Standard and Poor’s is the first rating agency to face civil fraud charges from the federal government. The Justice Department filed a civil complaint against the company on Monday. It’s the first federal enforcement action against a credit rating firm since the financial crisis almost five years ago.

Last year, guilty pleas resolved more than 97 percent of federal cases prosecuted to conclusion by the Justice Department. That rate is way up along with the number of federal criminal defendants in the past decade, a number that has doubled. David Feige, a former Bronx defense prosecutor, explains.

On Tuesday's Brian Lehrer Show, reporter Katherine Eban broke down her breakthrough investigation into the root cause of the Fast and Furious "gun-walking" scandal.

Todd Zwillich, Washington correspondent for The Takeaway, discusses the context and the fallout of President Obama's decision to grant executive privilege to the Justice Department in the Fast and Furious case.

→ Relevant Documents: The Letter to Charles Grassley's Office About Fast and Furious | The Letter From Eric Holder Requesting Executive Privilege | Eric Holder's Letter Informing Congress | The Letter Putting Holder in Contempt

The Justice Department has demanded that Florida stop trying to identify noncitizens to purge from its voter registration rolls. Last night the department sent a detailed letter to Florida's Secretary of State, Ken Detzner, instructing the state to end the practice, which it said violated the Voting Rights Act and the National Voter Registration Act.

Anup Malani, professor of law and health law at the University of Chicago, discusses the line between the courts and the administration -- from President Obama applying pressure on the Supreme Court to a Fifth Circuit judge calling out the Justice Department.

On Monday, the Justice Department blocked a new Texas voter identification law on the basis that the law would disproportionately affect Hispanics and that it violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The law would have required all Texas voters to show some form of photo ID before voting. This past December, the Justice Department blocked a similar law in South Carolina, saying it adversely affected African-American voters.

The controversy over these laws is far from over. Both South Carolina and Texas have filed lawsuits in U.S. District Court in Washington arguing in favor of their new voting laws, and they will take their cases to the Supreme Court if necessary.

Some enticing advertisements for shoes by Reebok have been circulating, promising "up to 28 percent more of a work out for your butt, up to 11 percent more for your hamstrings and calves." It sounds like a lot to expect from a simple shoe, and the Justice Department is saying it's worse than just an exaggeration — the company is making false claims, and should reward disappointed customers with refunds, which could add up to $25 million.

AT&T, the one-time sole carrier of Apple’s iPhone, has had its fare share of problems: dropped calls, consumer discontent, and a shoddy network across the northeast coast made the company a "second tier" cellular carrier as far as its hard core data plan users were concerned. Until yesterday, the company had plans to fix that. AT&T was working on a $39 billion dollar merger deal with Deutsche Telekom to acquire T-Mobile USA, and expand its data and voice service across the country. But the U.S. Department of Justice may be stopping that plan dead in its tracks.