it also raises questions because the justice department later advised state and local prosecutors not to pursue child sexual exploitation charges against allen and then dropped any federal charges. this has led to a second investigation at the department's office of professional responsibility as to why that prosecution was declined. in addition to the failures to disclose exculpatory material, the case also suffered from a series of questionable decisions from management at main justice. for example, prosecutors claim that conflicting involvement between public integrity section and the leadership of the criminal division created an unclear chain of command. they also claimed that conflicts in personalities developed as a result of staffing decisions decided by senior leadership in d.c. despite these superfailure oo s oozes, there is no recommendation in the report related to management of the case. i am particularly interested in this aspect because management failures such as this are sanctionable conduct by opr. it will be interesting to see how this report compares to the final r

as i look at the department's budget, almost one-third of the justice department money is going in to federal prisons. that amount is now at $6 billion, and it is rapidly approaching almost what the fbi budget is which is $8 billion. now, my question is, what's going on with federal prisons? if people are incourse rated -- first of all, we want the bad guys and gals off the street. so we want you to prosecute and incarcerate particularly where there are people who constitute a danger to our country or to our communities. we -- i don't know if we can sustain this growth. and then i'm concerned about once we put them in, it's a resolving door and we keep expanding their prisons with the same people. they keep coming back. could you elaborate on your department's needs, but is there any recommendations you'd have to begin to contain the prison population? are we federalizing too many crimes? is recidivism the problem? again, safe streets, but this is really an ever-increasing part of our appropriations. >> i think there are a whole variety of reasons why we see the prison population expa

i want to ask you if any of those prosecutors are still in the justice department system? >> i have to check that just to make sure, but i believe all the prosecutors who were involved i department. i believe that's true. i'm not totally sure on that. >> does that trouble you that there would be findings of misconduct in such a sensitive area that they would still be that you would not let them go outside of our justice system? >> it depends on the nat the misconduct, what it is that they did, the mistakes that were made. i think one has to look at the be released combined with the opr report and the recommendations for sanctions o report to look at what exactly should happen to these people. was the incident an isolated one. how serious was it? what is the nature -- >> are you going to do that, mr. attorney general? are you going to make a decision regarding people who have clearly exhibited that they do not have the integrity to prosecute in this sensitive area? will you tell the committee wha made that determination? >> the actions that we take e's act interest that prev

department of justice, department of agriculture, department of defense, this is a team.uires team concept, and we're trying to reach out to the islamic world and create partnerships with lawyers and attorney generals and judges in the islamic world so we n i'm excited about it and appreciate your support. now, justice scalia came out yesterday or the day before talking about, he thought it would be wise if we looked at our federal criminal code. particularly in the drug area. and se wi ink he's right. i think we've federalized way too many crimes creating work for our judiciary that could probably be handled better at the state level. what do you think of the idea of revamping the federal criminal code and looking at maybe undoing some of the overfederalization? >> i've asked -- when i came into office, i've set in place a number of working groups to look at that problem. that issue. are we bringing the right people into the federal system? are the sentences that we have for the crimes that are federal ones appropriate? >> like crack cocaine, and we finally fixed that, but that was sort o

thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today and for your continued support of the justice department's critical work. i look forward to discussing the president's fiscal year 2013 budget for the department and how these vents would be used to build on what i think is our extraordinary record of success. now, the president's budget proposal demonstrates a clear commitment to advancing the department's core missions an augments our about to fulfill our most important obligation. that's to protecting the american people. despite the significant fiscal constraints, the federal government has faced in recent years, the 116,000 dedicated employees who serve in the department offices around world have made significant and historic progress in protecting our citizens from a range of threats that often disproportionately threaten the most vulnerable members of our society. we've proven our commitment to acting aah as stewards of precious taxpayer dollars. as you can see in the budget request, proposed spending increases have been exceeded by proposed cuts. as a result of numerous steps taken to

