and a former deputy assistant attorney general in charge of immigration to the us department of justice. he's as a trump, of the administration is making a show of these people, patients to create fear the people that are being arrested right now. and the people that are being removed are people who already had final orders of removal. they've already gone through the airport process. and what the drop of ministration has really trying to do is intensify or solar rates. that group of people to create a sort of shock at all value to create a desire for people to say, oh my god, this is going to be too stressful for me to remain in the united states. i don't want to be apprehended deported in the middle of the night. i will do it in an orderly fashion in my own life. that's the goal. that's the intent. but in the end, the numbers won't scale off unless the congress passed was a little new law that actually provide billions of dollars more and funding for new detention facilities, new agents, new resources in the courts, so that all of that process can be accomplished to create more remova

law, simon, a former deputy assistant attorney general in charge of the nation that the us department of justice enjoys the stuff in washington, dc, mr. pasco, kentucky of the program. thanks for your time. and as we sort of see these migrants being returned to guatemala, how can anyone who's watching these pictures be show the guatemalans or indeed understood to be from the country or any other country that that being returned to? well, there is a judicial process that has to be accomplished before anybody can be removed from the united states. and in that judicial process, there is a designation of the country, a removal. having said that, if that country, every move will reviews as to is accept that individual, the united states is hi, it does have a legal provision that allows the united states to remove someone to a 3rd country that's willing to accept that individual. now this is not going to happen in large scale because no country will accept a lot of us removals of people that are not from those countries. but to the extent that that initial part of the trump administration, there will

the department of justice used the might of the federal government to prosecute individuals peacefully praying outside of an abortion clinic. the fbi suggested traditional catholics could be domestic terrorism threats, claiming these individuals adhered to "antisemitic, anti-immigration, anti-lgbt and white supremacy ideologies." the fbi opened dozens of investigations and a parents who voice their concerns at school board meetings regarding curriculum choices and covid-19 mandates. the fbi applied undue pressure to social media platforms the sensor so-called --sensor so-called -- censor social media posts. these are egregious examples of rot in the department of justice. the impact of this political infection and are once stored of all enforcement institutions -- our once storied law enforcement institutions is catastrophic. the conduct has failed to live up to our country's ideals. so, ms. bondi, should you be confirmed, the actions you take to change the department's course must be for accountability so that the conduct i just described never happens again. the ole way to accomplish

for of trump's personal defense attorneys are being installed in the four top jobs in the us department of justice. so there's this other thing that's going on, right? one thing that's going on is he's doing a lot of things that are really unpopular, which is weakening him politically. it means that he's ripe for pushback, and it means that republicans ought to be able it ought to be possible to sort of wedge other republicans in washington apart from him, while he continues to do things that they find indefensible and they don't want to answer for. so that's interesting. but there's also this other thing going on and all those other things that i just described. none of them are popular, but they all seem to be sort of a different kind of thing as well. and one of the ways to think of it, one of the names that political scientists and political economists put on this kind of thing is the personalization of government. right? people with connections to trump, things that relate the government doing things that relate to trump personally, the government doing things and trump doing things as presid

for of trump's personal defense attorneys are being installed in the four top jobs in the us department of justice. so there's this other thing that's going on, right? one thing that's going on is he's doing a lot of things that are really unpopular, which is weakening him politically. it means that he's ripe for pushback, and it means that republicans ought to be able it ought to be possible to sort of wedge other republicans in washington apart from him, while he continues to do things that they find indefensible and they don't want to answer for. so that's interesting. there's also this other thing going on and all those other things that i just described. none of them are popular, but they all seem to be sort of a different kind of thing as well. and one of the ways to think of it, one of the names that political scientists and political economists put on this kind of thing is the personalization of government, right? people with connections to trump, things that relate the government doing things that relate to trump personally, the government doing things and trump doing things as president

