Category: US Department of Justice

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

On April 24, the Justice Department published a landmark final rule to strengthen accessibility of web content and mobile applications under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  

Websites and mobile apps are used by state and local governments to provide a wide variety of services including health care, education, civic education, voter information and registration, parking and permit applications, among others. Now, public entities, such as state and local governments, must ensure that their web content and mobile apps meet the technical standard established in the rule within two or three years, depending on population size. By requiring that public entities meet a technical standard, the rule will increase people with disabilities’ independence, flexibility, dignity and privacy in their everyday lives.

The department crafted this rule with broad input from the public, including from individuals with disabilities, advocacy organizations, state and local governments and web accessibility experts. Many members of the public provided valuable feedback, much of which is reflected in the final rule.  

Many public commenters stressed the impact this rule would have on their lives and how much of a barrier inaccessible websites can be. “As blind and visually impaired adults, we live just as independent, productive and self-sufficient as anyone would,” one commenter wrote. “[O]ur privacy, confidentiality and livelihoods depend on full unrestricted accessibility of any website and mobile app available to everyone.”

Another commenter, discussing the need for this rule, explained that “[t]he internet lifts the barriers to communication and interaction that millions of Americans face in the physical world. This regulation has the potential to dramatically change the lives of [individuals with disabilities] and so many others.” The commenter also observed that the rule “will benefit our neighbors without disabilities, as well as state and local employees, who work hard to provide good service.”

Such comments illustrate how the requirements of this rule will help eliminate barriers to civic participation and will help individuals with disabilities engage with their communities in meaningful ways. This rule will help ensure that the ADA’s vision of “equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living and economic self-sufficiency” for people with disabilities is realized in the digital world.

The published version of the final rule is available on the Federal Register’s website. A copy of the rule is also available on ADA.gov, along with a fact sheet that provides an overview of the information about the final rule and a Small Entity Compliance Guide that is designed to help people who work for or with small state and local governments understand the requirements of the rule.

For inquiries regarding the ADA or this rule, please contact the department’s toll-free ADA Information Line at 800-514-0301 (voice) or 833-610-1264 (TTY) or visit the ADA website at www.ada.gov. For more information about the Civil Rights Division, please visit the department’s website at www.justice.gov/crt.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

I want to begin by saying that I am grateful that former President Trump is safe following yesterday’s horrific assassination attempt.

On behalf of the entire Justice Department, I want to extend my deepest condolences to the loved ones of the spectator who was killed. Our hearts are with them, and with those critically injured and their families.

And I am deeply grateful to the agents and law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line during yesterday’s attack.

I spent the morning in briefings with Justice Department personnel as well as our partners across the federal government.

And earlier today, I briefed President Biden in the Situation Room on our investigation of yesterday’s shooting.

I have directed the FBI, the ATF, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and the Department’s National Security Division to bring every available resource to bear on this investigation.

I want to reiterate that the violence that we saw yesterday is an attack on our democracy itself.

The Justice Department has no tolerance for such violence. And as Americans, we must have no tolerance for it. This must stop.

I will now pass things over to Director Wray.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Justice Department issued the following statement from Attorney General Merrick B. Garland on the shooting at former President Donald J. Trump’s rally:

“I have been briefed on the shooting at former President Trump’s rally, and have briefed the President. The FBI, ATF, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and the Department’s National Security Division are currently working with the Secret Service as well as state and local law enforcement partners on the ground in Butler, Pennsylvania.

My heart is with the former President, those injured, and the family of the spectator killed in this horrific attack.

We will not tolerate violence of any kind, and violence like this is an attack on our democracy. The Justice Department will bring every available resource to bear to this investigation.”

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

The Justice Department and the Department of the Interior convened this year’s Tribal Justice, Safety, and Wellness Summit from July 9 – 11. The three-day virtual event featured several key presentations and panels on public safety issues taught by nationally recognized subject matter experts working in American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Hundreds of federal, state, and Tribal law enforcement officials, prosecutors, advocates, court staff, victim/witness services staff, and Tribal leaders attended the Summit.

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland provided opening remarks. He reiterated the Department’s commitment to working with Tribal partners to ensure that Tribal communities feel safe. He also discussed the Department’s efforts to address, with our federal and Tribal law enforcement partners, the public safety challenges that Tribes face, including the disproportionately high rates of violence experienced by American Indians and Alaska Natives, the crisis of missing or murdered Indigenous persons, and the devastating impact of human trafficking and drug trafficking.