the justice department attorney signed it. he didn't even change it. i didn't realize how astounding that was. not only, you would think he would have gotten his hand slapped. the next time that came up when this more sweeping one came along, he signed it, too. guess what? that is what is guaranteed access to us. we had to go back into court thanks to public citizen litigation group. i really have to stop and acknowledge the wonderful depth in the more recent years with the pro bono support they provided. it is essential to get legal assistance and others as well have stepped up to the pro bono attorneys for us. it is absolutely critical. anyway, that's different. today, this does not happen. justice department in general, we did a report and it is out there attracted and despite the really impressive words of president obama and the impressive words of our attorney general talking about not defending agency withholding unless it really was consistent with the purpose of foia, there was real harm potential there or that the law just didn't give them an

pretty powerful in terms of what the department of justice did to a great man. i appreciate and i recognize and i thank you for your actions in dismissing that case and in your retry, and i join senator hutchison with that. there are questions that still remain. you know that. i have a long series of them. what i would like to do is submit them to you today and ask that you respond to them prior to the release of the report which is due to come out next wednesday, the 15th of march. i would appreciate your attention to that. i have a question regarding what is happening now with the release of this report. the "usa today" reported that the department of justice has spent $1.8 million in defending prosecutors from allegations that they broke the law in the stephens prosecution, and senator grassley was one who mentioned that i amount of money being spent by the taxpayers to defend what appears to be egregious misconduct and, again, senator hutchi

we did get a statement in from the justice department. let me frommed to our viewers. r today u.s. attorney for the middle district of florida, robert o'neal, the deputy assistant general, roy austin, jr., and other department officials met with the family of trayvon martin, specifically his father, mr. tracy martin and miss sabrina fulton along with their attorney. first and foremost the statement from the justice department we extended and continue to extend our deepest condolences to the family for their loss. during the course of this meeting we listened to the concerns of the family and the representatives. the statement winds up by saying this. earlier this week the department of justice announced the opening of a parallel investigation into the death of trayvon martin. that matter remains open at this time. the department of justice, u.s. attorneys office and fiber available to provide likal authorities with assistance in this case where appropriate. that's the statement just released by the justice department. we'll have the news conference from the parents as s

so should the department of justice perhaps being telling defense department and other agencies, you have to preserve these people because they are there to carry out a law. >> i think there's some difficulty with justice telling other agencies how they should allocate their money. i remember going back quite a while ago when the head foya works in that d.o.d., going back into the a.g. probably in the 80s said i don't mind being told to do more or less, i just don't like it when i'm told to do it faster as well. that's the sort of problem i think that a lot of us have. sometimes we can get from automation, we are able to increase the speed and improve things a little bit with that, but i recognize automation costs us money as well and once we have made that increase of 17% the first year, it's going to stay at 17%. it's not going to be growing by that every year. so i think that there certainly are problems with exactly that. i have seen going way back, department of state used to have a terrible problem with it's backlog and they went up once to senator leahy and leahy was wearing tw

at the time it was seen as a huge victory for the justice department. now, you know, years later, it's become -- and it is still a political issue in alaska and a political issue here. you have some of stevens' former colleagues bashing the justice department and senator patrick leahy, chairman of the judiciary committee says he may have a hearing on what happened here. it shattered morale. and it is still playing out. doj pulled back from some cases that you would prior to stevens case you would have think they would go after, for instance, the allegations against former senator john ensign. they didn't bring criminal charges. they're still looking at it. but the shocking developments here, you would have thought they would have gone after him. there were other cases. so it's still playing out. you know, there is still legislation on this trying to change prosecutoral standards. when you look at the report and folks that covered it like myself how strong the special prosecutor was. and the other part is ervin side the justice department was pointing fi

>> when you say independent you mean outside the department of justice? the department of justice has an officepreo, which is there to entertain questions about the application of the disciplinary rules of the bar to the conduct of the prosecutors. >> as a matter of fact -- >> in other words, if the prosecutor had a question about a brady matter, is there either that board or -- i don't think -- i guess you can't go to the judge? >> you can. >> can you go to the judge? >> you can. if i had an issue where i, again, a federal prosecutor and i said to hmm, i've got this piece of evidence here. i'm not so sure whether i have to disclose this. well, first of all, i was taught you i assistant u.s. attorney, if i had to think about that for more than ten seconds, turn it over. but if i didn't, i couldex parta submission to the judge in camera and say this is what i to turn this over or not. there are reasons in my view why perhaps i should, but there are reasons why i should not. you, your honor, decide. you're the magistrate. >> that's kind of what i meant. you