of the core areas is the justice department. in a breathtaking dangerous and irresponsible decision, justice roberts on the majority help the president can commit crimes using the department of justice and be immune from prosecution. justice sotomayor correctly said, this new immunity lies about like a loaded weapon. the fear and the concern we have is that the incoming president will use that loaded weapon, that immunity to commit crimes through department of justice. and for that reason it is all the more important that we have an attorney general who has the independence, the strength, the fortitude to say no to the president when it is necessary. so my first set of questions has to do with whether you have the independence to say no when you must say no. and you can say this is hypothetical, but it is not hypothetical. so let me start with one very specific non-hypothetical. the president has said jack smith should go to jail. will you investigate jack smith? quick senator, i haven't seen the file, i haven't seen the investigation, i haven't looked at anything. it would be irresponsible of me to make a commitment regarding anything without -- you are lo

if they are going to investigate you on committees, if they are going to come after use of the department of justicely they are going to tie you up in all sorts of legal affairs. rep. lofgren: well, the speech and debate clause in article six of the american constitution points out that members of the house and senate are immune from any liability, criminal or civil, for their legislative acts, so they know this is a bunch of b.s. i would assume that they are going to focus, and not just on pleasing the great orange president, but tried to deliver their agenda, which they may have a little trouble with, since most americans do not support the idea of cutting back their social security and medicare benefits. so we will see what happens next, but i'm proud of the work that we did. i'm not proud of what then- president trump did come and i'm not proud of my colleagues who are willing to lie for him today. christian: what about your countrymen who voted for him? how do you reconcile that? he lied about the election workers, the voting machines, his lawyers have been de-sanction, disciplines, or disbarre

and one of the last things ashley akers did as a prosecutor for the us department of justice was submits charges against defendants in cases she spent years building. dismiss the charges because these people have been now pardoned by donald trump. i say that's one of the last things she did for the us justice department, because after more than seven years as a federal prosecutor and involvement in many january 6th cases, ashley akers left the us justice department today. she's here tonight for her first television interview since leaving her post. miss akers, thanks very much for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> thanks for your service. >> you're welcome. >> after seven years at the justice department, did you want to leave? >> no. i suppose. >> yes. >> because i left. >> but it you know it. >> the circumstances. >> came in a way that i didn't expect. >> yeah. what is it like to have worked on so many of these january 6th cases? i understand that you may have had as as as many, if not more, january 6th trials as any prosecutor in the department. what is it like to have all of th

just days after the city reached an agreement with the department of justice over racist text messages and useforce scandals. as a result, the police department will be under federal oversight for at least five years. and an update on a 2015 kidnaping in vallejo, a case that became known infamously as the gone girl case. prosecutors are bringing new charges now against convicted kidnaper matthew mueller. he's right now serving 40 years in federal prison for the kidnaping. last week, he was accused of even more crimes in santa clara county back in 2019. the latest charges allege that mueller kidnaped three other victims for ransom near san ramon. back in 2015. >> bar and restaurant owners across the bay area are now spreading the word about a man known for skipping out on his tabs. now they're sharing photos of 36 year old jared scott. prosecutors say he was arrested for dining and dashing at a red lobster in san bruno on new year's eve. but despite that arrest, there are still concerns he could target other businesses. the case has even captured the attention of san mateo county's district att

department of justice, i want to focus on a different aspect of it. we talked about the department of justice under joe biden and kamala harris being used to target the resident's political enemies, we talked about it being used to protect the political friends and allies of the white house. but there's another aspect of politicization and lawlessness, and that is refusing to follow the law, utterly defying federal statutory law. and i think there's no area where this has been more egregious than as it concerns our immigration laws. we have had four years of a wide open southern border. my state, texas, has borne a disproportionate burden as a consequence of that, as 12 million illegal aliens have flooded into this country and what the biden administration has done, no other president history of america has done. the biden administration has simply ignored the law, and when illegal aliens are apprehended, they release them. federal law says they shall be detained, says they shall be deported. and frankly, our constitutional system is not meant to deal with a president who defies the law. article ii says, the president shall take care that the laws be

