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U.S. Justice Department orders tougher criminal punishments

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration called for tougher charges and longer prison time for criminals in a move to return to strict enforcement of federal sentencing rules, according to a memo the U.S. Department of Justice released on Friday.
In a two-page note to federal prosecutors, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed course from the previous Obama administration and told the nation’s 94 U.S. attorneys to “charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense.”
The move is in line with tough campaign rhetoric against criminals by U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican who had also pledged to support police and law enforcement.
“This is a key part of President Trump’s promise to keep America safe,” Sessions said in remarks at the Justice Department.
Under former president Barack Obama, a Democrat, the Justice Department had sought to reduce mandatory-minimum sentences to reduce jail time for low-level drug crimes and ease overcrowding at federal U.S. prisons.
Obama’s then-attorney general Eric Holder advised prosecutors to avoid pursuing the toughest charges in certain cases, such as more minor drug offenses, that would have triggered mandatory sentencing under laws passed in the 1980s and 1990s.
In recent years, there has been growing bipartisan interest among some in Congress, U.S. states and the courts to reevaluate lengthy prison terms and instead focus on alternatives to reducing criminal behavior.
Sessions’ memo, dated on Wednesday, rescinds the Obama-era policy, saying federal prosecutors must now get approval from a supervisor if they want to bring charges or seek sentences that are milder than the strictest options available in a case.
“These reversals will be both substantively and financially ruinous, setting the Department back on a track to again spending one third of its budget on incarcerating people, rather than preventing, detecting, or investigating crime” Holder said of Sessions’s decision in a statement on Friday.
Republican Senator Tom Cotton, a longtime opponent of bipartisan sentencing reform efforts in Congress, called it a “common sense” way to reduce drugs and crime.
But other Republicans rejected that claim, saying drug use should be treated medically and that the department’s policy shift would only deepen the nation’s racial divide.
“Mandatory minimum sentences have unfairly and disproportionately incarcerated too many minorities for too long,” Senator Rand Paul said.
PRISON POPULATIONS LIKELY TO RISE
Holly Harris, head of the bipartisan sentencing reform organization U.S. Justice Action Network, said reform efforts have taken hold even in deep-red conservative states where Republicans dominate.
“It’s frustrating that Washington is not looking to the states as the laboratories of democracy,” she said.
Twenty-three U.S. states since 2007 have changed their sentencing laws to reserve prison space for the most serious or repeat offenders, according to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.
The federal change is also likely to increase the number of people in the United States who are sentenced to U.S. prison.
“Reversing (Holder’s) directive will exacerbate prison overcrowding, increase spending and jeopardize the safety of staff and prisoners,” said Marc Mauer, who leads The Sentencing Project, a national criminal justice research and advocacy group.
The number of sentenced prisoners in federal custody fell slightly during Obama’s time in office, reversing a decades-old trend of growth.
Federal inmates represent a sliver of the overall U.S. prison population of more than 1.5 million, according to Justice Department statistics.
On Friday, Sessions said the change was necessary to combat rising drug use and crime, particularly in cities.
Several law enforcement leaders said the new policy would not mitigate the nation’s growing opioid epidemic, which Trump has pledged to make a top priority.
“Decades of experience shows we cannot arrest and incarcerate our way out of America’s drug problem. Instead, we must direct resources to treatment and to specifically combating violent crime,” said Brett Tolman, a former U.S. attorney in Utah.

