Tag: doj

DOJ Sues New Mexico and Albuquerque Over Laws Blocking Federal Immigration Enforcement

The United States has filed a complaint and motion for preliminary injunction against the State of New Mexico, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez, the City of Albuquerque, and Albuquerque Mayor Timothy Keller, alleging that the implementation of House Bill 9 (HB9), entitled the “Immigrant Safety Act,” and Albuquerque City Ordinance O-26-15, entitled the “Safer Community Places Ordinance (SCPO),” infringes on federal immigration enforcement authority.

Through HB9, the State of New Mexico is trying to abolish decades of long-standing, voluntary partnerships between local governments and federal authorities that are essential for enforcing immigration laws and keeping the federal immigration system running as Congress intended.

“New Mexico is attempting to regulate immigration policy, something the federal government is clearly and uniquely empowered by the Constitution to do,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “Our filings seek to halt the state’s unconstitutional actions by preserving cooperation between federal, state, and local law enforcement and allowing federal immigration officials to enforce the law.”

Both HB9 and the SCPO seek to block federal agents from using any local government property to carry out their work. Additionally, by unlawfully requiring private businesses to tip off illegal aliens about immigration enforcement activities, the SCPO attempts to harbor and shield illegal aliens from detection by federal immigration authorities and poses an obstacle to the enforcement of federal immigration law.

“The State of New Mexico and the City of Albuquerque seek to intentionally obstruct federal law enforcement by preventing cooperation between local governments and the federal government,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison for the District of New Mexico. “HB9 and the SCPO unlawfully interfere with federal immigration enforcement, illegally discriminate against federal operations, and violate constitutional protections regarding contracts and federal supremacy. Additionally, by barring public entities from participating in federal immigration detention in New Mexico, HB9 jeopardizes nearly 300 jobs and the economy of Otero County. Our lawsuit asks the court to declare these laws invalid and issue an immediate injunction to stop them from being enforced.”

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DOJ Opens Bombshell Probe Into Soros-Backed Fairfax DA Accused of Favoring Violent Illegals

The Trump Justice Department has turned its spotlight on one of George Soros’s most controversial political beneficiaries, Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano, as reported by RedState.

The long-criticized prosecutor is now under federal investigation for allegedly offering sweetheart deals to violent illegal immigrants while going soft on public safety for everyday Virginians.

It’s been quite a week for Democrats in Virginia. While FBI agents raided the offices of state Senator Louise Lucas in a major corruption probe involving cannabis dispensaries, the DOJ decided to look into Descano’s sentencing practices in Northern Virginia.

According to the department’s announcement, the Civil Rights Division will examine whether Descano’s office discriminated against U.S. citizens by granting preferential treatment to illegal immigrants charged with serious crimes.

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Judge Rules Trump DOJ Can Retain 2020 Georgia Ballots Seized by FBI

A federal judge has ruled that the Department of Justice can keep possession of the 2020 election ballots seized earlier this year from Fulton County, Georgia, as part of an ongoing federal investigation into alleged irregularities surrounding that election.

This decision comes despite concerns raised about flaws in the process the FBI used to obtain its search warrant, as reported by Breitbart.

U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, issued a 68-page opinion explaining his decision.

He acknowledged that the FBI’s affidavit authorizing the search was not without “shortcomings,” but he stopped short of accusing the agency of acting in “callous disregard” of the county’s rights—a legal threshold that could have compelled him to return the original ballots.

“While the Affidavit was certainly far from perfect, this is not a situation where an officer left out all the facts that might undermine probable cause or where an officer intentionally lied,” Boulee wrote.

In other words, the judge found procedural errors but not enough evidence of misconduct or bad faith to nullify the FBI’s actions.

The ruling represents a notable moment in the ongoing push by federal authorities to investigate what they describe as “electoral improprieties” in the 2020 race.

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California Immigration Judge Sues Trump DOJ; Claims She Was Fired for Being a Registered Democrat Woman Over 40

A California immigration judge has filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Justice, alleging she was terminated because she is a registered Democrat, a woman over 40, fluent in Spanish, and had ties to immigrant-rights groups.

Kyra Lilien had been in the San Francisco Immigration Court since 2023, before transferring to the Concord Immigration Court in 2024.

Last July, Lilien was notified that her two-year probationary period would not be converted to a permanent appointment.

The 14-page lawsuit, filed this week, names the DOJ and Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche as defendants.

Lilien claims she met or exceeded all performance standards and received the highest possible ratings in her probationary reports for fiscal years 2024 and 2025.

According to TRAC Immigration data, she denied just 34% of asylum claims brought before her.

Despite this, she alleges her removal violated her civil and First Amendment rights.

Lilien’s attorney, Kevin Owen of Gilbert Employment Law in Maryland, told local station KTVU that Lilien “didn’t fit their mold” and that the actions taken against her were “impermissible and unlawful.”