the department of justice used the might of the federal government to prosecute individuals peacefully praying outside of an abortion clinic. the fbi suggested traditional catholics could be domestic terrorism threats, claiming these individuals adhered to "antisemitic, anti-immigration, anti-lgbt and white supremacy ideologies." the fbi opened dozens of investigations and a parents who voice their concerns at school board meetings regarding curriculum choices and covid-19 mandates. the fbi applied undue pressure to social media platforms the censor of social media posts. these are egregious examples of rot in the department of justice. the impact of this political infection and our once storied law enforcement institutions is catastrophic. the conduct has failed to live up to our country's ideals. so, ms. bondi, should you be confirmed, the actions you take to change the department's course must be for accountability so that the conduct i just described never happens again. the only way to accomplish this is through transparency for the congress and the american people. now to my frie

because we need the folgers to help fight because very often the state works together with the us department of justice. >> boots on the ground translates to what? >> i mean actual frontline litigation. >> people can do that, makes sense. one more question. professor newman. can we talk a little bit about the obama era resolution of the ticketmaster issues, why in your opinion did that produce more lasting sustainable john to in this industry? >> i teach that settlement as a bad example of what not to do. >> it is an answer. okay. >> at its core the problem is the inherent conflict of interest and power in place. they have a lot of well-paid counsel telling them how to find ways around that. when they can't find a way around it they will try to break it. in that case that is one where relatively far reaching remedy of structural separation early on could not waste government resources along the way. >> of structural remedy could have done it but when it is conduct specific, remedies, only, that are adopted, relegated to the facts of that case. >> think about a company like this not wielding one lever,

the department of justice used the might of the federal government to prosecute individuals peacefully praying outside of an abortion clinic. the f.b.i. suggested that traditional catholics could be domestic terrorism threats claiming that these individuals adhere to anti-semitic, anti-immigration, anti-lgbt and white supremacy ideology and the f.b.i. opened dozens of investigations into parents who voiced their concerns at school board meetings regarding curriculum choices and covid-19 mandates. the f.b.i. applied undue pressure to social media platforms to censor so-called misinformation downgrading or removing flagged social media posts and removing users. these are only a few particularly egregious examples of rot infesting the department of justice. the impact of this political infection in our once storied law enforcement institutions is catastrophic. by every metric, the biden-harris justice department conduct has failed to live up to our country's ideals. so ms. bondi, should you be confirmed, the actions you take to change the department's course must be for accountability so

democrats also asked repeatedly who won the 2020 election and grilled her on whether she'd use the department of justice to go after political o points such as liz cheney to which bondi responded no, she wouldn't be doing that. that's what's been happening for the last four years in this current administration and she plans to stop that. senator marco rubio and sean duffy received bipartisan praise for secretaries of state and transportation respectively and same with john ratcliffe, trump's pick to lead the cia. democrats hit trump'sman nominee for management and budget over his defense of trump's plans to cut spending and shrink the size of the federal government. >> inflation by irresponsible spending taxes americans twice. reporter: secretary nominee chris wright unleashed plans for bolstering the national security and the economy and democrats largely focused on climate change. larry: israel-hamas ceasefire. edward, what can you tell isn't it trues >> larry, 33 hostages will be released, 23 of them are alive. they will go back to their families after more than about 500 days in captivity. ten of th

us constitution. the department of justice says will vigorously defend trump's decision. it would refuse citizenship to anyone born in the us if need. the parent is a legal, permanent resident or a citizen a barbara. 8 lee, this is about people, this is about people who the president united states was trying to deny their lawful right to be citizens. and babies are being born today, tomorrow, every day, all across this country. and so we had to ask now to provide back to the status quote back what has been the law of the land for generations that you are an american citizen. if you are born on american soil period, nothing that the president can do would change that. well, trump assigned the raft of executive orders since taking office. mike kind of has moved from washington, dc. the president, some rolled out a number of new executive orders among them was one insisting that the investigation into the assassinations of john f. kennedy and martin luther king be made public now in the pos, the f, b i and the c. i a have resisted to making these investigations public, arguin

