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Prosecutors admit that the constitutional right to an attorney is inconsistently applied for indigent criminal defendants in some states. In Michigan, officials have repeatedly ignored pleas to change how it pays lawyers for the poor. But lawsuits and exonerations may be starting to change that.

The Republican leading a yearlong investigation into the failed gun-trafficking operation known as Fast and Furious acknowledged that the probe has turned up no evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder approved the idea. Other GOP lawmakers Thursday threatened Holder with contempt of Congress.

Democrats Ron Wyden and Mark Udall are pressing the Justice Department to reveal more about some key provisions of the Act and how it interprets them.

Texas stands to gain four new seats in the U.S. House of Representatives if its legislative maps are approved by a federal court. The Justice Department has reservations about the redistricting plan, however, in part because it doesn't create a single new district that's majority Latino.

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio has a national reputation for being tough on crime, but the results of a new federal investigation show that Arpaio and his deputies are the ones who have been breaking law by engaging in racial profiling, among other things.

President Obama bypassed Congress this week in appointing Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and filling vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board. Republicans called the appointments an unconstitutional power grab and said they were made while the Senate was still technically in session.

The Justice Department has recovered more than $1 billion in fines using an anti-bribery law called the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. But now business groups are calling on Congress to overhaul it and rein in prosecutors. They say the law is producing a lot of confusion and big legal bills.

The memo was used to cast aspersions on a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent who had blown the whistle to Congress about a botched gun trafficking operation.

The cache of documents sent to Congress lays bare the raw and sometimes cringe-worthy process by which the letter was drafted.

Human rights advocates are calling on the Obama administration to do more protect people in immigration detention centers from sexual assault. A new federal rule covers inmates in jails and prisons, but some Homeland Security officials want an exemption for facilities that house illegal immigrants.