The Daily MuckLast month, Army Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld quit his post as Guantanamo prosecutor, saying that the military was not sharing exculpatory evidence with the defense. Yesterday, the Pentagon dropped war-crimes charges against five of the detainees being tried by Vandeveld, saying it would appoint a new team to review the cases. (AP)
An internal United Nations report has found five more instances of corruption, fraud, or mismanagement related to the way the organization awards contracts. This adds $20 million to the group’s misused funds, with eight cases still under investigation. (Washington Post)
The FBI arrested a former Chicago police commander, Jon Burge, yesterday on charges of false testimony and obstruction of justice in a 2003 trial meant to determine whether he and others in the department had tortured suspects. In 2007, the Chicago Police Department paid out nearly $20 million in settlements to men who had been sentenced to death, but were freed after they said the department had used torture and prompted false confessions. (Chicago Sun Times)
The unit investigating complaints against U.S. personnel in Iraq will no longer include private investigators, the State Department announced Friday in a letter to the Democratic senator who had expressed concerns about their presence on the team. (Washington Post)
Republicans want Attorney General Michael Mukasey to appoint a special counsel to investigate the ties of two former Clinton aides to government-sponsored mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. GOP legislators have suggested that Democrats are minimizing the ways that Fannie and Freddie led to the current economic crisis. Both companies are already the subjects of a Justice Department inquiry. (Reuters)
The chief justice of the Colorado District Court, Edward W. Nottingham Jr., stepped down from his post yesterday, in response to a storm of sexually charged allegations that had prompted an investigation into misconduct by his superiors at the court of appeals. (Denver Post)
The case against Blackwater Worldwide, the private security firm in Iraq, will not be tried by a jury, an appeals court ruled Friday, siding against the families of the guards who had brought the suit. (AP)
As governor, Sarah Palin billed Alaska for her children’s travel expenses, including trips to conferences to which her children had not been initially invited, reports the Associated Press. (AP)
Government contracts designated for small businesses went to companies as large as Lockheed Martin and Dell Computer, according to an investigation by the Washington Post. (Washington Post)
FBI Director Robert Mueller, who has parted ways with the Bush administration about eavesdropping, yesterday tried to squelch rumors that he will resign when the new president takes office in January. (Reuters)
Gwendolyn Moyo, on trial in Louisiana for money laundering about $2 million, was found guilty yesterday. On Oct. 10, a state senator had pleaded guilty in the case, which had also named Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) and his sister Betty, as unindicted co-conspirators. (AP)