us constitution. the department of justice says it will vigorously defend trump decision. it would refuse citizenship to anyone bold in the us if need. the parent has a legal permited resident, all citizen. well, trump signed the rest of executive orders and stacy office. my kinda has more details from washington dc. the president trump rolled out a number of new executive orders. among them was one insisting that the investigation into the assassinations of john f. kennedy and martin luther king be made public now in the pos, the f, b i and the c. i a have resisted to making these investigations public, arguing that it would not be in the, in national interest. but now president trump has insisted that they must be released. he's given the director of national intelligence and the attorney general 15 days to come up with the plan to release the j. s. k. investigation and $45.00 days to release the investigation into martin luther king in another executive order. he gave a federal recognition to the love to be tried in north carolina. now the significance of this is that th

raised with you is safeguarding the department of justice's independence in the face of some promises on the campaign trail by then candidate trump that he would use the department to target his political adversaries. or that he might interfere with prosecution. what would you do if your career d.o.j. prosecutors came to you with a case to prosecute grounded in facts and law but the white house directs you to drop the case? >> senator, if i thought that would happen, i would not be sitting here today. that will not happen. will not happen. every case will be prosecuted based on the facts and the law that is applied in good faith. period. politics have to be taken out of this system the. this department has been weaponizeed for years and years and years. and it has to stop. >> thank you. let me if i might, madam attorney general, refer you back to senator durbin's opening comments about previous attorneys general. our former colleague, jeff session, bill barr. i don't think it's credible to say it may never happen that the president-elect would direct and unethical for illegal act. i think both of those attorneys general found themselves crosswise

. >> this is truly an outrageous political use of the department of justice and is frankly, sick, smith >> he decided against the insurrection charge due to it not being well tested in courts. he refuted republican claims that his investigation was political or influenced by the biden administration. smith is convinced he would have received a guilty verdict had the case gone to trial, writing, quote, the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial. while republicans are condemning smith's report, democrats are demanding more details. >> i respect that he was elected, but the american public deserves a higher level of visibility into his role in those events. >> as for trump, he responded on social media once again, claiming his innocence and calling smith, quote, a lame brained prosecutor who was unable to get his case tried before the election. volume two of the smith report deals with the classified documents case involving the president elect. it's expected to stay under wraps because it involves two of trump's former co-defendants who are still fa

with us today we have supporters of atf from across the department of justice and the federal government, including the white house. we are privileged to have the former atf director here with us and so many friends and supporters of atf. that you are here is a testament to the incredible work that has been achieved by everyone at atf since the director came in 20 222. when he joined as director in 2022 he had been a long staple department of justice community. when he was u.s. attorney in cleveland, ohio he hired me to the department of justice. since 2010 it has been the honor of my life to serve this country. it has been an even bigger honor for my friends here at atf. today is my last day, too. [laughter] [applause] thank you for your patience with my emotional turmoil. when steve asked me to come here with him that summer, i do not hesitate, because i knew from him being a friend and a mentor and a phyllo buckeye fan -- and a fellow buckeye fan -- sorry texas, i think tonight will be a rough one -- i had no doubt what he could achieve to fight violent crime and make this country saf

department. it's no longer under the oversight of the california department of justice. abc seven news reporter suzanne fawn is here with us tonight with the reaction. suzanne. so the california department of justice just released this 124 page final report. it says the san francisco police department has successfully reduced its overall use of force, substantially decreased the number of police shootings, and implemented policies to prevent racial bias in policing. >> it's a it's a really good feeling. >> san francisco police chief bill scott has been with sfpd for nearly eight years. he's worked with four mayors. he was brought in by mayor ed lee back in 2017 to help reform the police department, a department facing a series of troubling, fatal police shootings that included the 2015 shooting of mario woods in the city's bayview district. >> i came up through policing understanding reform. >> today, the california department of justice says sfpd has reached 264 of its 272 recommended reforms reforms, including reducing its overall use of force, driving down police shootings and installing new policies to deal with racial

