D o J Dept of Justice

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>see DOJ2 age of trump 918</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see prison industrial complex</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><section class="article-body abody-286803 " style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; width: 1170px; max-width: 1170px; margin: auto; padding: 0px 370px 0px 160px; position: relative;"><div class="article-body-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The war on the southern border, the Muslim ban, and mass detention of immigrants—President Trump seems determined to claw America back into the nation’s racist past one executive order at a time. In its crusade against educational equity<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, the Justice Department has emerged as the White House’s stealth weapon against civil rights. It is now moving quietly to dismantle the policy of affirmative action: Supposedly aiming to combat “reverse racism,” the administration <a href="https://www.vox.com/explainers/2018/7/3/17531700/trump-affirmative-action-obama" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">has rescinded key Obama-era policy guidance</a> that upheld the principle of encouraging diversity in K-12 and higher education. </span>Although the removal of this guidance does not alter past court precedents or repeal any laws directly, veteran civil-rights advocates are wary that, under Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, the administration has been moving steadily to work “separate but equal” back into the nation’s classrooms.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">Dennis Park,</span><b> head of the ACLU’s Racial Justice Project, <a href="http://school-diversity.org/picsguidance/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">described</a> the move as an attempt to “reverse the progress achieved over the more than half century since Brown v. [Board] of Education.</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">” But he added that the law would ultimately “be determined by the Supreme Court and not an Administration which seems bent on promoting division.”</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The problem is that “separate but equal” <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/millennials-have-lived-through-a-doubling-of-school-segregation/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">persists in our public schools</a>, if not in the letter of the law, then in the structural and cultural barriers driving de facto school segregation. And in the larger war for equitable education for all, some right-wing Asian Americans have been enlisted to provide a demographic twist on the escalating affirmative-action culture war<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/2/16084740/trump-affirmative-action-justice-department-college-admissions" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">The Trump administration’s rollbacks</a> parallel a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/30/us/politics/asian-students-affirmative-action-harvard.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">major lawsuit against Harvard University</a>, led by right-wing groups, claiming that Asian Americans and whites have been victimized by admissions policies that unfairly favor black and Latino applicants</span>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Last fall, the Trump administration <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/01/us/politics/trump-affirmative-action-universities.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">shifted its focus in civil-rights enforcement</a> to scrutinizing what it called “intentional race-based discrimination.” The Justice Department <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/30/us/politics/asian-students-affirmative-action-harvard.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">officially backed the suit this week</a>, while the university <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/08/27/harvard-makes-its-last-plea-avoid-trial-affirmative-action-case/exc1oei9qC0Pp5mQ0IP8FK/story.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">was filing final briefs in the hopes of avoiding a trial</a>, further bolstering right-wing arguments that programs supporting black and Latino academic advancement are anti-meritocratic and unfairly discriminatory.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Harvard case also echoes a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/13/opinion/stuyvesant-new-york-schools-de-blasio.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">debate unfolding in New York</a> over school-diversity policies, where some Asian-American community advocates have assailed efforts to promote racial diversity in the city’s prized magnet schools by altering the testing protocols for acceptance to these schools.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Trump administration’s <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/what-betsy-devoss-emphasis-on-choice-means-for-school-segregation/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">political reversal on affirmative action</a>, and the advancement of conservative legal attacks in the courts, reflects a generally reactionary climate in the politics of education. As with welfare reform and “zero-tolerance” policing, the pushback against affirmative action cloaks its racist subtext in a rhetoric of “defending” the civil rights of whites and Asian Americans.