>> when you say "independent," you mean outside of the department of justice? because the department of justice has an office, the professional responsibility advisory office known as preo which is there to entertain questions about the application of the disciplinary rules of the bar to the conduct of the prosecutors. as a matter of fact. >> in other words, if a prosecutor had a question about a brady matter, is there either that board or -- i don't think -- i guess you can't go to the judge? >> you can. >> can you go to the judge? >> you can. if i had an issue where i, again, a federal prosecutor and i said to myself, hmm, i've got this piece of evidence here. i'm not so sure whether i have to disclose this. well, first of all, i was taught when i was a young assistant u.s. attorney, if i had to think about that for more than ten seconds, turn it over. but if i didn't, i could go to the trial judge ex parte, make a -- >> you can do an ex parte -- >> make a submission to the judge in camera, say this is what i have. i don't know whether i'm obligated to turn th

we need a justice department that functions with absolute integrity. but we, who fund the appropriations, need to know that if you are going to have a cracker jack civil service we have to also support that cracker jack civil service. so, thank you. and god bless you and god bless america. the subcommittee stands in recess until march 15, next thursday, 10:00. wel the director of the fbi and both an open and ultimately classified hearing. the committee is in recess. >> thank you, madam chair. >> tomorrow morning's "washington journal" jeff bingaman looks at the health care oral arguments before the supreme court and senate debate on tax writeoffs for the oil and gas industries. and after that, georgia congressman, tom price on the republican 2013 budget proposal which the house will vote on tomorrow. washington journal live thursday at 7:00 a.m.te reagan was leavie hotel after delivering a speech. hinckley can't believe he is this close. 15 feet from the president. he shoots. six shots. first one hits jim brady the press secretary. he falls down. secon

enforcement matter, but they will be working in tandem and we now know the considerable talent at the justice department will also be looking at this. and so the family has what they wanted. they not only wanted some attention, some media attention, they wanted another investigation. they say they don't trust the police department and in fact they've turned over that taped interview to the federal authorities as opposed to the state authorities, after again speaking with one of the family attorneys, my understanding is that the police have not interviewed at least that's what the family attorney is telling me, have not interviewed this witness, and in my view, she is a crucial witness, john, to this event. >> certainly makes no sense now that they know she's out there, we would assume they'd contact her soon. sunny hostin making clear the investigation and the mistrust complicating things as well. thanks for your help. >> thanks. >>> illinois voter have two hours to cast their ballots. there's a new poll out in virginia, get this, has president obama beating mitt romney and all of his gop rivals, any of

he's brought to the justice department the experience of a career prosecutor.e's been dedicated to fighting violent crime and terrorism. he knows he is pioneering work, now working with our administration on how to deal with the new and emerging threat of cyber security which is how recommendations on protecting our civil liberties. well, mr. attorney general, before we get into the numbers about the money, i would just like to thank you and in thanking you, want to thank all the hard working men and women who do work at the department of justice. there are 119,000 employees who work there, 25,000 are federal dea, the u.s. marshals, the alcohol and firearms.n guds and correctionta prosecutors and investigators. they've done some amazing accomplishments which i'll talk about in -- when i get to my question period. but we want to thank them because every day in every way they stand sentry, either to do prevention and intervention, to make sure they're out on the street doing traditional violent crime work, to really being all over the world. and fighting is as th

before entering teaching, she worked at the department of justice. joshua thompson is with the legal foundation. a public interest legal organizati organization. he was co- author of the foundation amecus brief in northwest austin municipal district. a case challenging the section five of the voting rights act. an issue that we know is about to return to the supreme court in a variety of ways. finally, nina paraez. in that role, among other things, she supervises the offices throughout the united states in the voting rights dockets. she is a particularly prominent voting rights attorney. she was the last winner of the section two case at the u.s. supreme court for the plaintiff's side. a case we discussed this morning. and she is one of the lead lawyers in the current texas redistricting case that is working through the western district of texas through the district of district of columbia and the supreme court. it's a trifecta. the panelists will speak for about 10 to 15 minutes. we'll turn to questions about changes in the world since the voting ri