are living through and misplaced priorities for the left is use these institutions which then go to work under reagan the department of justiceed. you think about the department of defense i served in iraq as a naval officer. we revered these institutions. the left has really hijacked to them they are using those institutions to promote their social agenda. the problem is that leftism is not good for the country it also takes their e her eye off the bl military leader lethal force being able to defend the country. that is how you deter threats. should be focusing on its core mission of enforcing the laws against bad people. they've taken the lead since 911 and counterterrorism. i can tell you in florida, this is something left to grapple with because they are not very cooperative with the local officials. they'd say they take care of terrorism but they have not been as serious about that as in the past. even in the intelligence agencies used in the woke mind virus run amok. with president trump coming back in to get the institutions focus on the mission that they were created to do and actually do the work of protecting the a

raised with you is safeguarding the department of justice's independence in the face of some promises on the campaign trail by then candidate trump, that he would use the department to target his political adversaries, or that he might interfere with prosecution. what would you do if your career doj prosecutors, came to you with a case to prosecute, grounded in the facts and law, but the white house directs you to drop the case. >> senator, if i thought that would happen, i would not be sitting here today. that will not happen. will not happen. every case will be prosecuted based on the facts and the law that is applied in good faith. period. politics have got to be taken out of the system. i agree with you has been weaponized for years and years and years and it has to stop. >> thank you. let me, if i might, madam attorney general, refer you back to senator durbin's opening comments about previous attorneys general, our former colleague jeff sessions, bill barr. i don't think it's credible to say that it may never happen, that the president elect would direct an unethical or illegal act. i think both of those attorneys general found themselves cro

prefer that much of today's hearing focus on the bread and butter work of the justice department, recent terrorist attacks remind us that the justice department is always dealing with the threat of i.s.i.s. they also deal with violent crime, opioids, fraud, antitrust. but we know that democrats believe her biggest liability is, of course, her question. questions about her loyalty to trump. we know that in the past, trump has put enormous pressure on his attorneys general to pursue his political whims. so she is going to face questions about how she will handle this. now, she has served as a surrogate for trump. she's been on his legal team. she helped push false claims about the 2020 election. so this is going to be a big focus for democrats. her team declined to tell me how she is going to handle those questions, but whatever comes her way today, she is going to have a lot of moral support because she's going to be accompanied today by 16 members of her family. >> yeah, we did see what happened when he tried to push bill barr. bill barr did not do his bidding. in the end. we will see what happens here. ellie, you

a statement that president biden and those around him felt that president trump might use the department of justice to go after those who had investigated him, to go after members of congress who served on the january 6th committee, to go after members of the biden family. and here again, we see a president saying, i'm the one who controls this power, and i'm going to use it. >> let me ask you about the future here. president trump is on the clock. eight years ago, you know, it was paul ryan. now it's mike johnson. how important is trump's relationship to the speaker of the house? because it does appear to be a good one, at least for now. >> well, it's important because the margin is so small. so when it comes to things that president trump cannot do by executive order, where he can't go it alone in the case of pardons or again, executive orders, then he's going to need to go through the legislative process. and so i think that his relationship with mike johnson absolutely is important. and there really is no margin for error. this is the slimmest of majorities. and he wants to make sure that mike

a federaljudge has cleared the way for the us justice way for the usjustice department to way for the us justice department to release part of efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. donald trump was charged with intellectual appearance hull interference was not the president of lebanon has confirmed the new prime minister. he is currently the topjudge at the minister. he is currently the top judge at the international court ofjustice. as big brother said it appeared to be ended excluding it from power. china has reported its biggest ever trade surplus just a week before the inauguration of donald trump who has promised to impose tariffs on chinese goods. the largest gathering in the world is taking place in india, millions of pilgrims are amassing in the north of the country, to the beat of drums and honking of horns millions have already plunged into the cold waters of the river ganges, saying they feel blessed to take a holy dip. it is expected to attract a staggering 400 million people over the six weeks. those are live pictures. that is it for the moment. thank you for watching. stay with us on bbc news. hel

