Welcome to this week's Department of Justice briefing. The big story this week involves a federal judge dismissing criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James in a ruling that's sent shockwaves through the Justice Department. ABC News reports that the judge found serious problems with how acting US Attorney Lindsey Halligan brought the cases, essentially ruling that the prosecution didn't have proper authority to move forward. The White House has announced the DOJ plans to appeal, with Press Secretary Caroline Levitt defending the appointment of Halligan while also going after the judge for what the administration characterizes as shielding Comey and James from accountability.

Now let's shift to a major policy overhaul that's reshaping how the DOJ handles corporate crime. Back in May, Criminal Division Chief Matthew Galeotti announced a sweeping new white collar enforcement strategy called Focus, Fairness, and Efficiency in the Fight Against White Collar Crime. Here's what matters for businesses and compliance officers listening. The DOJ is now offering companies a much clearer path to declination, meaning no prosecution at all, if they voluntarily self-disclose misconduct, fully cooperate, remediate properly, and have no aggravating circumstances. This is a significant carrot dangled in front of corporate America. Companies that don't self-report but meet other criteria can now expect non prosecution agreements with reduced fines and no corporate monitors in many cases.

The enforcement priorities have also shifted toward what the administration calls America First objectives. The DOJ is focusing on financial crimes, foreign corruption, bribery, procurement fraud, trade violations, immigration law violations, and anything involving sanctions or cartels. For international business, this matters tremendously.

What does this mean practically? Corporate compliance teams should be reassessing their disclosure strategies. The new policies essentially incentivize coming clean over trying to hide problems. The DOJ is also expediting investigations and charging decisions, which means faster resolution but potentially less comprehensive review.

For everyday Americans, this means the Justice Department is recalibrating its enforcement muscle toward what it sees as the most egregious threats to national security and the economy, moving away from some of the enforcement patterns under previous administrations.

The timeline moving forward includes watching how these new corporate policies actually play out in practice. The sentencing guidelines amendments also took effect November first, so we'll see how those influence actual case outcomes.

If you work in corporate compliance or white collar defense, you'll want to monitor the DOJ's website for specific guidance documents on these new policies.

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