i want to ask you if any of these prosecutors are still in the justice department system. >> i have to check that to make sure, but i believe all prosecutors who were involved in that case are still in the department. i believe that is true, but am not totally sure. >> does that trouble you that there would be a finding of misconduct in such a sensitive area that they would still -- that you would not let them go outside of our justice system? >> it depends on the nature of the misconduct it is that they did, the mistakes that were made. one has to look at the report that is about to be released, combined with the opr report and recommendations for sanctions contained in that report, to look at what exactly should happen to these people. was the incident isolated? >> are you going to do that? are you going to make a decision regarding people who have clearly exhibited that they do not have the integrity to prosecute in the sensitive area? will you tell the committee what your actions are when you have made that determination? >> the actions we take -- there is no privacy act that preve

and if bill lee won't do it, i certainly hope the justice department will. >> i got a very perceptiveone of my twitter followers saying the local police department is now invested in zimmerman's story and we can't rely on them from this point forward because they've invested in it already. >> no. >> we're not finished with this. we are finished with it for this segment. but we're not finished with this story. jonathan and mark, thank you both very much for joining me tonight. >> thanks, lawrence. >>> coming up, mitt romney continues to have trouble rewriting his position on the individual mandate that he imposed in massachusetts. you have to just see this amazing powerpoint presentation on how to enforce health care mandate that is mitt romney did. that's going to be next in "the rewrite."were it not for this, it's about zero weight, 100% more nourishment, which means hair that's not weighed down. introducing new aqua light from pantene. our lightweight conditioning formula nourishes then rinses clean in seconds, leaving hair perfectly conditioned to swisssh. new aqua light collection

. >> in addition the department has joined with the department of justice in a school seeks to bring the best minds together to study these problems. we've had a few amazing conferences across the country for educators and school district officials that are struggling with discipline. we will be releasing guidance on the subject, and our hope is to provide a tool kit for educators and the public to study these patterns and do something about it. we are also working with law enforcement throughout country to also deal with it on a local le colleagues at the department of justice. >> sure. my question is you highlighted some examples of school districts bucking the trend, solving some of these internal disparities. i'm sure there's a subset of schools that egregious disparities. will you do enforcement actions where there is truly an outlier of a bad performing school? >> data alone are never going to be sufficient to find a civil rights violation. they give us places to study. that said, the office over the last couple of years has launched 14 proactive, systemic investigations in to

so then the justice department considered all of that and the justice department said no to texas, no, texas we don't approve of your new law, now on hold pending a court challenge by rick perry's administration. just before christmas the justice department turned back a law to make voting harder in south carolina. saying the law placed an unfair burden on minority voters there. south carolina's governor under nikki haley is looking to get their law approved. the lawsuit comes with an estimated cost of at least $1 million in legal fees, billable to the south carolina taxpayer. it's tempting to think of it as southern thing but it's a republican thing. south carolina, alabama, mississippi are some of the dominated states that passed laws to make voting harder since the last election. another state is wisconsin. but judges in the state courts there have put that voting restriction bill on hold as well. on thursday, the bill was temporarily blocked bay madison judge after he heard testimony that more than 200,000 wisconsin residents who are otherwise legally qualified to vote could not u

and if bill lee won't do it, i certainly hope the justice department will. >> i got a very perceptive today from one of my twitter followers saying the local police department is now invested in zimmerman's story and we can't rely on them from this point forward because they've invested in it already. >> no. >> we're not finished with this. we are finished with it for this segment. but we're not finished with this story. jonathan and mark, thank you both very much for joining me tonight. >> thanks, lawrence. >>> coming up, mitt romney continues to have trouble rewriting his position on the individual mandate that he imposed in massachusetts. you have to just see this amazing powerpoint presentation on how to enforce health care mandate that is mitt romney did. that's going to be next in "the rewrite." vironment. or zero dependency on foreign oil. ♪ this is why we at nissan built a car inspired by zero. because zero is worth everything. the zero gas, 100% electric nissan leaf. innovation for the planet. innovation for all. energy in america. planet. we've got to protect the environment

