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Jerry Seper

jseper@washingtontimes.com

Jerry Seper was a writer for The Washington Times.

Articles by Jerry Seper

U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. (Associated Press)

Grassley: Can U.S. attorney be trusted in Furious probe?

The ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee wants to know whether U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. has the independence to conduct an investigation of his boss, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., as part of a contempt of Congress citation approved by the House in the botched Fast and Furious investigation.

July 15, 2012
**FILE** Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents take a suspect into custody as part of a nationwide immigration sweep in Chula Vista, Calif., on March 30, 2012. (Associated Press)

Two named in Iran uranium export scheme

Two foreign nationals have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington on charges of attempting to obtain and illegally export to Iran materials that can be used to construct, operate and maintain gas centrifuges to enrich uranium.

July 13, 2012
** FILE ** A branch of Wells Fargo Bank is shown in San Francisco in 2009.

Discrimination costly to Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo Bank, the largest residential home mortgage originator in the United States, agreed on Thursday to pay $175 million to settle allegations it discriminated against qualified black and Hispanic borrowers in its mortgage lending from 2004 through 2009, the Justice Department said.

July 12, 2012
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. speaks at the NAACP convention in Houston on Tuesday. Mr. Holder says a new photo-ID requirement in Texas elections would be harmful to minority voters. (Associated Press)

Holder criticizes Texas voter-ID law

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Tuesday told the NAACP annual convention he opposes Texas' new voter-identification law because it would be harmful to minority voters and vowed that the Justice Department would "not allow political pretexts to disenfranchise" all Americans who want to vote.

July 10, 2012
Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry was slain north of the Arizona-Mexico border. (Associated Press)

Five men indicted in death of border agent

Five men were named Monday in a federal grand jury indictment unsealed in Tucson in the December 2010 shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry, with the FBI announcing a $1 million reward for information leading to the arrest of four of them who have been designated as fugitives.

July 9, 2012
Grassley

Stand-down orders stymied ‘Fast & Furious’ gun tracking, memo says

Concerned that Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents were "too close and would burn the operation," the lead investigator in a Fast and Furious surveillance operation ordered an ATF team monitoring the pending transfer of weapons to Mexican drug smugglers to "leave the immediate area."

July 8, 2012
Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, said the possibility exists that Justice Department officials were aware of a memo from an ATF agent in Phoenix on Feb. 3 and still sent its erroneous denial letter Feb. 4. The latter was later disavowed. (Associated Press)

Grassley letter to Holder demands ‘Fast and Furious’ accountability

The ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee wants to know who at the Justice Department saw a memo from a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent in Phoenix outlining questionable tactics in the Fast and Furious gunrunning operation, which was forwarded to ATF headquarters and possibly to Justice a day before the department denied that any weapons had been "walked" to Mexico.

July 5, 2012
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, joined by other House GOP leaders, meets with reporters on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, June 27, 2012, following a political strategy session. Boehner defended the contempt of Congress vote against Attorney General Eric Holder, commented on the looming Supreme Court decision on the health care, and updated progress on student loans and the transportation bill. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sides dig in as contempt vote on Holder looms

The House careened toward a Thursday vote to hold Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress after Republicans rejected the Justice Department's final offer for turning over a limited set of documents, saying it wasn't sufficient to complete their investigation into Fast and Furious.

June 27, 2012
** FILE ** Rep. Darrell E. Issa, California Republican and chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, reads from a book on June 20, 2012, at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, quoting the president's right to assert executive privilege after learning that President Obama has done so in the "Fast and Furious" gun-tracking case, refusing to turn over related documents to Congress. The committee proceeded with its markup to vote on whether to hold Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt for his failure to produce those documents. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

Issa: Obama’s privilege claim in ‘Fast and Furious’ suggests complicity

The chairman of a House committee that recommended a contempt citation against Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in the Fast and Furious scandal said Tuesday that President Obama's assertion of executive privilege means the White House is either covering up its role in the botched operation or is obstructing a congressional probe.