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Progressive Asian-American groups <a href="https://advancingjustice-la.org/harvard%20affirmative%20action#.W0jhZtJKjIU" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">warn that their communities are being used a political cudgel</a> in the affirmative-action debate. <a href="http://aaldef.org/AALDEFAmicusBrief-SFFAHarvard.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">Thirty-five Asian-American civil-rights organizations</a> and <a href="http://asianamericancivilrights.org/press-release-academic-experts" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">many academics</a> filed amicus briefs defending affirmative action this week in the Harvard case.</span> Racial barriers remain pervasive in both the K-12 education system and in higher education, and the real problems lie in discrimination on many levels, from social background, to different levels of academic preparedness, to unequal funding, and housing segregation—not simply whether the admissions officer at an elite school sees an Asian surname on the application.</font></p></div></section></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">omg</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/unbelievably-unqualified-democratic-senator-warns-trump-appointed-doj-lawyer-tied">https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/unbelievably-unqualified-democratic-senator-warns-trump-appointed-doj-lawyer-tied</a></font></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> =</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/human-rights/trumps-first-year-has-been-private-prison-industrys-best">https://www.alternet.org/human-rights/trumps-first-year-has-been-private-prison-industrys-best</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">E<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">xactly 17 months ago, in August of 2016 -- back when most election polls had Hillary Clinton clinching the 2016 presidential election -- the Obama administration </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/file/886311/download&source=gmail&ust=1515785593221000&usg=AFQjCNGp-6U5jlbaGAMND8pdSZQZdANvKA" href="https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/file/886311/download" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">announced</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> that it would end the Justice Department’s (DOJ) reliance on private prisons. The announcement came seven days after the DOJ’s inspector general (IG) called on the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to more rigorously oversee its contracts with private prison companies. The IG’s report </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2016/e1606.pdf&source=gmail&ust=1515785593221000&usg=AFQjCNGQqnQpT-OaQMu_hvZS6KfYCNr-Rw" href="https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2016/e1606.pdf" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">found</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> that private prisons at the federal level consistently fail to measure up to federal standards in preventing dangerous conditions, intercepting contraband, and ensuring internal accountability for staff misconduct.</span></font></p><div data-node="node-2" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Shares of the private prison titans tanked.</b></font></p></div><div data-node="node-4"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">CoreCivic and GEO Group’s stocks both <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/18/prison-stocks-plunge-after-report-justice-department-will-end-use-of-private-prisons.html&source=gmail&ust=1515785593221000&usg=AFQjCNH12-1HKLTrFMZmOQSG0GNFe4TesA" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/18/prison-stocks-plunge-after-report-justice-department-will-end-use-of-private-prisons.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">ended the day</a> down more than 35 percent and 39 percent, respectively</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> -- an indication that the nation’s largest for-profit prison corporations' profitability might be on the wane. The day after the announcement, GEO Group CEO George Zoley </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=//www.sun-sentinel.com/business/careers/fl-geo-prisons-response-20160819-story.html&source=gmail&ust=1515785593221000&usg=AFQjCNFPnQaV9CVw9JRTD5oRXML36a2O1g" href="https://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/careers/fl-geo-prisons-response-20160819-story.html" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">stated</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> in a conference call, “There’s been an overreaction to the news about the contracts. We think, in time, this will correct itself.” Even George Zoley couldn’t have predicted today’s turnaround.</span></font></p></div><div data-node="node-6" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With the election of Donald Trump to the White House a few months later, Zoley’s prescient statement of an “overreaction” made him look like a fortune teller.</font></p></div><div data-node="node-8"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On Nov. 7, 2016, when the closing bell of the American Stock Exchange rang and before any sense of who the 45th president of the United States would be, CoreCivic traded at 14.36 and GEO Group stood at 15.93. Following Trump's electoral victory, private prison company <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.salon.com/2017/02/10/private-prison-firm-sees-trump-immigration-push-opportunity/&source=gmail&ust=1515785593222000&usg=AFQjCNGpFWfNEsTa82LAJZTBWWUwNaPBLQ" href="https://www.salon.com/2017/02/10/private-prison-firm-sees-trump-immigration-push-opportunity/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">stocks skyrocketed</a>. Today, CoreCivic is trading at  23.19 (a 61 percent increase) and GEO Group is trading at 23.03 (a 45 percent increase). And for good reason. The Trump administration is a godsend for the private prison industry.