Sadie Gurman
@sgurman
Followers
15K
Following
11K
Media
700
Statuses
16K
I cover the Justice Department and federal law enforcement for @WSJ. I’m from Denver. Story ideas welcome: [email protected]
Joined September 2009
NEW: Trump also pushed DOJ to ask the Supreme Court to invalidate Biden’s win, but his own appointees refused to file what they viewed as a legally baseless lawsuit. An outside lawyer working for Trump even drafted a brief for DOJ to file. w/ @JessBravin
348
4K
7K
More: A senior Justice Department official, at the behest of the White House, called Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Byung J. Pak and told him he needed to step down because he wasn’t pursuing vote-fraud allegations to Trump’s satisfaction. w/ @aviswanatha
241
2K
4K
Director Wray has arrived at DOJ to give Garland one of his first briefings on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot investigation.
96
640
4K
SCOOP: FBI search at Mar-a-Lago removed 11 sets of classified information, photo binders, handwritten notes, according to copy of inventory reviewed by @WSJ. W/ @learyreports @aviswanatha
202
1K
3K
NEW: Marc Short was not the only Pence advisor who testified before a grand jury in connection w/ the Justice Department's expanding Jan. 6 probe — so did Pence's legal counsel, Greg Jacob. Prosecutors asked about Eastman, Giuliani & more. w/@aviswanatha
62
986
2K
New: The @FBI searched Mar-a-Lago in part because agents believed there was still more classified info there after @USNatArchives earlier retrieved 15 boxes of WH documents from the home. Agents hauled away ~ 10 more boxes. W/ @learyreports @aviswanatha
98
889
2K
Just in: Kash Patel, a close Trump aide, is set to soon testify before a federal grand jury probing the handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after receiving immunity. W/ @learyreports
276
801
2K
The suspected attacker has espoused extreme right wing views on social media, including conspiracy theories about Covid-19, according to one of the law enforcement officials. W/ @nataliewsj @ZushaElinson
464
1K
2K
SCOOP: AG Garland scooped ice cream for Justice Department employees in the Great Hall on this balmy afternoon. 🍨
358
166
2K
New: After some confusion, ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen will be released from federal prison due to coronavirus concerns and is expected to serve the rest of his 3-year sentence from home.
289
623
2K
The @FBI agents took around 20 boxes of items, binders of photos, a handwritten note and the executive grant of clemency for Trump’s ally Roger Stone, a list of items removed from the property shows. Also included in the list was information about the “President of France.
47
517
2K
Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker’s inaugural appearance in the Great Hall.
432
618
2K
NEW: White House officials pushed Atlanta’s top federal prosecutor to resign before Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoffs because Trump was upset he wasn’t doing enough to investigate the president’s allegations of election fraud. w/ @aviswanatha @cammcwhirter
80
900
2K
“Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen,” Trump said, per the notes, after Rosen told him the Justice Department “can’t + won’t snap its fingers + change the outcome of the election, doesn’t work that way.”
64
489
2K
The list includes references to one set of documents marked as “Various classified/TS/SCI documents." It also says agents collected four sets of top secret documents, three sets of secret documents, and three sets of confidential documents.
36
475
1K
Agents sought to search “the 45 Office,” and "storage rooms and all other rooms or areas within the premises used or available to be used by [the former president] and his staff and in which boxes or documents could be stored, including all structures or buildings on the estate.”.
25
248
1K
Barr: "All the other documents taken. they still belong to the government and go to the Archives. News clippings and other things that were in the boxes. those were seizable under the warrant because they show the conditions under which the classified information was held.".
69
341
1K
New: As talks between @FBI & Trump lawyers soured between June & August, a witness told investigators there may be more classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. DOJ officials began to distrust Trump's team. Then, agents showed up. w/ @learyreports @aviswanatha
76
445
1K
In his first interview since the Mueller probe ended, Rod Rosenstein beat back suggestions that William Barr is trying to mislead the public
444
424
928
Greetings from DOJ, where we’re awaiting the arrival of soon-to-be attorney general Merrick Garland. He’ll be sworn in just after 9 am, address the workforce at 10, and then attend briefings on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot investigation. Stay tuned!