attorney general, can you describe how the department. of justice will utilize ncetar and tedac. >> -- run chiefly by the fbi deals with the examination of ieds we see coming out of afghanistan and other places. ncetar in contrast run by the atf deals with -- i wouldn't want to call them the more common. >> more prevalent maybe. >> more prevalent explosive devices. and i think that you're right, they you're right. they have fundamentally different responsibilities, but they compliment one another. and the location of them in that place i think makes a great deal of sense. could you describe the value of co-locating these facilities on a large federal arsenal with lots of range of space? >> yeah. >> there's a great deal of cross pollenation, the ability to talk to one other. although the purposes are distinct, there are certainly going to be scientific things, breakthroughs perhaps that you can exchange information by having people who are relatively close by. i think that having the two agencies that are primarily responsible for explosives determin

>> well, i would refer you to the justice department. and i think the point is that it was constituted in response to the sharp rises -- a sharp rise in the price of gasoline a year ago, roughly. year ago, roughly. the justice department can give you more details about its activity in response to that price surge. what we are seeing now in the last several weeks and months is a new surge in the price of oil, for a variety of reasons that have to do with the oil -- the global oil market. we are seeing then the concurrent spike in the price of gasoline that americans pay at the pump. and the president believes that it's important to be sure that there's no fraudulent speculation involved in those spikes in the price. >> do you think it should have anything to show given that it hasn't until now? >> well, i don't think you can -- i would urge you to discuss this with the department of justice, but i don't think you can credit -- you can't say simply -- you don't know until you investigate what you might find -- and if whatever they found or

so then the justice department considered all of that and the justice department said no to texas, no, texas, we do not approve of your new law, now it's on hold pending a court challenge by rick perry's administration. just before christmas the justice department turned back a law to make voting harder in south carolina. saying the law placed an unfair burden on minority voters there. south carolina's government under governor nikki haley is suing to get its law approved anyway. the south carolina lawsuit comes with an estimated cost of at least $1 million in legal fees billable to the south carolina taxpayer. given the string of these, it's tempting to think of it as southern thing but it's a republican thing. south carolina and texas and mississippi, and alabama, too, for that matter, are some of the republican-dominated states that passed laws to make voting harder since the last election. another state where republicans did the same thing is wisconsin. but judges in the state courts there have put that voting restriction bill on hold as well. on thursday, the bill was temporarily

i want to ask you if any of these prosecutors are still in the justice department system. >> i have toheck that to make sure, but i believe all prosecutors who were involved in that case are still in the department. i believe that is true, but am not totally sure. >> does that trouble you that there would be a finding of misconduct in such a sensitive area that they would still -- that you would not let them go outside of our justice system? >> it depends on the nature of the misconduct it is that they did, the mistakes that were made. one has to look at the report that is about to be released, combined with the opr report and recommendations for sanctions contained in that report, to look at what exactly should happen to these people. was the incident isolated? >> are you going to do that? are you going to make a decision regarding people who have clearly exhibited that they do not have the integrity to prosecute in the sensitive area? will you tell the committee what your actions are when you have made that determination? >> the actions we take -- there is no privacy act that prevent

and call the justice department press room. no. i think that these were clandestine meetings. >> which attorney general had the most difficult relationship with which f.b.i. director? >> oh, no contest. robert f. kennedy and j. edgar hoover. these men hated each other with a burning passion. >> why? >> these bobby wanted to exert his authority to run the f.b.i. he was the attorney general. hoover is supposed to report to him. hoover wasn't going to report to this pardon my language young whippersnapper. he wanted the people who gave the tour at the f.b.i. building to say well, mr. hoover has been director since 1924. the year before attorney general kennedy was born. and hoover did not submit to his authority. bobby kennedy didn't like that. >> robert kennedy had been -- when he was 35, the -- j. edgar hoover had been since 1919. >> 1924. hoover took over the f.b.i. and bobby was born in 1925. >> at what point do you demonstrate this hatred for one another? >> the conversations between these two men will sear the hair off the back