</font></p></div><div><div id="postSection-3"><div data-node="node-10"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">First, there is the dangerous and misguided rhetoric that President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions constantly spew -- despite <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/crime-2017-updated-analysis&source=gmail&ust=1515785593222000&usg=AFQjCNGeOkB1093nWm7-wLHpA-xTSTlHyw" href="https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/crime-2017-updated-analysis" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">evidence</a> to the contrary -- about how the nation’s violent crime rate is rising and America’s streets are filled with carnage. Second, along with this bombastic language are their calls for harsher sentencing and draconian enforcement of drug and immigration offenses. Third, federal spending on private prisons has remained steady, despite Republican support for across-the-board budget cuts to other federal programs. Trump’s proposed fiscal year 2018 <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/26/560257834/as-it-makes-more-arrests-ice-looks-for-more-detention-centers&source=gmail&ust=1515785593222000&usg=AFQjCNEuvi-kPqzcqUxhZoAZ20cWp3CLtA" href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/26/560257834/as-it-makes-more-arrests-ice-looks-for-more-detention-centers" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">budget</a> calls for $1.2 billion in new spending on detention, transportation and deportation of undocumented immigrants to expand detention capacity to more than 48,000 beds a day. Finally, in February of 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-prisons/u-s-reverses-obama-era-move-to-phase-out-private-prisons-idUSKBN1622NN&source=gmail&ust=1515785593222000&usg=AFQjCNFURJNNr7Ex_LQMFSF-gITmArBcSQ" href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-prisons/u-s-reverses-obama-era-move-to-phase-out-private-prisons-idUSKBN1622NN" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">revoked the Obama-era initiative</a> to phase out the use of private contractors to run federal prisons, delivering the industry its biggest victory yet.</font></p></div><div data-node="node-12" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Private prison corporations have publicly expressed enthusiasm for the current administration’s aggressive stance on crime and immigration. In a 2017 third-quarter earnings call, a GEO official noted that the government’s need for additional detention space should benefit company revenues.</font></p></div><div data-node="node-14" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Here is how the private prison industry fared during Trump’s first year. Today, 65 percent of detainees held by the <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/DHS%2520HSAC%2520PIDF%2520Final%2520Report.pdf&source=gmail&ust=1515785593222000&usg=AFQjCNE2gQXEemWWRnN86apuDk4ivPb6pQ" href="https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/DHS%20HSAC%20PIDF%20Final%20Report.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Department of Homeland Security</a> are housed in privately run facilities. </b>With the administration’s plans to increase the capacity to hold undocumented immigrants behind bars, the private prison industry’s revenues will surely follow suit. And in an unprecedented move, in late 2017, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=//kstp.com/kstpImages/repository/cs/files/Request_for_Information_Multiple_AOR_2017_Final.pdf&source=gmail&ust=1515785593222000&usg=AFQjCNHyaKAQBcLhLOmQYa4otBYQvQ51eg" href="https://kstp.com/kstpImages/repository/cs/files/Request_for_Information_Multiple_AOR_2017_Final.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">asked</a> for information from contractors who can provide additional immigration detention space in the interior of the nation, in major cities such as Salt Lake City, Chicago, Detroit and St. Paul, along with an expected request for information on contractors who can provide additional capacity along the southern U.S. border in Texas.</font></p></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><img alt="" src="https://pixel.watch/e03f" style="border: none;" /></font></div><div><div id="postSection-4"><div data-node="node-16" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>CoreCivic’s CEO Damon Hininger publicly touted the administration’s move as a source of potential revenue to his company</b>, <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://seekingalpha.com/article/4096534-corecivics-cxw-ceo-damon-hininger-q2-2017-results-earnings-call-transcript?part%3Dsingle&source=gmail&ust=1515785593222000&usg=AFQjCNESTg1NEWucuY_uxFnQHGX-PaiZ8g" href="https://seekingalpha.com/article/4096534-corecivics-cxw-ceo-damon-hininger-q2-2017-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">noting</a> in an August’s earnings call with investors, “ICE expects the average length of stay for detainees to increase as a result of increased interior enforcement. While immigrants arrested at the border typically are detained for 27 days, those arrested in the interior of the country are detained for roughly 52 days.” More days behind bars in their detention centers translates into more profits for the company.