“She didn’t fit their mold,” Owen said. “And what they did to her was impermissible and unlawful.”

The suit claims that immigration judges who were terminated or not retained around the same time were overwhelmingly female and points to internal memos issued by then-acting EOIR Director Sirce Owen in early 2025.

Those memos criticized “extremist leftist organizations” involved in illegal alien advocacy and Biden-era hiring practices that promoted illegal immigration and DEI hires.

Lilien, KTVU reports, “used to be program director for Jewish Family and Community Services, which largely helps Afghan refugees settle in the United States, and was the immigration program director for Centro Legal de la Raza in Oakland.”

The complaint also names nearly 30 other immigration judges from across the country who were similarly fired or not converted from probationary status, including 14 from the Concord and San Francisco courts.

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DOJ Investigating Suspicious Iran War Oil Trading Trend: Report

Ups and downs in the war with Iran may have been an opportunity for insiders betting on oil prices to make a killing, according to a new report.

The report from ABC News said the Department of Justice is taking a close look at several oil market trades that came just before critical moments in the war with Iran.

In four transactions under review, the Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are examining trades that netted more than $2.6 billion to individuals who bet oil prices would drop immediately before they did so.

From the start of the conflict on Feb. 28, the oil market has been up and down depending upon Iran’s strategy, America’s response, and expectations that oil might again flow freely.

The London Stock Exchange Group highlighted the trades, which began on March 23, when 15 minutes before President Donald Trump announced a delay on attacks against Iranian infrastructure, a $500 million bet was placed that oil prices would dip.

On April 7, only hours ahead of Trump’s announcement of a temporary halt in hostilities, a $960 million bet was placed that oil prices would fall.

On April 17, 20 minutes before Iran said the Strait of Hormuz would be opened, a $760 million bet was placed that oil prices were going to drop.

On April 21, 15 minutes before the ceasefire was extended, $430 million worth of bets was placed predicting oil prices were going down.

The Guardian noted last month that the conflict has been accompanied by unprecedented betting on events through online betting platforms, with many bets being precisely timed to events in the war.

For example, according to one complaint before the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, six so-called insiders reaped $1.2 million from betting when former Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei would be killed.

Reining this in through legislation is a complex task, if it can be done at all, one expert said.

“Is the problem that we don’t have legislation or that we don’t have enforcement capabilities?” Joshua Mitts, a law professor at Columbia University, said.

“To have a law that can’t really be enforced effectively given the technological limitations, it’s sort of putting the cart before the horse,” he said.

The oil price bets appear suspicious, another expert said.

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DOJ Challenges Denver’s ‘Assault Weapon’ Ban and Colorado’s Magazine Limit

The Department of Justice this week filed two Second Amendment lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, challenging that state’s ban on “large capacity” magazines and Denver’s ban on “assault weapons.” Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general in charge of the department’s Civil Rights Division, argues that both laws are unconstitutional for the same reason: They ban arms in common use for lawful purposes, which the Supreme Court has said are covered by the Second Amendment, and there is no “historical tradition” that would justify such a policy, as required by the Court’s 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.

“The Constitution is not a suggestion and the Second Amendment is not a second-class right,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Tuesday after the lawsuit against Denver was filed. “Denver’s ban on commonly owned semi-automatic rifles directly violates the right to bear arms. This Department of Justice will vigorously defend the liberties of law-abiding citizens nationwide.”

Denver’s ordinance was enacted in 1989, the same year that California became the first state to ban so-called assault weapons, a politically defined category that typically hinges on arbitrarily disfavored rifle features such as pistol grips, folding stocks, and flash suppressors. But Denver’s ordinance, which prohibits the sale, transfer, or possession of “assault weapons” within city limits, defines the term to include any semi-automatic pistol or center-fire rifle with a fixed or detachable magazine that holds more than 15 rounds. It therefore covers many of the most popular guns sold in the United States when they are equipped with standard-issue magazines, including AR-15-style rifles.

The complaint in United States v. Denver notes that “the term ‘assault weapon’ is not a technical term used in the firearms industry” but rather “a rhetorically charged political term developed by anti-gun publicists.” It adds that the guns banned in Denver “include ordinary semiautomatic rifles possessed by millions of law-abiding Americans.” For example, “Americans own literally tens of millions of AR-15 style rifles, the paradigmatic ‘assault weapon’ covered by the Ordinance.” In a case decided last year, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan noted that “the AR–15 is the most popular rifle in the country.”

In January, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the gun industry’s trade association, reported that Americans own more than 32 million “modern sporting rifles,” the industry’s preferred term for the rifles usually covered by “assault weapon” bans. Survey data suggest that somewhere between 16 million and 25 million Americans have owned AR-15-style rifles. They commonly report using them for lawful purposes such as self-defense, hunting, and target shooting.