President Trump on Saturday urged graduates of Liberty University to “never give up” and find the courage to challenge the establishment and critics, much like he has done in Washington.
"In my short time in Washington, I've seen firsthand how the system is broken," he said. "A small group of failed voices, who think they know everything … want to tell everybody else how to live,” Trump said in his commencement speech at the Christian school, in Lynchburg, Va.
“But you aren't going to let other people tell you what to believe, especially when you know that you're right. … We don't need a lecture from Washington on how to lead our lives."
Trump, a businessman and first-time elected official, made three previous visits to Liberty but none likely as important as his January 2016 trip in which he asked and received the support of evangelical Christians.
Jerry Falwell Jr., Liberty's president, helped Trump win an overwhelming 80 percent of the white evangelical vote, in his 2016 White House victory.
"Nothing worth doing ever, ever, ever came easy," Trump said Saturday, in his first college commencement speech as president. "Following your convictions means you must be willing to face criticism from those who lack the same courage to do what is right. And they know what is right, but they don't have the courage or the guts or the stamina to take it and to do it."
Newly elected U.S. presidents often give their first commencement addresses at the University of Notre Dame, the country's best-known Roman Catholic school.
Former Presidents Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush did so during their first year in office. But this year, Vice President Mike Pence will speak at Notre Dame's graduation, becoming the first vice president to do so.
Notre Dame spokesman Paul Browne declined to say whether Trump had been invited to the May 21 ceremony, saying it was against school policy to reveal who had turned down offers.
Trump's remarks in Virginia marked his first extended public appearance since he fired James Comey as FBI director on Tuesday.
The president on Saturday didn't talk about Comey. And he has largely stayed out of public view since Tuesday, when he removed the head of the agency investigating Russia's role in the 2016 election, along with possible ties between Trump's campaign and the Russian government.
Aboard Air Force One, en route to Liberty, Trump said he could appoint a new FBI director by Friday, before departing on his first overseas presidential trip.
Several candidates were interview Saturday at Justice Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. Whoever is appointed would have to be confirmed by the Republican-led Senate.
A recent Pew Research Center survey marking Trump's first 100 days in office, a milestone reached on April 29, found three-quarters of white evangelicals approved of his performance as president while just 39 percent of the general public held the same view.
“I’m thrilled to be back at Liberty University,” said Trump, who repeatedly thanked the stadium-filled crowd for helping him get elected. “Boy did you come out and vote.”
Christian conservatives have been overjoyed by Trump's appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, along with Trump's choice of socially conservative Cabinet members and other officials, such as Charmaine Yoest, a prominent anti-abortion activist named to the Department of Health and Human Services.
But they had a mixed response to an executive order on religious liberty that Trump signed last week. He directed the IRS to ease up on enforcing an already rarely enforced limit on partisan political activity by churches.
He also promised "regulatory relief" for those who object on religious grounds to the birth control coverage requirement in the Affordable Care Act health law. Yet the order did not address one of the most pressing demands from religious conservatives: broad exemptions from recognizing same-sex marriage.
Still, Falwell, who endorsed Trump in January 2016 just before that year's Iowa caucuses, praised Trump's actions on issues that concern Christian conservatives.
"I really don't think any other president has done more for evangelicals and the faith community in four months than President Trump has," Falwell said.
Falwell became a key surrogate and validator for the thrice-married Trump during the campaign, frequently traveling with Trump on the candidate's plane and appearing at events. Falwell often compared Trump to his later father, the conservative televangelist Jerry Falwell, and argued that while Trump wasn't the most religious candidate in the race, he was the man the country needed.
"The more that a broken system tells you that you're wrong, the more certain you must be that you must keep pushing ahead," added Trump, who often complains about being underestimated during the presidential campaign.

White House: North Korea has been 'flagrant menace for far too long'

The White House responded to the latest North Korean ballistic missile launch late Saturday, saying that the rogue regime has been a “flagrant menace for far too long.”
The statement added that President Trump “cannot imagine that Russia is pleased” with North Korea’s latest test because the missile landed close to Russia soil. The statement pointed out that the missile landed closer to Russia than to Japan.
The White House said the U.S. maintains its "ironclad commitment" to stand with its allies in the face of the serious threat posed by North Korea, and added that the latest "provocation" should serve as a call for all nations to implement far stronger sanctions against the North.
The Pentagon confirmed that North Korea launched some type of ballistic missile at around 10:30 a.m. Hawaii time. It was launched near Kusung and landed in the Sea of Japan.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) determined the missile launch from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America.
South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported the missile traveled about 435 miles.
The launch is the first in two weeks since the last attempt to fire a missile ended in a failure just minutes into flight.
The isolated regime attempted but failed to test-launch ballistic missiles four consecutive times in the past two months but has conducted a variety of missile testing since the beginning of last year at fast pace.
Trump warned in an interview with Reuters in late April that a "major, major conflict" with the North was possible, but he would prefer a diplomatic outcome to the dispute over its nuclear and missile programs.
The launch is the first since a new liberal president took office in South Korea on Wednesday, saying dialog as well as pressure must be used to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula and stop the North's weapons pursuit.