</font></p></div><div data-node="node-18"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The current administration and the private prison industry are also doing more than just merely talking. In April, ICE awarded GEO Group with a $110 million contract to build a new immigration detention center in Conroe, Texas, 40 miles north of Houston. At the time, the Associated Press <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/texas/articles/2017-04-13/texas-getting-first-immigrant-lockup-built-under-trump&source=gmail&ust=1515785593222000&usg=AFQjCNHF_JcpgpxjxFhA9piTU1XCh9-Dog" href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/texas/articles/2017-04-13/texas-getting-first-immigrant-lockup-built-under-trump" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a> that this contract award took many by surprise because GEO had “a surplus of 3,000 beds across its nationwide network of prisons.” And in December, CoreCivic filed plans with government officials in Elkhart County, Indiana, to construct an approximately $100 million detention facility. The move sparked candlelight vigils from area residents distraught by the development. CoreCivic has not yet received final approval from the Elkhart County Commissioners or ICE.</font></p></div><div data-node="node-20" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In April, the administration -- sticking to the message from Attorney General Sessions’ one-paragraph memo to the BOP reversing the Obama administration’s intent to reduce reliance on private prisons -- posted a notice requesting proposals from private prison companies to house prisoners in Criminal Alien Requirement (CAR) facilities. <b>CAR prisons are privately managed prisons.</b> There are 11 CAR prisons across the country run by three companies: GEO Group, CoreCivic and Management & Training Corp. The solicitation signaled a planned increase of 1,607 beds over BOP’s then-current population of privately imprisoned people -- 21,287 in total, as of May 2017. And on May 26, GEO Group announced that it had been awarded renewed contracts with the BOP for CAR facilities at the company’s prison complex in Big Spring, Texas. The 10-year agreement for 3,532 beds is worth up to $664 million.</font></p></div></div></div><div><div id="postSection-6"><div data-node="node-22" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">My new book, "<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://cup.columbia.edu/book/inside-private-prisons/9780231179706&source=gmail&ust=1515785593222000&usg=AFQjCNF5Dwwo2SFY0aY7_oyvmfJ2EEl4Fw" href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/inside-private-prisons/9780231179706" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Inside Private Prisons: An American Dilemma in the Age of Mass Incarceration</a>," notes that given today’s political realities, the private prison industry is not disappearing any time soon. Given the current administration’s penchant for privatizing government services -- including increasing its reliance on private prisons -- we owe the thousands of people who cycle into and out of private prisons and immigration detention centers a duty to constantly monitor their conditions and ensure that private entities that perform public functions should be subject to the same transparency, accountability and oversight as public entities. And for those worried about the private prison industry’s lack of transparency and accountability (in just one example, private prisons at the federal level are not subject to Freedom of Information Act Requests), if the first year of the Trump administration reflects the next three years, we need to act quickly to ensure that the ever-growing number of people behind bars in private prisons and immigration detention centers are the beneficiaries of improved conditions of confinement and better transparency. How? We need to ensure that state and federal laws are changed to require these corporations to comply with open records requests. And state and federal governments need to rewrite contracts with the private prison industry to require better programming, transparency, accountability and conditions of confinement.</font></p></div><div data-node="node-24"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">While most of the coverage on private prisons has focused on the federal contracts, the administration’s rhetoric on reviving the war on drugs is starting to have a domino effect at the state level. Most recently, in Kentucky, the state signed a contract with CoreCivic to reopen a shuttered prison -- the Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville --  and move about 800 inmates there. The <b>opioid crisis</b> in Kentucky pushed state policymakers to draft more draconian drug penalties that played a role in increasing its prison population to a record high of more than 24,000 inmates. With full prisons and jails, Kentucky felt it had no choice but to contract with CoreCivic to house almost 1,000 men it doesn’t have room to keep behind bars.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p></div></div></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06062017/trump-names-bp-oil-spill-lawyer-climate-policy-foe-top-doj-environment-attorney">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06062017/trump-names-bp-oil-spill-lawyer-climate-policy-foe-top-doj-environment-attorney</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="content" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Jeffrey Bossert Clark, a lawyer who has repeatedly challenged the scientific foundations of U.S. climate policy and was part of a legal team that represented BP in lawsuits stemming from the nation's worst oil spill, the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, was <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/06/06/president-donald-j-trump-announces-key-additions-his-administration" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">nominated</a> by President <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/donald-trump" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Donald Trump</a> on Tuesday to serve as the Justice Department's top environmental lawyer.