justice department and that's how he conducted his first term. he interfered with the criminal cases of his friends and allies successfully pressured doj to investigate his rivals. even tried to use the justice department overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. the present elect made it clear in one thing above all is in the senate over and over, loyalty. speaking of attorney general sessions donald trump said "like the only reason i gave him the job is because of his loyalty but it was an original supporter. and when attorney general sessions did the right thing and rick -- recused himself an investigation trump said he should have never nominated him and fired him. barrie successfully auditioned for the job in an unsolicited memo to doj that surely -- sharply criticized the investigation. barr intervened in multiple criminal cases of trump's political allies and spread falsehoods about election fraud but in december of 2020 one bill barr family announced there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud to change the outcome of the election tropes dismissed him and hired a second attorney general but but this time around president-elect trump has vowed not just us

she will be able to resist the kind of pressure that president elect trump has put on his previous attorneys general when he wanted to use the department of justice to pursue his own aims. let's take a listen to one of the answers she gave on this issue. >> i will not politicize that office. i will not target people simply because of their political affiliation. justice will be administered even handedly throughout this country. senator, we've got to bring this country back together. we've got to move forward, or we're going to lose our country. >> now, bondi has previously said that she believes trump was unfairly investigated and prosecuted, and that those investigators should be prosecuted. now, when pressed specifically today on whether former special counsel jack smith should be investigated, she was noncommittal but said that he has not been prejudged. now, republicans wanted to keep the focus on her resume, and a lot of the other important work that the justice department does. the one thing i will say that came as a bit of a surprise was how many questions she got about trump's pick to lead the fbi. kash patel she was repeatedly asked to

of certiorari to the supreme court on this important constitutional issue. can an attorney general, a weaponized attorney general, use the department of justice to incarcerate a political enemy, a critic, because they so choose, and they decided they didn't want to hear it? but they'll listen to whatever trump has to say. but this they ignored. and just to answer one more thing regarding the pardon. yeah, i put in the application for a presidential pardon because i believe that joe biden has the same responsibility to me that he had to his own son. and i would expect that the same exact pardon that he gave his son has to go to me and to anybody else that's on that enemies list, whether they want it or not, because i assure you, solitary confinement, where i did 51 days sucks. >> michael cohen, i believe wholeheartedly that the solitary confinement was just a terrible experience for you. and i think your point about the enemies, the proverbial enemies list, right, is a good one. i wonder, have you heard anything back from the administration? it is my understanding that two things the administration. one is not going to give a pardon to anybody that doesn't w

of the trump effect. president trump made clear throughout the campaign that he was going to end censorship. when he came in, he was going to use the department of justice, office of civil rights to protect americans, first amendment rights to protect american civil rights, to leverage federal resources to stop discrimination. and so that's a major part of why we're seeing this today. laura. >> fantastic. stephen, thank you very much for joining us. all right. biden responds to the disaster in la with another disaster friday. follies with raymond arroyo is next. >> i speak in the name of the one true god. this kingdom is ours. nobody is going to take it from us. >> if you have christ, all the other stuff is overflow. who are you? >> i come from heaven. do you think this child will ever see peace? >> that's what i'll be fighting for. >> he was only 47. aneurysm. did he have life insurance? do you know? you got to get on it. check out selectquote. trust me. the peace of mind. it's worth it. life insurance is too important to put off another day. that's why selectquote makes getting coverage you need easy. for less than a dollar a day. now get up to a $2 m

department and fbi officials tell nbc news that the firings were designed to intimidate the justice department and fbi workforce, as well as to deter investigations of the trump administration in the future. joining us department of justice is nbc's ken dilanian. also with us is dave aronberg, former state attorney for palm beach county, florida. ken, good morning. what exactly happened. >> to give the trump administration their due? >> what the acting attorney general, james. >> mchenry, said. >> in a letter. >> to these people is that because they prosecuted. >> president trump. >> and participated in. what he called the weaponization. >> of the justice department, they can no longer. >> be trusted to execute the. >> orders of. >> the executive branch. >> now. >> a. >> couple. of things need to be said about this. >> one, most legal experts believe these firings are illegal. these people are civil. civil servants. you can't just fire them. >> you have to. >> demonstrate that they. >> were incompetent or. disobeyed orders. and so. >> they have legal recourse. at the end of the day. >> though, that probably isn't going to matter. >> the second. >> thing is. there is no evidence. >> that this investi