North Korea fires missile days after new South Korea leader pledges dialogue

North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Sunday in defiance of calls to rein in its weapons program, days after a new leader in its old rival South Korea came to power pledging to engage it in dialogue.
The U.S. Pacific Command said it was assessing the type of missile but it was “not consistent with an intercontinental ballistic missile”. Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada said the missile could be of a new type.
The missile flew 700 km (430 miles) and reached an altitude of more than 2,000 km (1,245 miles), according to officials in South Korea and Japan, further and higher than an intermediate-range missile North Korea successfully tested in February from the same region of Kusong, northwest of its capital, Pyongyang.
North Korea is widely believed to be developing an intercontinental missile tipped with a nuclear weapon that is capable of reaching the United States.
U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed not to let that happen.
An intercontinental ballistic missile is considered to have a range of more than 6,000 km (3,700 miles).
Experts said the altitude the missile tested on Sunday reached meant it was launched at a high trajectory, which would limit the lateral distance it traveled.
But if it was fired at a standard trajectory, it would have a range of at least 4,000 km (2,500 miles), experts said.
Kim Dong-yub, of Kyungnam University’s Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, said he estimated a standard trajectory would give it a range of 6,000 km.
Japan said the missile flew for 30 minutes before dropping into the sea between North Korea’s east coast and Japan. The North has consistently test-fired missiles in that direction.
“The launch may indeed represent a new missile with a long range,” said Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, referring to the estimated altitude of more than 2,000 km. “It is definitely concerning.”
In Washington, the White House said Trump “cannot imagine Russia is pleased” with the test as the missile landed closer to Russia than to Japan.
“With the missile impacting so close to Russian soil – in fact, closer to Russia than to Japan – the President cannot imagine that Russia is pleased,” it said.
The launch served as a call for all nations to implement stronger sanctions against North Korea, it added.
‘CLEAR VIOLATION’
Speaking in Beijing, Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, told reporters Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping had discussed the situation on the Korean peninsula, including the latest missile launch and expressed “mutual concerns” about growing tension.
Putin is in Beijing for a conference on a plan for a new Silk Road. Delegations from the United States, South Korea and North Korea are also there.
The launch, at 5:27 a.m. Seoul time (2027 GMT Saturday), came two weeks after North Korea fired a missile that disintegrated minutes into flight, marking its fourth consecutive failure since March.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who took office on Wednesday, held his first National Security Council in response to the launch, which he called a “clear violation” of U.N. Security Council resolutions, his office said.
“The president said while South Korea remains open to the possibility of dialogue with North Korea, it is only possible when the North shows a change in attitude,” Yoon Young-chan, Moon’s press secretary, told a briefing.
Moon won Tuesday’s election on a platform of a moderate approach to North Korea and has said he would be willing to go to Pyongyang under the right circumstances, arguing dialogue must be used in parallel with sanctions.
China, the North’s sole main ally which nevertheless objects to its weapons programs, called for restraint and for no one to exacerbate tension.
“China opposes relevant launch activities by North Korea that are contrary to Security Council resolutions,” China’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The launch will also complicate Moon’s efforts to mend ties with China that have been strained by a decision by South Korea’s former government to deploy a U.S. anti-missile defense system aimed at defending against North Korea, but which China sees as a threat to its security.
Moon told Chinese President Xi last week that it would be difficult to resolve the issue unless North Korea stopped being provocative.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said North Korea’s missile launches were a “grave threat to our country and a clear violation of UN resolutions”.
North Korea on Feb. 12, launched the Pukguksong-2 missile, an upgraded, extended-range version of its submarine-launched ballistic missile, from the same site.
South Korean and U.S. military officials said the February launch was a significant development as it successfully tested a solid-fuel engine from a mobile launcher. The missile flew about 500 km with an altitude of 550 km.
The North attempted but failed to test-launch ballistic missiles four times in the past two months but has conducted various tests since the beginning of last year at an unprecedented pace.
It also conducted its fourth and fifth nuclear tests last year.
Trump warned in an interview with Reuters in April that a “major, major conflict” with the North was possible but he would prefer a diplomatic outcome.
Trump has also said he would be “honored” to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un under the right circumstances.
On Saturday, a top North Korean diplomat said it was open to dialogue with the Trump administration under the right conditions.