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Clark, a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis, has represented the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in lawsuits challenging the federal government's authority to regulate carbon emissions. In court he has repeatedly argued that it is inappropriate to base government policymaking on the scientific consensus presented by the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"When did America risk coming to be ruled by foreign scientists and apparatchiks at the United Nations?" Clark demanded in a <a href="https://pjmedia.com/blog/can-the-epa-rely-on-un-science/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">2010 blog posting</a> on the EPA's endangerment finding.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Clark was prominently involved in industry challenges to the EPA's "endangerment finding"</b> that set the scientific basis for all subsequent attempts to regulate greenhouse gases, including from autos and industrial sources. It was a demonstration of opposition to the underpinnings of the whole Obama administration regulatory approach to carbon dioxide, which were consistently upheld by the Supreme Court.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">One of the legal briefs he signed is such a <a href="https://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/09-1322-2011-10-17-%20Industry-Pet-Reply-Brief.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">comprehensive compendium of thoroughly debunked denial</a> of the scientific consensus that it stands as a classic of the genre, replete with condemnations not just of the EPA but of the IPCC, whose work the petitioners tried to persuade the court to rule out of bounds. A <a href="http://www.fed-soc.org/experts/detail/jeffrey-bossert-clark" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">series of podcasts and papers</a> he has written on <b>The Federalist Society website</b> continue his arguments against the endangerment finding and climate science more broadly.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span id="docs-internal-guid-6dc578c1-7ffe-c959-5221-829ad250c4af" style="box-sizing: inherit;">"He has a long history of opposing climate action for corporate and ideological clients," said<b> David Doniger, who heads the climate and clean air program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, </b>after learning of Clark's nomination. "I would expect that history would require him to recuse himself from such cases as over the Clean Power Plan, where he filed an amicus brief against the rule.</span>" </font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In one case Clark presented on behalf of the<b> Chamber of Commerce</b>, a brief argued that, under Obama-era policies, starting with the endangerment finding, "hundreds of billions and possibly trillions will be drained from the American economy based on novel legal theories marking "a significant shift of power from the Legislative Branch to the Executive Branch."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The brief said that the legal basis of carbon controls under the Clean Air Act "generated what quite likely are the costliest regulations ever promulgated based on EPA's belief that it can take a red pencil to plain statutory text"— an argument that resonates through Trump administration policies to this day.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"EPA asserted a new regulatory jurisdiction over essentially every energy-consuming building and activity in the nation, all the way down to houses of worship, neighborhood bakeries, and private homes," the brief said.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2007, shortly after the Supreme Court ruled in the case that established the endangerment finding, Clark spoke to the American Enterprise Institute, saying the finding was where the court "erred most significantly."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"They wanted to be able to compel the agency to determine whether CO2 and other greenhouse gas emission were causing or contributing to climate change," <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?197968-1/supreme-court-environmental-decision" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">he said</a>. "They didn't have that procedural right. At every possible turn, though,  they attempted to pitch their case that way and it would seem the Supreme Court bought into that."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Clark also successfully defended BP in a legal challenge brought by Louisiana parishes over the company's multi-billion settlement of claims stemming from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> according to </span><a href="http://www.kirkland.com/sitecontent.cfm?contentID=220&itemID=8568" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">his law firm.</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> He was involved in the </span><a href="http://www.cnsenvironmentallaw.com/2012/04/02/bp%20regarding%20deliberative%20process%20priviledge.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">fight against the U.S. government</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> to obtain documents regarding officials' deliberations over how fast the oil was flowing. The size of the oil spill, which was deeply underestimated at first, was crucial to determining the penalties that BP might face.