Carrie Johnson

The United States spends nearly $7 billion a year to operate a network of federal prisons that house more than 200,000 inmates. About half of them are incarcerated for drug crimes, a legacy of 1980s laws that prosecutors use to target not only kingpins but also low-level couriers and girlfriends. ...

The Senate's release will focus on case studies of the treatment, at times brutal, of 20 or so high-value detainees in the counterterrorism efforts following 9/11, and whether those methods paid off.

New guidelines being unveiled today will broaden rules for the FBI, ATF, DEA and other federal agencies, that will ban — or nearly ban — profiling by race, gender, religion or sexual orientation.

A widespread pattern of excessive force has been uncovered. The 18-month federal civil rights investigation also found police supervisors failed to document and investigate claims of brutality.

Attorney General Eric Holder says the Justice Department has found a pattern of excessive force by the Cleveland police. Holder's announcement comes as his department investigates hig...

Russian President Vladimir Putin made his annual "State of the Nation" speech in Moscow on Thursday, with a defense of Russia's seizure of Crimea and an attack on Western nations who ...

The leader of the Justice Department's criminal division is expected to announce today the creation of a new unit to prevent cybercrime and work alongside law enforcement, private sector companies and Congress.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell will debut the initiative at a daylong CyberCrime2020 symposium at Georgetown ...

A Staten Island grand jury didn't charge a police officer in the death of Eric Garner. The unarmed black man died after police pulled him aside for selling loose cigarettes and put him in a chokehold.

The federal probe is examining whether Darren Wilson intentionally violated Michael Brown's civil rights. Justice Department veterans say proving he violated federal criminal law will be difficult.

A grand jury considering whether to indict a Ferguson, Mo., police officer in the shooting death of Michael Brown has reached a decision.

Attorney General Eric Holder is urging law enforcement officers and protesters to keep the peace as a grand jury decision nears about whether to indict white police officer Darren Wilson for shooting dead a black 18-year-old who was unarmed in Ferguson, Mo.

For months, federal officials in Washington, D.C., have ...

Loretta Lynch is the lead federal prosecutor in a district of 8 million people. But outside law enforcement circles, she isn't widely known. She'd be the nation's first black female attorney general.

This story was updated at 1:02 a.m. ET

Republicans have picked up the seats they needed to retake control of the Senate and then some, with major victories in North Carolina, Iowa, Colorado and Arkansas, and added to their margin in the U.S. House.

The big numbers from the ...

Officials in the U.S. Senate and the executive branch increasingly expect the next attorney general to win confirmation in 2015, rather than pushing a candidate through during the lame-duck session of Congress later this year.

The current occupant of the job, Eric Holder, nodded to that likely possibility last week ...

The Department of Homeland Security is beefing up security at federal buildings as a precautionary measure after recent attacks in Canada and ongoing threats from the so-called Islamic State.

FBI Director James Comey used his first major policy address to warn that new encryption techniques could lock out law enforcement trying to solve crimes. He wants a back door into smartphones.

ACLU deputy legal director Vanita Gupta will lead the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department. She will likely be nominated for Senate confirmation to hold the job permanently.

NPR has learned Labor Secretary Thomas Perez is a top candidate to be the next attorney general. Three sources familiar with the process say the issue is on the desk of President Obama, who has yet to decide among a relatively short list of options.

White House spokesman Eric Schultz ...

He's argued controversial cases involving same-sex marriage, the secrecy of the U.S. drone campaign, and the legality of the bulk-surveillance programs for American phone records. But he's still far from a household name. Now, though, with his recent promotion to serve as the third in command at the Justice Department, ...

A day after Attorney General Eric Holder announced his resignation, he made a long-planned visit to Scranton, Penn.

That's where he won his first big trial as a young public corruption prosecutor nearly 40 years ago. And he says coming to this federal courthouse now, returning to the site of ...