23
145
942
NEW: Docs released today by the @OversightDems confirm two big @WSJ scoops, that Trump pushed out Atlanta’s U.S. attorney over false election fraud claims AND pushed DOJ to go to SCOTUS to overturn Biden’s win. Read that story ⬇️.
45
562
914
More: A group of Republican state AGs spoke w/ Barr about getting DOJ to back their claim, particularly if SCOTUS asked for DOJ's views on the case. Barr told them the department couldn't be counted on to support them. W/ @JessBravin
49
361
967
The Honorable Merrick B. Garland was sworn-in as the nation’s 86th Attorney General at 9:18 am ET, per @AnthonyColeyDOJ.
25
184
842
“If you only start packing with two days left to go, you’re just running low on time,” a former aide said. “And if he’s the one just throwing things in boxes, who knows what could happen?” @rebeccaballhaus @vmsalama @learyreports
1K
267
899
Justice Department officials canceled an event on gender diversity featuring former U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu — who was denied top posts at DOJ & Treasury — over a new executive order from President Trump ending federal diversity and gender bias trainings.
47
670
895
WOW: Less than a day after asking for the public’s help in identifying a suspect in the stabbing death of Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German, police arrested Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles on Wednesday on suspicion of murder 🚨.
Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles has been arrested on suspicion of murder in the death of RJ reporter @JGermanRJ, confirmed @Sheriff_LVMPD.
13
268
833
NEW w/@aviswanatha: Barr is so hard-charging within DOJ that even his close aides call him "the Buffalo." That style has long rankled Democrats, but the unceremonious dismissal of Berman has even some friends questioning his management style.
142
249
790
“If states can now shield their laws from review by the federal courts that compare assault weapons to Swiss Army knives, then California will use that authority to protect people’s lives, where Texas used it to put women in harm’s way,” Newsom said, per @cmaiduc.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to allow private citizens to sue gun manufacturers, modeling his proposal after the legal framework used in the Texas law banning abortions past six weeks
20
183
760
New: Calls for some reinforcements took hours to approve as police and federal agents tried to squelch the storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Trump. @nancyayoussef @scottmcalvert @ailworth @dnvolz @glubold
62
336
779
On the Jan. 6 hearings, Garland said Monday: "I am watching, I will be watching all of the hearings. I may not be able to watch all of it live, but I'm sure I will be watching all of it, and I can assure you the January 6 prosecutors are watching all of the hearings as well.".
20
167
647
“Top-level, inner-circle people are some of the last you’d expect to be subpoenaed,” @RDEliason said. “When I see subpoenas to the highest-level people, that makes me think they’re close to wrapping up.” W/@cryanbarber @aviswanatha
33
144
690
New: The @FBI is investigating the activities of a former U.S. Navy noncommissioned officer who oversaw a social-media account involved in the spread of intelligence documents allegedly leaked by Airman Jack Teixeira. W/ @glubold @bobmackin
23
343
630
“The president is exercising powers that do not really belong to him,” retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens tells @JessBravin
15
297
635
“The attorney general should have been well aware of federal prison mismanagement and understaffing before Mr. Epstein’s suicide,” @SenatorDurbin says.
50
186
599
A Justice Department official says Barr won't deliver his principal conclusions from Mueller's report to Congress today, but they are still expected this weekend.
33
174
577
Another former aide said uncertainty pervaded the West Wing in the final weeks as the president continued to contest the election. “It was a weird time,” the aide said. “It was like, are we doing this? Are we not doing this?”.