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Clark served in the George W. Bush administration from 2001 to 2005 as deputy assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Justice Department. His nomination to become assistant attorney general for the same department in the Trump administration will require Senate confirmation.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">InsideClimate</font></em></p></div></div></div></div><div class="tagged-with" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-transform: uppercase; margin-bottom: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><label style="box-sizing: inherit; display: block; line-height: 1.2;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PUBLISHED UNDER:</font></label><div class="field field-name-field-topics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-item even" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/topics/politics" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">POLITICS</font></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="field-item even" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/topic/gulf-oil-spill" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">GULF OIL SPILL</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div> <div class="field-item odd" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">DONALD TRUMP</a></div> <div class="field-item even" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/topic/climate-change" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">CLIMATE CHANGE</a></div></div></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">matt t rs 2/11</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">doj sec // rev door:</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0.9em 0px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Throughout the entire crisis, in fact, the government has taken exactly one serious swing of the bat against executives from a major bank, charging two guys from Bear Stearns with criminal fraud over a pair of toxic subprime hedge funds that blew up in 2007, destroying the company and robbing investors of $1.6 billion. Jurors had an e-mail between the defendants admitting that "there is simply no way for us to make money — ever" just three days before assuring investors that "there's no basis for thinking this is one big disaster." Yet the case still somehow ended in acquittal — and the Justice Department hasn't taken any of the big banks to court since.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0.9em 0px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">All of which raises an obvious question: Why the hell not?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0.9em 0px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gary Aguirre, the SEC investigator who lost his job when he drew the ire of Morgan Stanley, thinks he knows the answer.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0.9em 0px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Last year, Aguirre noticed that a conference on financial law enforcement was scheduled to be held at the Hilton in New York on November 12th. </b>The list of attendees included 1,500 or so of the country's leading lawyers who represent Wall Street, as well as some of the government's top cops from both the SEC and the Justice Department.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0.9em 0px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Criminal justice, as it pertains to the Goldmans and Morgan Stanleys of the world, is not adversarial combat, with cops and crooks duking it out in interrogation rooms and courthouses. Instead, it's a cocktail party between friends and colleagues who from month to month and year to year are constantly switching sides and trading hats. At the Hilton conference, regulators and banker-lawyers rubbed elbows during a series of speeches and panel discussions, away from the rabble. "They were chummier in that environment," says Aguirre, who plunked down $2,200 to attend the conference.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0.9em 0px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Aguirre saw a lot of familiar faces at the conference, for a simple reason: Many of the SEC regulators he had worked with during his failed attempt to investigate John Mack had made a million-dollar pass through the Revolving Door, going to work for the very same firms they used to police. Aguirre didn't see Paul Berger, an associate director of enforcement who had rebuffed his attempts to interview Mack — maybe because Berger was tied up at his lucrative new job at Debevoise & Plimpton, the same law firm that Morgan Stanley employed to intervene in the Mack case. But he did see Mary Jo White, the former U.S. attorney, who was still at Debevoise & Plimpton. He also saw Linda Thomsen, the former SEC director of enforcement who had been so helpful to White. Thomsen had gone on to represent Wall Street as a partner at the prestigious firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0.9em 0px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Two of the government's top cops were there as well: Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Robert Khuzami, the SEC's current director of enforcement. Bharara had been recommended for his post by Chuck Schumer, Wall Street's favorite senator. And both he and Khuzami had served with Mary Jo White at the U.S. attorney's office, before Mary Jo went on to become a partner at Debevoise. What's more, when Khuzami had served as general counsel for Deutsche Bank, he had been hired by none other than Dick Walker, who had been enforcement director at the SEC when it slow-rolled the pivotal fraud case against Rite Aid.