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Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Department of Justice is pleased to announce the opening of the application period for federally recognized Tribes and intertribal consortia to participate in the Tribal Access Program (TAP) for National Crime Information. TAP improves public safety by providing federally recognized Tribes the ability to access and exchange data with national crime information databases for authorized criminal justice and non-criminal justice purposes, including the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC).

The program provides software, hardware, and training, as well as a web-based application and biometric/biographic kiosk workstations to process fingerprints, take mugshots, and submit information to FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) systems.  The Department will accept TAP applications from July 9 to August 29. Tribes selected to participate will be notified in September. There are currently 149 federally recognized Tribes participating in TAP.

Using TAP, Tribes have shared information about missing persons; entered domestic violence orders of protection for nationwide enforcement; registered convicted sex offenders; run criminal histories; located fugitives; entered bookings and convictions; and completed fingerprint-based record checks for non-criminal justice purposes such as screening employees or volunteers who work with children.

“As a TAP Pilot Tribe, the Cherokee Nation has been participating in TAP for many years,” said Suzanne Drywater, Senior Director of Justice Services for the Cherokee Nation.  “From sex offender registrations, law enforcement, foster home certification, human resources, and child support, our tribe has been able to exercise our sovereignty, and TAP has proven to be an invaluable resource that we use daily in a multitude of ways.”            

For Tribes that are considering applying, TAP staff will be conducting informational webinars describing the program and its capabilities. Webinars will be offered throughout July and August. For more information about TAP, including webinar dates, times and access information, visit www.justice.gov/tribal/tribal-access-program-tap.

To qualify for funding, federally recognized Tribes must have – and agree to use TAP for – at least one of the following:

• A Tribal sex offender registry authorized by the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act,
• A Tribal law enforcement agency that has arrest powers,
• A Tribal court that issues orders of protection, or
• A Tribal government agency that screens individuals for foster care placement or that investigates allegations of child abuse/neglect.

TAP is funded by the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking; the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services; the Office for Victims of Crime; and the Office on Violence Against Women. TAP is co-managed by the department’s Office of the Chief Information Officer and Office of Tribal Justice. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

On May 23, 2025, President Trump issued a new Executive Order No. 14303, “Restoring Gold Standard Science.”  This Executive Order is “committed to restoring a gold standard for science to ensure that federally funded research is transparent, rigorous, and impactful, and that Federal decisions are informed by the most credible, reliable, and impartial scientific evidence available.”[1]  The Executive Order includes a provision that requires agencies to proactively make publicly available certain scientific information.  Specifically, Section 4 states that “agency heads and employees shall adhere to the following rules governing the use, interpretation, and communication of scientific data, unless otherwise provided by law:

(b)  Except as prohibited by law, and consistent with relevant policies that protect national security or sensitive personal or confidential business information, agency heads shall in a timely manner and, to the extent practicable and within the agency’s authority:

(i)  subject to paragraph (ii), make publicly available the following information within the agency’s possession:

(A)  the data, analyses, and conclusions associated with scientific and technological information produced or used by the agency that the agency reasonably assesses will have a clear and substantial effect on important public policies or important private sector decisions (influential scientific information), including data cited in peer-reviewed literature; and

(B)  the models and analyses (including, as applicable, the source code for such models) the agency used to generate such influential scientific information.  Employees may not invoke exemption 5 to the Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] (5 U.S.C. 552(b)(5)) to prevent disclosure of such models unless authorized in writing to do so by the agency head following prior notice to the OSTP Director.

