Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
A 47-year-old man has pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of sending, receiving, and possessing Child Sexual Abuse Materials (CSAM), and to coercing a 13-year-old girl to meet him for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
ABINGDON, Va. – A pair of Virginia residents pled guilty recently to filing false claims for pandemic unemployment benefits for pandemic unemployment benefits authorized by the CARES Act. The CARES Act is a federal law, enacted in March of 2020, that was designed to provide emergency financial assistance to people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Martha Sue Buffy Davis, 50, of Glade Spring, Va., and Robert Walter Neely, 47, both pled guilty to one count of conspiring to defraud the United States and commit an offense against the United States by filing fraudulent claims for pandemic unemployment benefits as authorized by federal law. Both defendants are scheduled for sentencing on December 18, 2026.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
An aspiring rapper is among two defendants arrested – and a total of three defendants charged – in a 25-count federal grand jury indictment alleging they illegally possessed more than 50 stolen United States Treasury checks and hundreds of other checks belonging to individuals and businesses, totaling more than $8.1 million, then cashed and attempted to cash stolen checks at lenders throughout Southern California, the Justice Department announced today.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
ABINGDON, Va. – An Alabama man, who conspired with Dr. Rotimi Adegoke Illuyomade and others to illegally distribute promethazine-codeine solution, was sentenced today to one year of probation. Cameron Zackery Brown pled guilty to one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute a Schedule V controlled substance, promethazine-codeine solution, also known as “lean” and “purple drank.”
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Former Houston Police Department officer Gerald M. Goines, 62, admitted he made materially false statements in an affidavit to obtain a search warrant that led to the botched Harding Street raid in 2019, resulting in a shootout that killed two and injured four HPD officers
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
David Miranda Gomez and Robert Gomez Garcia, both illegal aliens from Mexico, face federal drug distribution charges after a search of their Union City home resulted in the discovery of a methamphetamine laboratory and seizure of over 240 pounds of solid and liquid methamphetamine.
Source: United States Department of Justice
David Miranda Gomez and Robert Gomez Garcia, both illegal aliens from Mexico, face federal drug distribution charges after a search of their Union City home resulted in the discovery of a methamphetamine laboratory and seizure of over 240 pounds of solid and liquid methamphetamine.
Source: United States Department of Justice
R. Matthew Price, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, recognized the recipients of the 2026 Guardian of Justice Award, which honored several local and federal law enforcement officers for their work on significant investigations within the district.
Source: United States Department of Justice
This report sheds further light on the targeting and investigation of non-mainstream Catholics under the previous administration
Today, the Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group issued a report detailing how, under the previous Administration, the FBI’s Richmond Field Office associated beliefs held by many Catholics with domestic extremism and investigated two priests as a result. The report focuses on the production and circulation of an internal assessment known as the “Richmond Domain Perspective.” This assessment documented the purported rise of domestic extremism among those who hold conservative beliefs associated with a wide variety of Catholics. It also documented the investigation into two priests and the FBI’s surveillance of one of them.
On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14147 to eliminate the political weaponization of federal agencies. To many Americans, the Richmond Domain Perspective came to embody the misuse and weaponization of government power.
After reviewing a substantial volume of internal emails, assessments, and investigative records, the Working Group concludes that the Biden FBI engaged in improper and unjustified law enforcement and intelligence activity, including:
The FBI’s actions in 2023 were wrong. The Trump Administration, Attorney General Todd Blanche, and FBI Director Kash Patel are committed to addressing these abuses and preventing their recurrence.
“This Department of Justice will not tolerate a weaponized bureaucracy that chills First Amendment activity,” said Attorney General Todd Blanche. “The individuals who developed the Richmond Domain Perspective are no longer with the Department, and our Working Group’s efforts to investigate weaponization under the previous Administration will continue.”
“Weaponization will never be tolerated at this FBI,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “Even while those who developed the unacceptable Richmond Catholic memo under the previous administration have been held accountable, releasing information to the public about what occurred under the prior regime is an important part of the process. I want to thank the Weaponization Working Group for their partnership as well as Attorney General Todd Blanche for his leadership addressing these abuses and making sure they never happen again.”
“The weaponization of our Government undermines our Democracy and reduces the People’s trust in our Nation’s institutions that are designed to serve and protect them,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward, Jr. “The Richmond Memo was a clear abuse of power, targeting conservative and religious beliefs disfavored by agents of Government who lacked necessary oversight. No more. Under Attorney General Blanche’s leadership this Department will have zero tolerance for weaponization.”
The Justice Department remains committed to enforcing federal law in a manner consistent with the Constitution and its duty to protect the civil rights of all Americans. Individuals with additional concerns about similar conduct are encouraged to come forward; the Department will evaluate such matters without fear or favor.
Read the report here.
Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
The U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska earlier this week dismissed the complaint in a case challenging President Trump’s rescission of Biden-era withdrawals of areas of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) from oil and gas leasing. The court dismissed the case for lack of standing.
During his final days in office, President Biden withdrew over 600 million acres of the OCS from offshore oil and gas leasing. On his first day in office, President Trump rescinded the withdrawals, allowing those acres of the OCS to be considered in a future offshore oil and gas leasing program. A coalition of environmental groups challenged President Trump’s action, claiming that the rescission of the withdrawals was unlawful and would result in potential imminent harm to the environment from exploration activities. The court rejected the groups’ arguments, finding that there were “no pending applications for [geological and geophysical] exploration activities in any waters outside of the Western and Central [Gulf of America].” The court concluded that the plaintiffs had failed to demonstrate a substantial risk of imminent harm and therefore dismissed the case without prejudice for lack of standing.
“The court properly dismissed plaintiffs’ case, because they failed to show an imminent injury from President Trump’s reopening of the OCS,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Energy and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). “Where and when energy development will occur depends on a regulatory process that’s still underway and must be allowed to continue. Neither the President’s policy priorities nor industry’s expressions of interest could convert a speculative injury into a concrete one.”
Attorneys with ENRD’s Natural Resources Section handled this matter.