Judiciary Committee

WASHINGTON (Wednesday, April 2, 2008) – The Senate Judiciary Committee today held a hearing on oversight of the Department of Homeland Security. Secretary Chertoff fielded questions from Senators about backlogs in naturalization applications at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the REAL ID Act, and immigration detention practices.

Senator Leahy and Secretary Chertoff are speaking before the oversight hearing: Photo courtesy Senator Leahy    » read more »

March 13, 2008 -- (Washington, DC) - House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers released the following statement in response to news that the House of Representatives is expected to move into closed session tonight to review information regarding the administration’s warrantless surveillance program:    » read more »

March 13, 2008 -- (Washington, DC) - Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) released the following statement after review of the Office of the Inspector General's (OIG) report on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) use of National Security Letters (NSL) and 215 orders in 2006, as well as subsequent corrective actions taken last year.

The reports are linked below.    » read more »

March 12, 2008 -- (Washington, DC) - Today, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and 19 members of the House Judiciary Committee issued a statement regarding telecommunications immunity, as the House prepares to consider the FISA Amendments Act of 2008.

Following a review of classified information relating to the warrantless surveillance program and immunity for telecommunications companies, the members reported their conclusion that the administration has not established a valid and credible case to justify granting blanket retroactive immunity at this time.    » read more »

Text of the full complaint is attached

March 10, 2008 -- (Washington, DC) - Today, the U.S. House of Representatives General Counsel filed a civil lawsuit on behalf of the House Judiciary Committee to enforce subpoenas issued by the committee seeking information on the U.S. Attorney firings.    » read more »

March 5, 2008 -- (Remarks as Prepared)

Chairman Conyers, Ranking Member Smith, and Members of the Committee:

Thank you for inviting me to appear before the Committee to discuss the Department’s progress in securing our homeland and protecting the American people. At the outset, I’d like to thank the Committee for its past support of the Department and your continued guidance as we take aggressive steps to achieve our mission.    » read more »

March 3, 2008 -- "Today we continue the process of rebuilding the integrity and independence of the Justice Department by confirming the nomination of Mark R. Filip to be the new Deputy Attorney General, the number two position at the Department of Justice, who acts as the Attorney General in the absence of the Attorney General.    » read more »

February 29, 2008 -- Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today in response to a letter she received late this afternoon from U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey stating that the Administration is refusing to enforce contempt of Congress citations against former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten:    » read more »

February 28, 2008 -- (Washington, DC)- Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) released the following statement in response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) referring the committee's contempt citations against former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeffrey Taylor:    » read more »

February 13, 2008 -- (Washington, DC) - Today, House Judiciary Committee chairman testified before the House Committee on Rules in support of statutory contempt and civil litigating authority resolutions against former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten. The full text of his statement is below:    » read more »

WASHINGTON (Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008) – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who also sits on the panel, sent a letter Thursday urging Attorney General Michael Mukasey to clarify testimony given to the Committee during last week’s Department of Justice oversight hearing. In the letter, they ask the Attorney General to explain the scope of the Department’s investigation into the CIA’s destruction of videotapes showing the use of harsh interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, of al Qaeda terrorist suspects.    » read more »

January 30, 2008 -- (Washington, DC) - House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. and Commercial and Administrative Law (CAL) Subcommittee Chairwoman Linda Sánchez have called upon former Attorney General John Ashcroft to testify at the CAL Subcommittee hearing, “Deferred Prosecution: Should Corporate Settlement Agreements be without Guidelines.” The hearing will address the alarming growth of secret corporate monitoring contracts awarded in the settlement of corporate fraud cases.    » read more »

United States Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing

January 30, 2008 -- "Attorney General Mukasey, thank you for appearing today. I want to raise two subjects, waterboarding and voting rights.    » read more »

January 24, 2008 -- (Washington, DC) - The White House has agreed to provide the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees access to classified documents concerning the NSA warrantless wiretapping program. As applied to the Judiciary committee, ten Democratic members, nine Republican members, and staff with appropriate security clearance would be "read into" the program next week and have access to documents including legal memoranda about the program and communications with telephone companies. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) released the following statment:    » read more »

January 23, 2008 -- [Washington, D.C.] – All ten Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee today sent a letter, written by Assistant Majority Leader and Judiciary Committee member Dick Durbin (D-IL), to Attorney General Michael Mukasey asking that he provide an opinion as to whether the interrogation technique known as waterboarding is illegal under U.S. law.    » read more »