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0.9em 0px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"It wasn't just one rotation of the revolving door," says Aguirre. "It just kept spinning. Every single person had rotated in and out of government and private service."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0.9em 0px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Revolving Door isn't just a footnote in financial law enforcement; over the past decade, more than a dozen high-ranking SEC officials have gone on to lucrative jobs at Wall Street banks or white-shoe law firms, where partnerships are worth millions. That makes SEC officials like Paul Berger and Linda Thomsen the equivalent of college basketball stars waiting for their first NBA contract. Are you really going to give up a shot at the Knicks or the Lakers just to find out whether a Wall Street big shot like John Mack was guilty of insider trading? "You take one of these jobs," says Turner, the former chief accountant for the SEC, "and you're fit for life."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0.9em 0px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fit — and happy. The banter between the speakers at the New York conference says everything you need to know about the level of chumminess and mutual admiration that exists between these supposed adversaries of the justice system. At one point in the conference, Mary Jo White introduced Bharara, her old pal from the U.S. attorney's office.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0.9em 0px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I want to first say how pleased I am to be here," Bharara responded. Then, addressing White, he added, "You've spawned all of us. It's almost 11 years ago to the day that Mary Jo White called me and asked me if I would become an assistant U.S. attorney. So thank you, Dr. Frankenstein."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0.9em 0px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Next, addressing the crowd of high-priced lawyers from Wall Street, Bharara made an interesting joke. "I also want to take a moment to applaud the entire staff of the SEC for the really amazing things they have done over the past year," he said. "They've done a real service to the country, to the financial community, and not to mention a lot of your law practices."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0.9em 0px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Haw!</em> The line drew snickers from the conference of millionaire lawyers. But the real fireworks came when Khuzami, the SEC's director of enforcement, talked about a new "cooperation initiative" the agency had recently unveiled, in which executives are being offered incentives to report fraud they have witnessed or committed. From now on, Khuzami said, when corporate lawyers like the ones he was addressing want to know if their Wall Street clients are going to be charged by the Justice Department before deciding whether to come forward, all they have to do is ask the SEC.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0.9em 0px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We are going to try to get those individuals answers," Khuzami announced, as to "whether or not there is criminal interest in the case — so that defense counsel can have as much information as possible in deciding whether or not to choose to sign up their client."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0.9em 0px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Aguirre, listening in the crowd, couldn't believe Khuzami's brazenness. The SEC's enforcement director was saying, in essence, that firms like Goldman Sachs and AIG and Lehman Brothers will henceforth be able to get the SEC to act as a middleman between them and the Justice Department, negotiating fines as a way out of jail time. Khuzami was basically outlining a four-step system for banks and their executives to buy their way out of prison. "First, the SEC and Wall Street player make an agreement on a fine that the player will pay to the SEC," Aguirre says. "Then the Justice Department commits itself to pass, so that the player knows he's 'safe.' Third, the player pays the SEC — and fourth, the player gets a pass from the Justice Department."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0.9em 0px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="pagebreak" style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0.9em 0px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When I ask a former federal prosecutor about the pro</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="line-height: 15.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Fox's smear campaign against DOJ civil rights nominee Debo Adegbile did not stop when a Senate procedural vote failed. A Fox anchor and contributor</span><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://action.mediamatters.org/r?u=http%3A%2F%2Fmm4a.org%2F1cbc6iV&utm_campaign=36weekly2&n=14&e=2fd18ded548fce9ef66e074aaf01da3d5df1923b&utm_source=mediamatters&utm_medium=email" style="line-height: 15.6px; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">accused</a><span style="line-height: 15.