WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The federal government will buy an Illinois prison that the Obama administration once considered as a successor to the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Attorney General Eric Holder said on Tuesday.

Holder said the Thomson Correctional Center will house U.S. inmates and that there are no plans to revive a 2009 effort to move some Guantanamo detainees to the United States.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department’s internal watchdog faulted 14 federal agents and prosecutors on Wednesday for the botched anti-gun-trafficking effort known as “Operation Fast and Furious” but cleared Attorney General Eric Holder of any wrongdoing.

The report by the department’s inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, prompted two senior officials to leave the government.

WASHINGTON, Sept 19 (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice
Department’s internal watchdog on Wednesday referred 14
employees, including senior official Lanny Breuer, for possible
internal discipline in connection with a botched gun probe in
Arizona.

A 471-page report was released following a 19-month review
by the department’s inspector general into “Operation Fast and
Furious,” which allowed about 2,000 potentially illegal firearms
to cross the border into Mexico.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A long-awaited report on a botched effort to control gun smuggling along the U.S.-Mexico border is expected to be released on Wednesday after a 19-month review by the U.S. Justice Department’s internal watchdog.

The report from the department’s inspector general will address Operation Fast and Furious, in which U.S. agents tried to dismantle smuggling rings that fed weapons to drug cartels.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday that tax-exempt groups spending millions on election-time ads this campaign season can keep their donors secret, turning aside an attempt by a Democratic congressman to force disclosure.

The unanimous decision reversed a ruling by a lower court in March that had sent scores of tax-exempt groups scrambling for ways to protect their donors’ names and continue to run ads ahead of the November 6 presidential and congressional elections.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – BP executives wanted to concentrate blame for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster on “blue collar rig workers” in order to save themselves, U.S. government lawyers wrote in a court document that until Thursday was partially redacted.

According to the newly public and complete version of the court document, Justice Department lawyers are taking an even harsher tone against BP Plc for the 2010 oil spill than previously thought, invoking the language of class conflict.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In accusing BP Plc (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) of gross negligence and willful misconduct over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the U.S. Justice Department has shown that it is prepared for a bruising court struggle with the London-based oil giant.

Government lawyers used unusually blunt language in describing the conduct of BP and its executives in a court filing on Friday, saying that it “would not be tolerated in a middling size company manufacturing dry goods for sale in a suburban mall.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In accusing BP Plc (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) of gross negligence and wilful misconduct over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the U.S. Justice Department has shown that it is prepared for a bruising court struggle with the London-based oil giant.

Government lawyers used unusually blunt language in describing the conduct of BP and its executives in a court filing on Friday, saying that it “would not be tolerated in a middling size company manufacturing dry goods for sale in a suburban mall.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two former clients of UBS AG were sentenced on Monday to a year and a day in prison, matching what records show as the longest prison term ordered so far in a sprawling investigation of offshore tax avoidance involving the Swiss banking giant.

Sean and Nadia Roberts of Tehachapi, California, were also ordered to pay $3.2 million in restitution and fines, the U.S. Justice Department said. He is 77 years old and she is 64.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Gun control advocates are looking ahead to this year’s first presidential debate, set to be held in Denver, Colorado, as a chance to keep pressing President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney on U.S. gun policy.

The first debate between the two is scheduled for October 3 at the University of Denver, about 10 miles from the cinema in Aurora, Colorado, where a gunman killed 12 people on July 20.