The United States Department of Justice (DOJ),also known as the Justice Department,is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United States. It is equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries. The department is headed by the U.S. attorney general,who reports directly to the president of the United States and is a member of the president's Cabinet. The current attorney general is Merrick Garland,who has served since March 2021.
Amos Tappan Akerman was an American politician who served as United States Attorney General under President Ulysses S. Grant from 1870 to 1871. A native of New Hampshire,Akerman graduated from Dartmouth College in 1842 and moved South,where he spent most of his career. He first worked as headmaster of a school in North Carolina and as a tutor in Georgia. Having become interested in law,Akerman studied and passed the bar in Georgia in 1850;where he and an associate set up a law practice. He also owned a farm and enslaved eleven people. When the American Civil War broke out in 1861,Akerman joined the Confederate Army,where he achieved the rank of colonel.
United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal criminal prosecutor in their judicial district and represents the U.S. federal government in civil litigation in federal and state court within their geographic jurisdiction. U.S. attorneys must be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate,after which they serve four-year terms.
Merrick Brian Garland is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as the 86th United States attorney general. He previously served as a U.S. circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1997 to 2021. In 2016,President Barack Obama nominated Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court,but the Republican-led U.S. Senate effectively blocked Garland's appointment.
Crime in Washington,D.C.,is directly related to the city's demographics,geography,and unique criminal justice system. The District's population reached a peak of 802,178 in 1950. Shortly after that,the city began losing residents,and by 1980 Washington had lost one-quarter of its population. The population loss to the suburbs also created a new demographic pattern,which divided affluent neighborhoods west of Rock Creek Park from the less well-off neighborhoods to the east.
The United States Department of Justice Criminal Division is a federal agency of the United States Department of Justice that develops,enforces,and supervises the application of all federal criminal laws in the United States. Criminal Division attorneys prosecute many nationally significant cases and formulate and implement criminal enforcement policy. Division attorneys also provide advice and guidance to the Attorney General of the United States,the United States Congress,and the White House on matters of criminal law. The Division was founded in 1919.
This article about dismissed U.S. attorneys summarizes the circumstances surrounding a number of U.S. attorneys dismissed from office in the United States Department of Justice in 2006. Eight were dismissed In December 2006,and others may have been forced out of office under similar circumstances in 2005 and 2006. The manner of the firings,the congressional response to them,and the explanations offered by Bush administration officials are aspects of a political controversy starting in the first quarter of 2007. As of May 2007 a clear explanation of why the attorneys were dismissed had not been put forward by the Bush administration or the Department of Justice leadership. There are in total 93 U.S. attorneys that serve 94 Federal district courts.
Karin Johanna Immergut is an American lawyer serving as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon.
The California Department of Justice is a statewide investigative law enforcement agency and legal department of the California executive branch under the elected leadership of the Attorney General of California (AG) which carries out complex criminal and civil investigations,prosecutions,and other legal services throughout the US State of California. The department is equivalent to the state bureaus of investigation in other states.
Anne Magee Tompkins is an American lawyer who served as the United States Attorney for the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.
Rivers Correctional Institution is a privately owned prison in unincorporated Hertford County,North Carolina,operated by GEO Group under contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons since its construction in 2001. The prison,on 257 acres (104 ha) of land,was specially built to house prisoners from the District of Columbia. It is about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the town of Winton and about 200 miles (320 km) from Washington,DC.
The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2013 is a bill that would authorize the appropriation of $25 million annually over the 2015-2019 period for the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) to provide grants to states and other recipients aimed at improving the enforcement of laws against human trafficking and to assist victims of such crimes. According to newspaper The Hill,the bill would "impose an additional fine of $5,000 on any person convicted of crimes related to sex trafficking,sexual abuse,sexual exploitation of children or human smuggling."
The Stop Exploitation Through Trafficking Act of 2013 (SETT) is a bill that would require each state,within three years,to have in effect legislation that:(1) treats a minor who has engaged or attempted to engage in a commercial sex act as a victim of a severe form of trafficking in persons,(2) discourages the charging or prosecution of such an individual for a prostitution or sex trafficking offense,and (3) encourages the diversion of such individual to child protection services.
The Stopping Tax Offenders and Prosecuting Identity Theft Act of 2013 or the STOP Identity Theft Act of 2013 is a bill that would increase the penalties on identity thieves in the United States and change the definition of identity theft to include businesses and organizations instead of just individuals.
Joyce Alene Vance is an American lawyer who served as the United States attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 2009 to 2017. She was one of the first five U.S. attorneys,and the first female U.S. attorney,nominated by President Barack Obama.
Stacey Elizabeth Plaskett is an American politician and attorney serving since 2015 as the non-voting delegate to the United States House of Representatives from the United States Virgin Islands' (USVI) at-large congressional district. Plaskett has practiced law in New York City,Washington,D.C.,and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Robert J. Higdon Jr. is an American attorney who served as the United States Attorney for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina from 2017 to 2021.
Timothy Shea is an American attorney and prosecutor who served as acting Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration from 2020 to 2021. Previously,he was interim United States attorney for the District of Columbia,the country's largest U.S. attorney's office;a senior counselor to U.S. Attorney General William Barr at the Department of Justice;a lobbyist;and private corporate lawyer.
Matthew Michael Graves is an American lawyer who has served as the United States attorney for the District of Columbia since 2021.
Delia L. Smith is an American lawyer who serves as the United States attorney for the District Court of the Virgin Islands since May 2022.