(ii)  risk models used to guide agency enforcement actions or select enforcement targets are not information that must be disclosed under this subsection.”[2]

Additionally, the Executive Order defines “scientific information” in the following manner:

• “Scientific information” means factual inputs, data, models, analyses, technical information, or scientific assessments related to such disciplines as the behavioral and social sciences, public health and medical sciences, life and earth sciences, engineering, physical sciences, or probability and statistics.  This includes any communication or representation of knowledge such as facts or data, in any medium or form, including textual, numerical, graphic, cartographic, narrative, or audiovisual forms.[3]

The Section 4 disclosure requirement includes several disclosure limitations.  Section 4 does not require the disclosure of information that the FOIA or another law requires to be withheld.  Certain FOIA exemptions are non-discretionary and would therefore satisfy the “[e]xcept as prohibited by law” limitation of Section 4.  Specifically, FOIA Exemption 1, which protects classified information,[4] and FOIA Exemption 3, which exempts information protected by a statute other than the FOIA,[5] must still be applied to information subject to the Executive Order.  Additionally, the “sensitive personal or confidential business information” provision of the Executive Order would continue to protect information covered by FOIA Exemptions 4, 6, and 7(C).  These exemptions protect, respectively, confidential commercial information obtained by outside parties, and information for which the disclosure constitutes an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.[6]  Furthermore, the disclosure requirement is limited to “influential scientific information” that “the agency reasonably assesses will have a clear and substantial effect on important public policies or important private sector decisions.”[7]  Finally, agencies are not required to publish risk models for agency enforcement actions.[8]

In short, these are the Executive Order’s disclosure-related takeaways:

• The Executive Order requires proactive public disclosure of “influential scientific information” as well as models and analyses used to generate that information.
• Such information cannot be withheld from disclosure pursuant to FOIA Exemption 5 absent notice to OSTP and approval from the agency head.
• However, non-discretionary FOIA exemptions including Exemptions 1, 3, 4, 6, and 7(C) should still be applied to such information where appropriate.
• Risk models for agency enforcement actions are not subject to the disclosure requirements of the Executive Order.

The Executive Order further required that the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issue guidance on implementing the Order.[9]  On June 23, 2025, OSTP issued that guidance entitled, “Agency Guidance for Implementing Gold Standard Science in the Conduct & Management of Scientific Activities.”  This memorandum requires each agency to report their intended actions to implement the Executive Order and OSTP guidance by August 22, 2025.[10] Section 3 provides additional details on what information to include in the agency report.

FOIA personnel should be made aware of the new public disclosure requirements in the Executive Order and should consult with their General Counsel’s Office for any questions regarding implementation of these requirements. Questions regarding the applicability of the FOIA to information subject to the Executive Order may also be directed to OIP.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division today filed suit to enforce Title IX and protect California female student athletes from unfair competition and reckless endangerment by male participation on female high-school sports teams.

According to the complaint, the California Department of Education (CDE) and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) have engaged in illegal sex discrimination against female student athletes by allowing males to compete against them, depriving these girls of the equal education and athletic opportunities afforded to them by federal civil rights law. Thus, the suit seeks declaratory, injunctive, and damages relief for violations of Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in any education program or activity that receives federal funding.

As alleged in the complaint, the U.S. Department of Education’s “current allocation of funds to CDE for fiscal year 2025 totals approximately $44.3 billion, of which approximately $3.8 billion remains available for drawdown by CDE, including both discretionary grants and formula grants.”

“The Governor of California has previously admitted that it is ‘deeply unfair’ to force women and girls to compete with men and boys in competitive sports,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi.  “But not only is it ‘deeply unfair,’ it is also illegal under federal law. This Department of Justice will continue its fight to protect equal opportunities for women and girls in sports.”

“Title IX was enacted over half a century ago to protect women and girls from discrimination. The Justice Department will not stand for policies that deprive girls of their hard-earned athletic trophies and ignore their safety on the field and in private spaces,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon. “Young women should not have to sacrifice their rights to compete for scholarships, opportunities, and awards on the altar of woke gender ideology.”

“California is on the wrong side of the law and the wrong side of history,” said United States Attorney Bill Essayli of the Central District of California. “Women deserve dignity, respect, and an equal opportunity to compete on their own sports teams. The time for talk is over. California must comply with Title IX and end its civil rights violations against women. No person, no state, is above the law.”

