Category: Weblogs

DOJ, Department of Justice Releases 2025 Annual Report to Congress on Efforts to Combat Elder Fraud and Abuse Emily Bazelon & Rachel Poser, The Unraveling of the Justice Department Sixty attorneys describe a year of chaos and suspicion, NYTimes, Nov. 16, 2025 DOJ, Corporation and Former Chief Executive Officer Sentenced for Health Care Fraud and…

ABA Criminal Justice Standards: Prosecution Function – Standard 3-1.6 Improper Bias Prohibited(a) . . . A prosecutor should not use other improper considerations, such as partisan or political or personal considerations, in exercising prosecutorial discretion. . . Standard 3-4.4 Discretion in Filing, Declining, Maintaining, and Dismissing Criminal Charges(b) In exercising discretion to file and maintain…

My recent Essay, Prosecutorial Discretion Is Grounded in Law, 30 Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law 224 (2025), examines prosecutorial discretion noting that while prosecutors are entitled to significant discretionary authority, this discretion is not unlimited—prosecutors are not above the law. The fundamental challenge lies in distinguishing between lawful prosecutorial discretion and unlawful prosecutorial misconduct, both…

Attorneys for James Comey previously filed a Motion on Vindictive and Selective Prosecution (see here). Looking at the defense motions, it looked like emails and texts may be strong evidence for the defense. The government has now responded with a long response, especially in comparison to their skimpy Indictment (see here). The response looks like…

Check out this article by Courtney Andrews, Darryl Lew, Tami Stark & Olivia Hussey (White & Case LLP), SEC Chairman Announces Reforms to Wells Process and Settlement Procedures, in NYU’s Compliance & Enforcement. It offers an analysis of Chairman Paul S. Atkins’ October 7, 2025 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s announcement of “procedural reforms aimed…

Professor Jennifer Taub, in her recent piece “How the Law Protects and Promotes Corporate Misconduct,” discusses the panel she moderated at Stanford’s 2025 Global Capitalism, Trust, and Accountability Conference. She uses the term “accountability theater,” to describe the failures of not prosecuting corporate criminal conduct. (esp)

Professor David McGowan’s article Fealty Oaths can be found on SSRN here. He provides the following abstract – “In Spring 2025 President Trump issued one memorandum and five executive orders targeting six law firms for adverse government action. The orders prompted four successful suits by targeted firms but a greater number of agreements between firms…

Perhaps one of the busiest offices at the Department of Justice is the Office of the Pardon Attorney. Here is the list of pardons and grants of clemency since January 2025 – here. Some observations about these recent pardons and clemency grants: (esp)

As anticipated (here), attorneys for James Comey filed Motions to Dismiss the Indictment premised on selective and vindictive prosecution (here) and on the improper appointment of the U.S. Attorney (here). The latter Motion can be summed up with their presented argument that “[t]he President and Attorney General appointed the President’s personal lawyer as interim U.S.…

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in U.S. v. Ryan affirms a bank fraud conviction under § 1344 (and also conspiracy – § 1349 and making false entries in bank records – § 1005). “Jurors were presented with evidence that [the defendant] conspired with others to misrepresent the ability of borrowers to repay their debts…