>> when you say independent, humane outside of the department of justice? the department of justice has an office, a professional responsibility advisory, which is there to entertain questions about the application of the disciplinary rules of the bar to conduct. >> in other words if the prosecutor had a question about a brady matter, either that or do or, i guess you can't go to the judge. >> you can. you can. if i had an issue where it began with a federal prosecutor and i said to myself, i have got this piece of evidence here and i'm not so sure whether i have to disclose this. first of all i was taught when i was a young assistant u.s. attorney, if i had to think about that for more than 10 seconds, turn it over. led if i didn't, i could go to the trial judge ex parte. >> and do an ex parte meeting. >> make a submission to the judge and say, this is what i have. i don't know whether i'm obligated to turn this over or not. there are reasons in my view why perhaps i should but there were reasons why i should not. you your honor decide. you are the neutral

justice department and federal grand jury.n february 26, trayvon martin was returning home from a convenience store when he was shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer, george zimmerman. here's part of the 911 call zimmerman placed. >> we've had some break-ins in our neighborhood, and there's a real suspicious guy. this guy looks like he's up to no good or he's on drugs or something. it's raining and he's just walking around, looking about. >> this guy, is he white, black or hispanic? >> he looks black. he's got his hand in his waistband. and he's a black male. something is wrong with him. he's coming to check me out. he's got something in his hands. i don't know what his deal is. >> we've got them on the way. just let me know if this guy does something else. >> okay. >> these [ bleep ], they always get away. >> are you following him? >> yeah. >> we don't need you to do that. >> okay. >> zimmerman followed trayvon and an argument ensued. other 911 calls picked up screams and the fatal gunshot. you can hear it now. >> 911, do yo

i do not discipline the standards but this -- that this department of justice applies. what i did conclude was that two of the surviving prosecutors engaged in intentional misconduct. therefore, if the department were to come to the same conclun or an if they concluded that the conduct was equus, they would conclude that the lawyers engaged in professional misconduct. >> your report finds that the prosecution was troubled by significant mismanagement, specifically the lack of supervision, which you point to what the attorneys prosecuting the case and the compressed schedule of the prosecution, that they were under. did you in any way, shape or form consider the failures were due at least in part to lack of time or to a misinterpretation or misunderstanding of what the disclosure duties entail? >> i did. i have found and concluded that there were a number of failures to disclose impeachment information, owing to the compressed schedule, the absence of effective supervision and the fact that the decision was taken to the permit fbi agents who were not schooled in radio and

, association of older americans, deputy jay rush, fraud section of the criminal disvision department of justice, jeffrey stieger senior litigation counsel consumer protection branch, civil division, department of justice. and, abby kuzma, from the office of the indiana attorney general. with that i give you michael bloom, our moderator, thank you. >> thanks, folks. good afternoon. it, it, this panel -- i suspect will be very interesting and informative. let's just get right to it. we are going to talk about fraud directed at the elderly. and seems to be a natural question is, why do we have a special -- panel on fraud on the elderly? and, there is research that concerns particular vulnerabilities that older folks may have that make them more susceptible than others to certain kinds of fraud. i would look to start then with betsy, about some of the research that the aarp may have done concerning those kinds of vulnerabilities. if you give us, some of those, those, factors that make older folks more vulnerable, perhaps to the frauds we have been talking about so far today. >> it's on. okay. i wan

does the justice department have a case? we have a fair and balanced debate next hour with a terrific panel. we'll get to all the questions then. 10 minutes past the hour. we're just getting rolling here. a lot to cover here on "america's newsroom". patti ann: you have a dramatic change in the president's approval rating. why president obama may be facing uphill battle to re-election. we'll have that ahead. bill: dozens of lawmakers calling on the attorney general to resign over "fast and furious" but is the bigger statement coming from someone refusing to say a thing? >> when did you first know about the program officially i believe called "fast and furious". >> not sure of the exact date but i probably heard about "fast and furious" for the first time over the last few weeks ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] help brazil reduce its overall reliance on foreign imports with the launch of the country's largest petrochemical operation. ♪ when emerson takes up the challenge, "it's never been done before" simply bemes consider it solved. em