CDE has authority over CIF and local school districts’ interscholastic athletic policies, and CIF oversees 1.8 million students and over 750,000 student-athletes in grades 9 through 12. The complaint is available here.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A Maryland husband and wife were sentenced today to 12 years in prison and four years in prison, respectively, after their convictions for a scheme to commit insurance fraud.

The following is according to court documents and evidence presented at trial: James and Maureen Wilson, of Owings Mills, conspired to defraud insurance companies by obtaining over 40 life insurance policies for applicants by mispresenting their health, wealth, and existing life insurance coverage. The total death benefits from these policies exceeded $20 million. The Wilsons also conspired to defraud individual investors to obtain funds that Wilson used to pay premiums on fraudulently obtained life insurance policies.

To conceal the fraud, the Wilsons transferred the money they made from the fraud through multiple bank accounts, including accounts in the name of trusts. The Wilsons filed false individual income tax returns for 2018 and 2019, which did not report as income or pay tax on the approximately $5.7 million and $2 million, respectively, they made from the fraud.

In addition to their prison sentences, Judge Deborah K. Chasanow for the District of Maryland ordered both Wilsons to serve three years of supervised release and to pay approximately $16 million in restitution to victims of the insurance fraud scheme and $2.7 million in restitution to the United States. She also ordered the Wilsons to forfeit approximately $14.8 million in seized funds.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Karen E. Kelly of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Kelly O. Hayes for the District of Maryland made the announcement.

IRS Criminal Investigation investigated the case with assistance from the Maryland Insurance Administration and the Maryland Office of The Attorney General.

Trial Attorneys Shawn Noud and Richard Kelley of the Tax Division, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew Phelps and Philip Motsay for the District of Maryland, and Trial Attorney Stephanie Williamson of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division prosecuted the case. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A California man was sentenced today to a year and a day in prison for a decade-long scheme to avoid paying over employment taxes to the IRS.

The following is according to court documents and statements made in court: John Comeau, of Santa Clara, was the CEO of Vivid Inc., a company that provided metal coating services to industrial customers in California and elsewhere. Vivid Inc. employed as many as 40 employees at any given time.

Comeau was responsible for withholding Social Security, Medicare, and federal income taxes from the wages of Vivid’s employees and then paying those funds over to the IRS each quarter. The timely payment of these taxes is critical to the functioning of the U.S. government, because, for example, they are the primary source of funding for Social Security and Medicare. The federal income taxes that are withheld from employees’ wages also account for a significant portion of all federal income taxes collected each year.

From the first quarter of 2010 through the fourth quarter of 2019, Vivid Inc. paid its employee a total of over $8.8 million in wages. During this period, Comeau collected and withheld taxes from the wages of Vivid’s employees but did not pay over all the taxes owed to the IRS. He also caused false quarterly employment tax returns to be filed with the IRS, underreporting Vivid’s wages by more than $5 million.

To conceal his scheme, Comeau caused accurate tax forms to be issued to certain employees. These tax forms reported higher wages than the amounts Vivid had reported to the IRS. Comeau also issued tax forms, such as Wage and Tax Statement, Form W-2, to other Vivid employees that underreported their wages. When an employer underreports wages paid to their employees, it may negatively impact those employees’ Social Security benefits, as those forms are used by the Social Security Administration to compute benefits owed to an employee. 

Instead of paying his taxes, Comeau used some of the funds to maintain a comfortable lifestyle that included a $3 million home and luxury cars.

In total, Comeau caused a tax loss to the United States of more than $1.1 million.

In addition to his prison sentence, U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts for the Northern District of California ordered Comeau to serve three years of supervised release and pay $1,153,948 in restitution to the IRS.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Karen E. Kelly of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian for the Northern District of California made the announcement.

IRS Criminal Investigation investigated the case.

Trial Attorney Mahana Weidler of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Ilham Hosseini for the Northern District of California prosecuted the case.