52
103
571
NEW: Top @FBI officials have asked agents to flag all investigations into harassment/intimidation of educators w/ a "threat tag" that some worry will open the door for the bureau to collect information on parents who protest school policies. w/@aviswanatha
129
263
623
The result was a rushed and chaotic exit from the White House that is now at the center of a federal investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents and other presidential material after leaving office. A great story by @rebeccaballhaus @vmsalama @learyreports.
298
95
516
A person familiar w/ the matter identified the judge who approved the warrant as Bruce Reinhart. No one answered the phone in his chambers Tuesday. Judges who usually review such requests are not presidentially appointed but are named by the judges on the federal district court.
39
126
518
The Justice Department would support legislation to allow some of the money seized from Russian oligarchs to go directly to Ukraine and will soon seek other changes to the law that would make it easier to go after those proceeds, Garland said.
13
100
493
NEW: A retired firefighter from Pennsylvania was arrested Thursday for allegedly throwing a fire extinguisher that hit three police officers at the pro-Trump riot (tho not the fire extinguisher that killed Officer Sicknick). via @aviswanatha @ailworth
19
193
522
NEW: Supreme Court investigators probing the May leak of the draft opinion overruling Roe v. Wade have narrowed their inquiry to a small number of suspects including law clerks, but have yet to conclusively identify the alleged culprit. w/ @JessBravin
90
227
541
NEW: Investigators have made a preliminary determination that the officer who killed Ashli Babbitt during the Capitol riot shouldn’t be charged. w/@aviswanatha @Tawnell
141
128
506
FBI officials showed up Monday with instructions to keep the search as unobtrusive as possible, with agents dressed in plainclothes and told not to take any weapons, people familiar with the plan said. They hauled away about 10 boxes.
10
103
489
DOJ said “portions of the district court’s injunction that have not been stayed restrict the government’s ability to vindicate the strong public interest in proceeding expeditiously w/ the criminal and national security investigation that underlies these proceedings.” @JanNWolfe.
The DOJ is seeking to fast-track its appeal of a ruling that delayed its investigation into documents seized at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home
5
98
470
Attorney General Merrick Garland is going to watch as much of the @January6thCmte televised hearings as he is able, a Justice Department official said Thursday night.
164
125
497
Prosecutors also asked detailed questions about Rudy Giuliani, who forwarded to Pence’s office letters from individual state legislators urging Pence to accept false slates of electors claiming Trump won from states he actually lost.
5
174
485
A person familiar with the warrant said the warrant refers to “presidential documents” but included few specifics. Trump was in New York at the time, as the resort is mostly dormant during the summer months. The FBI met U.S. Secret Service employees Monday to alert them.
19
108
485
Monday’s search came after weeks of internal deliberation among senior Justice Department and FBI officials and marked an escalation of their investigation into Trump’s handling of classified material, people familiar with the matter said.
4
87
451
New: Earlier this week, Justice Department officials including Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen privately discussed how to handle the planned protest, and concluded they saw little role for themselves in crowd control. W/ @aviswanatha
52
230
489
New: Republicans have a new idea for how to take Washington politics out of the @FBI: Take the FBI out of Washington — and send it to Huntsville. W/ @siobhanehughes
168
114
537
Garland is expected to make a statement in T-minus 45, four days after the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago. 🚨.
35
95
465
Barr writes that he was convinced that Trump could have won re-election in 2020 if he had “just exercised a modicum of self-restraint, moderating even a little of his pettiness.”.“The election was not ‘stolen,’” Mr. Barr writes. “Trump lost it.”
57
114
466
One area of interest to prosecutors was a Jan. 4, 2021 Oval Office meeting where conservative lawyer John Eastman pushed Pence, in Trump’s presence, to either reject the electoral votes outright or suspend the proceedings & ask several state legislatures to re-examine the results.
7
138
426
Coronavirus briefing opens with news about counter-narcotics operations. Trump says Mexican cartels are taking advantage of the pandemic. “The cartels have to be defeated, both for the people of this country and the people of Venezuela and Mexico,” Barr says.