“Public safety in Tribal communities is a core priority for this Department”, said Attorney General Garland. “And partnerships between federal and Tribal law enforcement are among our greatest tools to meet the many challenges that Tribes face.”

To address the crisis of missing or murdered Indigenous persons and to help families get the justice and answers they deserve, last year the Department created the Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons Regional Outreach Program, which places five attorneys and five coordinators in designated regions across the United States to aid in the prevention of and response to missing or murdered Indigenous persons.

Summit attendees participated in a variety of panels on public safety issues within four training tracks: resources, missing or murdered Indigenous persons (MMIP), criminal justice law enforcement and prosecution, and technology.

FBI Director Chris Wray also gave opening remarks at the Summit. “Protecting Native American communities has been a priority for the FBI since our organization was founded more than a century ago,” said Director Wray. “And we remain just as committed today as we were then to combatting criminal activity on Tribal land, supporting and protecting victims, and helping Indigenous communities heal and thrive.”

Director Wray also highlighted efforts to combat the unacceptably high levels of violence that Native Americans face. For example, the FBI added two more task forces over the past year as part of the FBI’s Safe Trails Task Forces initiative, which focuses on apprehending the most dangerous and violent criminal offenders in tribal communities. Wray also announced the surge of resources to tribal areas once again this summer for Operation Not Forgotten 2024.

The Summit included presentations on the untold legal history of the Osage murders, elder abuse, environmental justice, MMIP initiatives such as the development of Tribal community response plans, law enforcement responses to sexual assault and domestic violence, and technology initiatives, such as the Tribal Access Program, to support public safety in American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

The Justice Department is committed to addressing the persistent violence endured by Native American communities and bringing justice to victims and their families. The widely attended 2024 Tribal, Justice, Safety and Wellness Summit expanded the circle of partners and the knowledge needed to strengthen public safety, health, and wellness in Tribal communities across the country.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A Texas pharmaceutical marketer was sentenced today to two years and five months in prison and ordered to pay over $59 million in restitution for conspiring to defraud the United States, receiving illegal kickbacks in exchange for compounded medications prescription referrals, and money laundering.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Quintan Cockerell, 43, of Palos Verdes Estates, California, worked with others to create and market expensive compounded medications, which are intended to be custom-tailored to individual patient needs, that were not medically indicated. Cockerell and others used preloaded prescription pads that identified the high-billing formulations for doctors to easily select. Cockerell, along with his co-conspirators at the compounding pharmacy that received the fraudulent prescriptions, implemented “standing orders” that enabled the pharmacy to swap out ingredients in the medications originally prescribed by doctors to maximize insurance reimbursements. Cockerell and others recruited doctors to write prescriptions for these expensive compounded medications by creating so-called “investment opportunities” so that doctors who wrote prescriptions to the pharmacy could profit from pharmacy operations. Cockerell and others also took doctors on expensive and lavish trips to Las Vegas, Mexico, and the Grand Caymans, among other places.

In an effort to conceal the illegal kickbacks Cockerell received in exchange for prescription referrals, the pharmacy paid Cockerell’s wife at the time as a sham employee. Evidence presented at trial demonstrated that Cockerell’s wife did not work at the pharmacy, but that Cockerell communicated with the pharmacy using her email address and received checks for his kickbacks in her name. Cockerell then spent the proceeds from the kickback scheme.

In October 2023, a federal jury in the Northern District of Texas convicted Cockerell of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, one count of receiving kickbacks, and one count of money laundering.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Special Agent in Charge Michael Mentavlos of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS); Special Agent in Charge Jason E. Meadows of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) Dallas Regional Office; Special Agent in Charge B. Chad Yarbrough of the FBI Dallas Field Office; Special Agent in Charge Casey Howard of the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG) Central Regional Office; and Special Agent in Charge Kris Raper of the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (VA-OIG) South Central Field Office made the announcement.

DCIS, HHS-OIG, FBI, DOL-OIG, and VA-OIG investigated the case.

Assistant Chiefs Kate Payerle and Brynn Schiess and Trial Attorneys Jacqueline DerOvanesian and Lee Michael Hirsch of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case.

The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program. Since March 2007, this program, currently comprised of nine strike forces operating in 27 federal districts, has charged more than 5,400 defendants who collectively have billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $27 billion. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with HHS-OIG, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes. More information can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.