TheRepublic.com - Eric Holder News

Obama sees narrower terror threat, defends drones

Thu, 23 May 2013 19:25:37 -0400

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama sought Thursday to advance the U.S. beyond the unrelenting war effort of the past dozen years, defining a narrower terror threat from smaller networks and homegrown extremists rather than the grandiose plots of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida.

Obama: Policy in leaks investigations under review

Thu, 23 May 2013 17:07:12 -0400

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said Thursday that the Justice Department will review the policy under which it obtains journalists' records in investigations of the leak of government secrets.

Pakistan arrested American who was killed by drone

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:44:38 -0400

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - An American citizen killed in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan in 2011 was arrested by Pakistani authorities three years earlier but escaped after being released on bail, officials said Thursday.

Capital defender requested in NY rape, murder

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:45:52 -0400

ALBANY, New York - The attorney for a man charged with raping a 10-year-old girl and killing her mother in an upstate New York carjacking wants to add an expert on death penalty cases to the defense team in case federal prosecutors bring more charges and seek his execution.

4 Americans killed since 2009 in US drone strikes

Wed, 22 May 2013 17:20:11 -0400

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that four American citizens have been killed in drone strikes since 2009 in Pakistan and Yemen. The disclosure to Congress comes on the eve of a major national security speech by President Barack Obama.

Officials say Benghazi suspects under surveillance

Wed, 22 May 2013 03:20:28 -0400

WASHINGTON - Five men are under round-the-clock U.S. surveillance in Libya, wanted for questioning in the attack last year on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. The White House believes there is enough proof for a military force to seize them as terrorist suspects, officials say, but prefers to wait until investigators have enough evidence to try them in a U.S. civilian courtroom.

Policy, discretion guide media sources probes

Tue, 21 May 2013 03:35:59 -0400

WASHINGTON - It was a rare moment in relations between the media and the government: In 2008, FBI Director Robert Mueller called the top editors at The New York Times and The Washington Post to apologize because the bureau had improperly obtained reporters' telephone records four years earlier.

AP CEO calls records seizure unconstitutional

Sun, 19 May 2013 19:04:46 -0400

WASHINGTON - The president and chief executive officer of The Associated Press on Sunday called the government's secret seizure of two months of reporters' phone records "unconstitutional" and said the news cooperative had not ruled out legal action against the Justice Department.

Dems' Senate campaigns marked by internal battles

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:53:18 -0400

ATLANTA - Republicans aren't the only ones roiled by internal jostling and recruiting hiccups ahead of next year's midterm elections.

Arrest in letters that threatened Wash. officials

Thu, 16 May 2013 22:49:17 -0400

OLYMPIA, Washington - Police have arrested a Bellingham, Washington, man accused of writing letters to a Washington state newspaper that contained threats to kill Gov. Jay Inslee, state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama.

Wash. state releases draft rules for legal pot

Thu, 16 May 2013 20:35:23 -0400

SEATTLE - Officials in Washington state took their first stab at setting rules for the state's new marijuana industry Thursday, nearly eight months after voters here legalized pot for adults.

Tea Party groups from across the country tell their horror...

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:50:44 -0400

WASHINGTON - By MICHAEL COLLINS

Obama walking a familiar path on IRS allegations

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:30:29 -0400

WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service controversy dogging President Barack Obama is hardly the first time a White House and the tax agency have been accused of political meddling and bias. Nor is it the first time that political and social advocacy groups have searched for and exploited loopholes and fine points in the federal tax code.

Watch: Scandals will mire progress on bigger issues

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:47:06 -0400

WASHINGTON - By ANN McFEATTERS

A timeline of the IRS's scrutiny of the right

Wed, 15 May 2013 23:22:39 -0400

A look at events leading to the disclosure that the Internal Revenue Service placed conservative groups under special scrutiny for 18 months before the 2012 elections, a practice that has prompted congressional inquiries, a Justice Department criminal investigation and the ouster of the agency's acting chief:

NH Sen. Shaheen: Audit IRS

Wed, 15 May 2013 19:07:40 -0400

BOSTON - New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen on Wednesday called for a complete and thorough audit of the Internal Revenue Service.

Holder defends Perez's tenure at Justice Dept.

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:23:55 -0400

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Eric Holder and a leading House Republican clashed Wednesday over the Justice Department's refusal to turn over the private emails of Thomas Perez, a top department official nominated to be labor secretary.

Holder defends subpoenas for AP telephone records

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:29:02 -0400

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress Wednesday that a serious national security leak required the secret gathering of telephone records at The Associated Press as he stood by an investigation in which he insisted he had no involvement.

Holder says he played no role in AP phone subpoena

Tue, 14 May 2013 22:12:26 -0400

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday defended the Justice Department's secret examination of Associated Press phone records though he declared he had played no role in it, saying it was justified as part of an investigation into a grave national security leak.

Trio of troubles threatening Obama's second term

Tue, 14 May 2013 21:04:45 -0400

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama seemed to lose control of his second-term agenda even before he was sworn in, when a school massacre led him to lift gun control to the fore. Now, as he tries to pivot from a stinging defeat on that issue and push forward on others, the president finds himself rocked by multiple controversies that are demoralizing his allies, emboldening his political foes and posing huge distractions for all.

A look at statements about foiled terror plot

Tue, 14 May 2013 19:22:42 -0400

A look at the events and public statements surrounding an Associated Press story about a foiled plot to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner:

Ala group dropped tax-exempt bid amid IRS delays

Tue, 14 May 2013 18:50:39 -0400

MOBILE, Alabama - Faced with what seemed to activists like a curious amount of scrutiny from the Internal Revenue Service and mounting expenses, an Alabama tea party group gave up its fight for tax-exempt status rather than answer yet another letter from the federal government.

Editorial: Obama making Bush look like model of...

Tue, 14 May 2013 18:01:48 -0400

An editorial / By Dale McFeatters - To a person, probably, most of Barack Obama's supporters believed -- a belief the candidate encouraged -- that, if elected, he would rein in the worst excesses of President George W. Bush's national-security strategy.

Gitmo prisoner: Obama has 'abandoned' detainees

Tue, 14 May 2013 15:24:36 -0400

WASHINGTON - A Guantanamo Bay detainee says he feels abandoned by President Barack Obama and the world after more than 10 years at the U.S. prison.

Atty Gen orders probe into IRS targeting groups

Tue, 14 May 2013 14:16:50 -0400

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Eric Holder says he's ordered a Justice Department investigation into the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups for extra tax scrutiny.