98
97
446
NEW: Bipartisan talks aimed at overhauling police tactics have ended with no agreement, @CoryBooker told @WSJ. Booker called @SenatorTimScott today to tell him they were done negotiating after Scott didn’t accept Democrats' final offer. w/ @elizacollins1
211
229
398
NEW: The Biden administration is preparing to sue Texas as soon as Thursday over a new law banning most abortions, an action that would set off a federal-state clash as the future of abortion rights becomes an ever-more-pressing question before the courts.
19
174
367
All of @evangershkovich’s reporting is no longer behind a paywall and free to read. Please do. #istandwithevan
11
220
397
Investigators spoke to at least two Trump aides before @FBI searched Mar-a-Lago and have sought to talk to them again in recent weeks, as DOJ examines possible obstruction of its efforts to retrieve hundreds of government documents. W/@learyreports
4
124
373
As Trump stokes concerns about mail-in ballots, FBI Director Chris Wray today said the bureau has “not seen, historically, any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it’s by mail or otherwise.”
21
168
358
DOJ will require federal agents to wear cameras during arrests & searches, reversing longstanding policy as more local police chiefs mandate the devices for accountability. Comes after the shooting of Winston Smith by MN deputies who weren't using cameras.
13
146
385
New: Garland deliberated for weeks over whether to approve the application for a warrant to search Mar-a-Lago, a sign of his cautious approach that will be tested over coming months. The decision had been the subject of weeks of meetings. w/ @aviswanatha
35
135
349
New: Evan Corcoran wasn’t the only Trump lawyer who appeared before a grand jury probing classified documents at Mar-a-Lago — so did Christina Bobb, as special counsel Jack Smith’s probe ramps up. @cryanbarber @learyreports scoop
13
77
328
Sessions praised Rosenstein this morning, breaking from prepared remarks at a speech on human trafficking. He says Rod and No. 3 Rachel Brand are experienced lawyers who "represent the kind of quality and leadership that we want in the department.".
27
160
304
UPDATE: Garland told the nation’s largest law-enforcement groups that an investigation into Minneapolis Police will be the first—but not last—broad civil-rights probe of a local agency that DOJ intends to launch as it takes a larger role in local policing.
14
69
326
NEW: Officials in Justice Department's civil rights division pushed to open a pattern-or-practice investigation into Minneapolis PD after Floyd's killing, but Barr opposed it, saying it would sap officer morale at a time of turmoil. Will DOJ open one now?
7
136
313
“I have to tell you that when I walked in the door of Main Justice this morning, it really did feel like I was coming home,” Garland tells the audience, standing six-feet apart as he spoke.
4
58
306
Just in: After the White House ousted Atlanta's U.S. attorney because of Trump’s frustration that he wasn’t looking into election fraud, Trump personally called the prosecutor he wanted to replace him and said he was putting him in the job. w/ @aviswanatha
18
183
315
Ratcliffe said the spoofed emails from Iran were intended to damage Trump. But two officials familiar with the matter said the operation—which targeted Democratic voters—appeared chiefly focused on undermining public confidence in the election. @dnvolz.
Iran is responsible for a wave of fake emails intended to intimidate voters and incite social unrest, the top U.S. intelligence official said
21
96
295
DOJ officials spent days considering their legal options, including whether the president could delay the census, as he suggested. But they recognized that wasn’t realistic given the high court’s decision, the printing deadline and other unresolved legal issues tied to the case.