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Adegbile of attending political rallies for his former client. But it was another attorney who attended those rallies, not Adegbile: </span><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://action.mediamatters.org/r?u=http%3A%2F%2Fmm4a.org%2F1cbc6iV&utm_campaign=36weekly2&n=15&e=2fd18ded548fce9ef66e074aaf01da3d5df1923b&utm_source=mediamatters&utm_medium=email" style="line-height: 15.6px; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">http://mm4a.org/1cbc6iV</a><span style="line-height: 15.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="line-height: 15.6px; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="line-height: 1.2em; outline: none;">Related:</span></span><span style="line-height: 15.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Fox did a victory lap when the Senate blocked Adegbile's nomination: </span><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://action.mediamatters.org/r?u=http%3A%2F%2Fmm4a.org%2F1fIFkAL&utm_campaign=36weekly2&n=16&e=2fd18ded548fce9ef66e074aaf01da3d5df1923b&utm_source=mediamatters&utm_medium=email" style="line-height: 15.6px; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">http://mm4a.org/1fIFkAL</a></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="[http://grist.org/news/too-big-to-prosecute-how-monsanto-slipped-the-dojs-grasp/.">http://grist.org/news/too-big-to-prosecute-how-monsanto-slipped-the-dojs-grasp/</a> Too big to prosecute: How Monsanto slipped the DOJ’s grasp] 3/13.</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mojo strange case</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The data dump from the HBGary hack was so vast that no one person could sort through it alone. So Brown decided to crowdsource the effort. He created a wiki page, called it <a href="http://wiki.echelon2.org/wiki/Main_Page" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">ProjectPM</a> <span class="print-footnote">[5]</span>, and invited other investigative journalists to join in. Under Brown’s leadership, the initiative began to slowly untangle a web of connections between the US government, corporations, lobbyists and a shadowy group of private military and information security consultants.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font color="#ff0000">One connection was between Bank of America and the Chamber of Commerce.</font> WikiLeaks had claimed to possess a large cache of documents belonging to Bank of America. Concerned about this, Bank of America approached the United States <font color="#ff0000">Department of Justice. </font>The DOJ directed it to the law and lobbying firm <a href="http://www.hunton.com/" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Hunton and Williams</a> <span class="print-footnote">[6]</span>, which does legal work for Wells Fargo and General Dynamics and also lobbies for Koch Industries, Americans for Affordable Climate Policy, Gas Processors Association, Entergy among many other firms. The DoJ recommended that Bank of America hire Hunton and Williams, explicitly suggesting<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/19/chamber-of-commerce-still_n_768076.html" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Richard Wyatt</a></span><span class="print-footnote"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">[</span>7]</span> as the person to work with. Wyatt, famously, was the lead attorney in the Chamber of Commerce’s lawsuit against the Yes Men.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In November 2010, <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Hunton and Williams organized a number of private intelligence, technology development and security contractors—HBGary</span>, plus Palantir Technologies, Berico Technologies and, according to Brown, a secretive corporation with the ominous name Endgame Systems—to form “Team Themis”—‘themis’ being a Greek word meaning “divine law.” Its main objective was to discredit critics of the Chamber of Commerce, <a href="http://images2.americanprogress.org/ThinkProgress/ProposalForTheChamber.pdf" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">like Chamber Watch</a> <span class="print-footnote">[8]</span>, using such tactics as creating a “false document, perhaps highlighting periodical financial information,” giving it to a progressive group opposing the Chamber, and then subsequently exposing the document as a fake to “prove that US Chamber Watch cannot be trusted with information and/or tell the truth.” In addition, the group proposed creating a “fake insider persona” to infiltrate Chamber Watch. They would “create two fake insider personas, using one as leverage to discredit the other while confirming the legitimacy of the second.” The leaked e-mails showed that similar disinformation campaigns were being planned against WikiLeaks and Glenn Greenwald.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It was clear to Brown that these were actions of questionable legality, but beyond that, government contractors were attempting to undermine Americans’ free speech—with the apparent blessing of the DOJ. A group of Democratic congressmen <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/28/AR2011022805810.html" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">asked for an investigation</a> <span class="print-footnote">[9]</span> into this arrangement, to no avail.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
Read more: <a href="http://www.thenation.com/print/article/174851/strange-case-barrett-brown#ixzz2Y7fLyn6F" style="color: rgb(0, 51, 153);">The Strange Case of Barrett Brown</a> <a href="http://www.thenation.com/print/article/174851/strange-case-barrett-brown#ixzz2Y7fLyn6F" style="color: rgb(0, 51, 153);">http://www.thenation.com/print/article/174851/strange-case-barrett-brown#ixzz2Y7fLyn6F</a> 
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