'Let's Make A Deal' under Trump?

Nov. 17, 2024 09:07 AM EST

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The U.S. antitrust watchdogs that pounced on Big Tech and deterred corporate deal making throughout President Joe Biden's administration may be kept on a shorter leash by Donald Trump after he returns to the White House next year. Although regulators began...

Justice Department demands records from Illinois sheriff after July killing of Black woman

Nov. 16, 2024 17:39 PM EST

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department is demanding records related to the shooting of an Illinois woman who was killed in her home by a sheriff's deputy as it investigates how local authorities treat Black residents and people with behavioral disabilities. The...

Anxiety and dismay inside the Justice Department after Trump taps Gaetz as attorney general

Nov. 16, 2024 15:48 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump's choice of Matt Gaetz to be attorney general has many Justice Department employees reeling, worried not only about their own jobs but the future of the agency that the Trump loyalist has railed against. The president-elect's pick of the Florida...

Speaker Johnson says Gaetz ethics report should not be released, rebuffing senators

Nov. 15, 2024 16:58 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday that he will “strongly request” that the House Ethics Committee not release the results of its investigation into ex-Rep. Matt Gaetz, rebuffing senators who are demanding access now that Gaetz is President-elect Donald Trump 's nominee...

Trump rewards legal defense team, picks lawyer Todd Blanche as No. 2 Justice official

Nov. 14, 2024 18:43 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Todd Blanche, an attorney who led the legal team that defended the Republican at his hush money criminal trial, to serve as the second-highest ranking Justice Department official. A former federal prosecutor, Blanche has...

Justice Department says jail conditions in Georgia's Fulton County violate detainee rights

Nov. 14, 2024 17:36 PM EST

ATLANTA (AP) — Jail officials in Georgia's most populous county are violating the constitutional rights of people in their custody by failing to protect them from violence, using excessive force and holding them in filthy and unsafe conditions, U.S. Justice Department officials said Thursday. ...

Gaetz pick shows value Trump places on loyalty — and retribution — as he returns to Washington

Nov. 14, 2024 05:50 AM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump has had few defenders in Congress as reliable as Matt Gaetz, who has thundered at one prosecutor after another for perceived bias against the president-elect and emphatically amplified the Republican's rallying cry that the criminal investigations into him are...

Matt Gaetz once faced a sex trafficking investigation by the Justice Department he could now lead

Nov. 13, 2024 23:16 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, was once embroiled in a sex trafficking investigation by the Justice Department he's been tapped to lead, and has been under scrutiny by the House Ethics Committee over allegations including...

Trump picks Matt Gaetz for attorney general, Marco Rubio for secretary of state

Nov. 13, 2024 23:00 PM EST

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump chose Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida to serve as his attorney general on Wednesday, bypassing more experienced options in favor of a loyalist who has built a national reputation as a disruptor and whom Trump has tasked with dramatically...

Prominent conservative lawyer Ted Olson, who argued Bush recount and same-sex marriage cases, dies

Nov. 13, 2024 18:56 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson, who served two Republican presidents as one of the country’s best known conservative lawyers and successfully argued on behalf of same-sex marriage, died Wednesday. He was 84. The law firm Gibson Dunn, where Olson...