Such rifles are rarely used by criminals. In 2019, according to FBI data, “only 364 homicides were known to have been committed with rifles of any type, compared
to 6,368 with handguns, 1,476 with knives or other cutting instruments, 600 with personal weapons (hands, feet, etc.) and 397 with blunt objects,” Dhillon notes.

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Barack Obama Complains About ‘Politicization’ of DOJ — Then Encourages Stephen Colbert to Run For President!

Former President Barack Obama is complaining about the “politicization” of the Department of Justice, a topic about which he himself is very well versed.

During his pre-recorded appearance on the soon-to-be-canceled Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Obama went after Trump for allegedly targeting his enemies via the DOJ.

“We can’t overcome the politicization of our justice system, the awesome power of the state,” Obama complained.

“The White House shouldn’t be able to direct the Attorney General to go around prosecuting whoever the president wants prosecuted.

”The AG is the people’s lawyer, it’s not the president’s consigliere.”

“You can’t have a situation in which whoever is in charge of the government starts using that to go after their political enemies or reward their friends.”

This is particularly ironic given the Obama and Biden DOJ’s extensive record of targeting conservatives and their political opponents, most notably in the wake of the January 6th protests.

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DOJ Issues Grand Jury Subpoenas For ALL 2020 Election Workers Records from Fulton County

On April 17, 2026, a grand jury issued a subpoena to the Fulton County Board of Registrations and Elections (BRE) to appear in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Georgia on May 5, 2026.

Department of Justice prosecutors obtain a grand jury subpoena by preparing it in connection with an active grand jury investigation and issuing it under the grand jury’s authority.

In this case, the subpoena requests that the Fulton County BRE bring specific documents and electronically stored information.  That information includes information regarding election staff/members who served in the November 2020 General Election.  The records must identify their name, position/function, residential and email addresses, and personal telephone numbers.

The records include those who were performing the following functions and duties:

  • Individuals assigned to review Mail-In Ballots
  • Individuals assigned to the Voter Review Panel/Board
  • Individuals assigned to Mobile Voting Locations
  • Individuals assigned to transfer results to or from media or transport ballots, ballot stock, or media
  • Individuals employed or contracted by the Fulton Board of Registrations and Elections
  • Individuals who worked or volunteered for the Risk Limiting Audit
  • Individuals who worked or volunteered for the Recount
  • Individuals who served as precinct managers and assistant managers

Many of these individuals could potentially have pertinent information about numerous anomalies uncovered over the last several years.  The Gateway Pundit has previously reported that Fulton County did not properly perform signature verification on mail-in ballots in Fulton County, according to testimony under oath from then-Fulton County BRE member Mark Wingate during the disbarment hearing for former Deputy Attorney General Jeff Clark.

Wingate also testified that he was prevented from viewing chain of custody documents prior to certifying the 2020 election.  Both issues could potentially be explored with the above witnesses.

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Sen. Rand Paul Calls Out DOJ — Warns Agency Has Only ONE WEEK LEFT to Charge Fauci For Lying to Congress About Gain-of-Function

Senator Rand Paul just fired a direct shot across the bow of the Department of Justice.

In a blistering post on X, Paul declared that the DOJ has ONE WEEK left to finally charge Former NIAID chief Dr. Anthony Fauci Dr. Anthony Fauci for lying to Congress about funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Here’s what Paul wrote:

“The DOJ has ONE WEEK left to charge Anthony Fauci for the worst cover-up in modern medical history. He lied to Congress about funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan. Millions died. Trillions were spent. And Fauci walked away with book deals and fawning media coverage instead of handcuffs. I re-upped my criminal referral to the DOJ because the evidence is overwhelming, and justice has been delayed long enough.”

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Justice Dept says it will enforce SCOTUS ruling in every state with racially gerrymandered districts

nited States Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said Thursday that the Justice Department will enforce the Supreme Court’s decision on gerrymandering districts in every state that has such a district.

The Supreme Court struck down two congressional maps in Louisiana Wednesday, ruling the state was unconstitutionally racially gerrymandering when it added a second majority black district. Louisiana redrew the maps in 2024 after a lower court ruled previous maps likely violated the Voting Rights Act because it did not include the second majority black district.

Missouri GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt asked the Justice Department earlier Thursday to enforce the Supreme Court ruling nationwide, noting it had the power to do so. 

“Senator — we are ON IT!” Dhillon replied on X. “The [Justice Department] under [Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche] continues to prioritize equal protection of the laws for ALL Americans, be it in employment, housing, education — and voting.” 

The commitment comes as 45 redistricting disputes remain unresolved in federal and state courts, casting a cloud of legal uncertainty over the fight for control of the U.S. House of Representatives this November. 

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