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The historical high for federal prosecutions of corrupt public officials was in 1993 with 1,362 convictions total within the network of U.S. Attorney’s offices. The number lingered at or near 1,000 convictions until it peaked again in 2008 at 1,129. The number of convictions reached 1,107 in 2011, the third highest number in the last two decades.

The Justice Department has opened full criminal investigations of the deaths in CIA custody of two detainees, including one who perished at Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison, U.S. officials said Thursday.The decision, announced by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., means continued legal jeopardy for several CIA operatives but at the same time closes the book on inquiries that potentially threatened many others. A federal prosecutor reviewed 101 cases in which agency officers and contractors interrogated suspected terrorists during years of military action after the Sept.

Several U.S. states have started reassessing their medical marijuana laws after stern warnings from the federal government that everyone from licensed growers to regulators could be subjected to prosecution. The Department of Justice said two years ago that it would be an inefficient use of funds to target people who are in clear compliance with state law. But U.S. attorneys have said in their recent memos that they would consider civil or criminal penalties for those who run large-scale operations — even if they are acceptable under state law.

The Justice Department has ordered Florida, a likely key swing state in the 2012 election, to end a controversial voter purge that has primarily targeted Latino, Democratic and independent-minded voters. The Justice Department says the process had not been cleared under the Voting Rights Act. Some Democratic politicians have expressed fear the purge could help Mitt Romney win the state in November. "What we’ve seen in Florida is an effort on a massive scale by Governor [Rick] Scott to suppress the vote, to make it more difficult for people to vote," says Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL).

New legislation in Washington state went into effect this week that legalizes for the first time in ages the possession of marijuana. Federal law still says otherwise, though, setting up the Justice Department to make some serious determinations. Even as smoking up became protected by state law in Washington starting Thursday, coast-to-coast prohibition as provided by a long-standing federal ruling remains on the books. For marijuana advocates in the Pacific Northwest, the lifting of the ban is a pretty big victory.

The American Civil Liberties Union failed in late-2010 to push a lawsuit challenging the Obama Administration’s claimed power to assassinate American citizens without charging them with any crimes, but is hoping for a consolation prize today, filing another suit challenging the killings after the fact. “It’s an effort to get accountability,” noted ACLU deputy director Jameel Jaffer, saying that even though the Justice Department successfully argued that the killings couldn’t be challenged beforehand, they could now press the administration to “explain to a court why it did what it did.”

No CIA personnel will face criminal charges for destroying videotapes of harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday.

The number of wiretaps authorized by state and federal judges in criminal investigations jumped 26 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to a report released Friday by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
Courts authorized 2,376 criminal wiretap orders in 2009, with 96 percent targeting mobile phones in drug cases, according to the report. Federal officials requested 663 of the wiretaps, while 24 states accounted for 1,713 orders.

Not one request for a wiretap was turned down.

California Entrepreneur Matt Davies, who set up above-board, taxpaying marijuana cultivation and distribution businesses that employed over 60 people is being prosecuted by the Justice department. The businesses were completely legal under California law, and Davies's lawyers, accountant, and other employees quoted in the article confirm this.