The Trump administration has dropped plans to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census form
12
67
266
NOW: An appeals court granted the Justice Department’s request to retain control of the classified materials seized at Mar-a-Lago & continue its criminal investigation into the handling of the documents, a big win for the government. W @aviswanatha
5
56
274
The Justice Department is weighing possible charges against Sen. Bob Menendez after a yearslong public-corruption probe. Prosecutors are expected to meet with his lawyers in the coming weeks ahead of a final decision. @coryramey @aviswanatha SCOOP
53
118
293
NEW: DOJ considered having @FBI agents monitor a search for classified documents at Biden’s homes but decided against it, both to avoid complicating later stages of the probe & because his attorneys were cooperating. W/@aviswanatha @cryanbarber
28
108
261
NOW: Igor Danchenko, a consultant whose information comprised the bulk of the 2016 “Steele dossier,” was acquitted of lying to the FBI, in another striking loss for special counsel John Durham. @aviswanatha chronicled the case as it melted down.
9
85
241
NEW:The U.S. government has approved new growers of research marijuana for the first time in more than 50 years, widening the capacity to study the drug’s medical value. “We will be growing research cannabis to sell to the whole world for the first time.".
10
97
263
Other Trump associates involved in the Mar-a-Lago documents matter also have been offered some form of immunity, people familiar with the matter said, including one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Christina Bobb, who declined, saying she didn’t need it.
15
64
251
Scooplet: Rod Rosenstein has submitted his resignation letter to President Trump, ending a tumultuous two years as the Justice Department’s No. 2 official
88
195
240
Hutchinson’s testimony gave prosecutors “something to chew on,” Trump's AG Bill Barr said, and “provided additional information on the question of foreknowledge that there was likely to be violence. I suspect the department will be digging deeper on that.”
45
72
252
Wray was involved in weeks of discussions with Garland and other senior DOJ & FBI officials about the decision to execute the search warrant at Trump’s Florida home. Wray came to believe it was a step that had to be taken to recover classified documents.
27
104
256
Attorneys repping Trump or other Republicans have said under oath they have no evidence of fraud. “We are not alleging fraud in this lawsuit. We are not alleging anyone stealing the election,” Kory Langhofer, a Trump campaign attorney said in a hearing. @ByronTau @sara_randazzo.
12
79
230
This Passover, please consider setting a place at your Seder table for @evangershkovich. As you celebrate freedom, join us in demanding freedom for Evan. #LetEvanGo #LetHimGo #LetMyPeopleGo #IStandWithEvan #FreeEvan
8
93
259
SPOTTED: Rod Rosenstein, back at DOJ after a previously scheduled meeting at the White House — and he still has his detail in tow. #stilltheDAG cc: @MichaelCBender.
7
81
207
“We are at an inflection point in our history. It is all too clear that the legacy of past injustices inflicted on African Americans persists powerfully and tragically to this day,” declared all 7 justices of CA’s Supreme Court. Via @JessBravin
7
83
244
Standing ovations for @evangershkovich at #WHCD and his family in attendance. Evan has now been wrongfully detained in a Russian prison for a month. “We all stand with you,” President Biden said. “We’re working every day to secure his release.” #FreeEvanNow
2
60
227
The move will enable Biden to prevent any of Trump’s political appointees from staying at the helm of cabinet agencies past Jan. 20, as Senate committees have yet to hold hearings on the president-elect’s nominees, which precede a confirmation vote by the full Senate.
SCOOP: President-elect Joe Biden plans to appoint acting heads across the federal government once he takes office, in most cabinet and some sub-cabinet positions, transition officials tell me and @KThomasDC
5
82
226
The meeting is set to include, among others, @RandPaul and @SenMikeLee, who are privacy hawks, and William Barr, who opposes sweeping changes to the existing Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which he has called crucial to national security.
24
67
226
Comments by @JerryMoran to @WSJ suggest that any effort by Trump to fire Wray after the election could run into blowback from his own Republican party. Moran said he would “continue to support Wray’s efforts.” W/ @aviswanatha
36
41
225
Amid turmoil over Texas’ abortion ban, the Justice Department charges an Ohio man with FACE Act violations for two calls he made to a reproductive health care clinic in April, in which made a death threat and a bomb threat. Garland has suggested more such cases are coming.
4
64
211