June 26, 2012
** FILE ** Rep. Darrell E. Issa, California Republican and chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, reads from a book on June 20, 2012, at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, quoting the president's right to assert executive privilege after learning that President Obama has done so in the "Fast and Furious" gun-tracking case, refusing to turn over related documents to Congress. The committee proceeded with its markup to vote on whether to hold Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt for his failure to produce those documents. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

Issa: Obama executive privilege claim is cover-up or obstruction

The chairman of a House committee that recommended a contempt citation against Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in its Fast and Furious investigation said on Tuesday President Obama's assertion of executive privilege in the matter means the White House is covering up its involvement in the botched operation or is obstructing a congressional probe.

June 26, 2012
**FILE** Rep. Darrell E. Issa, California Republican (Associated Press)

Issa: No evidence of White House cover-up in Fast and Furious probe

The chairman of a House committee that recommended a contempt of Congress citation against Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in the Fast and Furious gunrunning probe says there is no evidence so far that White House officials were involved in misleading Congress or engaged in a cover-up.

June 24, 2012
House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican (Associated Press)

House committee suspects ‘Fast and Furious’ cover-up

The House committee investigating Fast and Furious has received more than 7,600 documents from the Justice Department, but Republican lawmakers say none addresses who approved the gunrunning probe, who failed to stop it before a U.S. Border Patrol agent was killed and why department officials initially lied to Congress about it.

June 21, 2012
Rep. Pat Meehan (second from left), Pennsylvania Republican, calls June 20, 2012, on Capitol Hill for the release of additional Justice Department documents as the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee considers whether to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. (Associated Press)

House committee votes to hold Holder in contempt

A House committee voted on Wednesday to recommend that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. be held in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over hundreds of pages of documents it subpoenaed in its investigation of the botched "Fast and Furious" gunrunning operation, even as President Obama invoked executive privilege to withhold the records.

June 20, 2012
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday, June 12, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Border Patrol group calls for Holder’s resignation

The National Border Patrol Council, which represents all 17,000 of the agency's nonsupervisory agents, called Monday for the resignation of Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. for his role in the botched "Fast and Furious" gunrunning operation that resulted in the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

June 18, 2012
An 1830 first-edition Book of Mormon and a selection of framed individual pages owned by retired bookstore owner Helen Spencer Schlie are displayed in her Arizona home in this 2005 photo. (Associated Press)

Suspect held in recovery of rare Book of Mormon

Federal agents have recovered in Virginia a rare first-edition of the Book of Mormon, believed to have been stolen from a downtown Mesa, Ariz., bookstore over the Memorial Day weekend, the FBI's Washington field office said Thursday.

June 14, 2012
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday, June 12, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Grassley to Holder: Prove claim about Bush-era gun probe

The ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee challenged Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Thursday to "produce any evidence" proving his claim that a prior attorney general knew about a gunrunning investigation during the Bush administration or apologize "if no such evidence is available."

June 14, 2012

‘Great strides’ made combatting human trafficking

Human trafficking is modern-day slavery whose victims include young women coming to the U.S. in search of a new life, children who grew up here but fall into a life of desperation and migrant workers robbed of the means to ensure their independence, a top Justice Department official said Wednesday.

June 13, 2012
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday, June 12, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Holder aide who erred on Fast and Furious leaves Justice Department

The senior Justice Department official who sent a letter to a Republican senator falsely claiming that the department did not allow guns to be "walked" to drug smugglers in Mexico during the Fast and Furious investigation left the department Wednesday to become dean of the Baltimore School of Law.

June 13, 2012
**FILE** A branded flag flies outside the ING head office in Amsterdam on Feb. 9, 2012. (Associated Press)

ING agrees to forfeit $619 million

Amsterdam-based ING Bank N.V. agreed Tuesday to forfeit $619 million to the Justice Department and the New York County District Attorney´s Office for conspiring to illegally move billions of dollars through the U.S. financial system on behalf of sanctioned Cuban and Iranian entities.

June 12, 2012