National The Justice Department under Barack Obama directed the FBI to drop more than 500,000 names of fugiti

[RicInOR]

The Justice Department under Barack Obama directed the FBI to drop more than 500,000 names of fugitives with outstanding arrest warrants from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.






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I would have changed the title before our new policies came into being
I don't see the point of the politics - FBI Ordered to Drop 500000 Names ....
But, here we are.

Enforce the current laws. And do a better job of it.

Read More

 

[Colts4me]

Ya the dems wanted instant check to fail so long waiting periods could be put into place. The cry would be "instant checks dont' work and we need to give police more time to find out if you are a criminal". The checks work if the government enters the data.

 

[Dungannon]

As I recall, there was a turf battle between the ATFE and FBI about the definition of fugitive from justice. 420,000 names submitted by the state of Massachusetts were deleted, because that state was classifying anyone with an unpaid parking ticket as a fugitive. The change was made in Feb 2017, after Trump became president.

"Fugitive From Justice" Defined & Explained

Commissioner James Slater of the Massachusetts Department of Criminal Justice Information Services said that the reason that his state had so many fugitives in the FBI database is that state policy required sending the bureau the names of all people with an outstanding warrant, whether it was for misdemeanors or felonies.

 

[Eveskcige28]

This is sickening. .

 

[Dungannon]

If you want to expand the traditional definition of fugitive from justice, then the appropriate thing to do is change the law. Otherwise you have anti-2a states like Massachusetts using flexible definitions of who is a fugitive.

 

[IOM]

Nothing, absolutely nothing the past administration did surprises me...

 

[ATCclears]

Obama DOJ Ordered 500,000 Fugitives Deleted From Background Check Database

The Obama administration ordered the removal of over 500,000 fugitives with outstanding arrest warrants from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) in late 2016, according to testimony from Acting FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich.

Bowdich confirmed a November report from the Washington Post which set the figure at "tens of thousands," after Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) asked him if more than 500,000 names were dropped from the database.

The FBI purged the names from the database after the Justice Department changed its legal interpretation of "fugitive from justice" to say it pertains only to wanted people who have crossed state lines.

What that means is that those fugitives who were previously prohibited under federal law from purchasing firearms can now buy them, unless barred for other reasons. -WaPo

"That was a decision that was made under the previous administration," Bowdich testified.

"It was the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel that reviewed the law and believed that it needed to be interpreted so that if someone was a fugitive in a state, there had to be indications that they had crossed state lines," said Bowdich. "Otherwise they were not known to be a fugitive under the law in the way it was interpreted."

Since its creation in 1998, the NICS system has prevented 1.5 million people from purchasing a firearm, including 180,000 denials to fugitives from justice, according to government statistics.

While the FBI had a broad definition of "fugitive," meaning anyone with an outstanding arrest warrant, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) definition narrowed the definition to anyone with a warrant who has crossed state lines. The DOJ Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, urged the Justice Department to address the disagreement in terms "as soon as possible."

Shortly before President Trump took office, the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel went with the ATF definition.

"Any one of these potentially dangerous fugitives can currently walk into a licensed gun dealer, pass a criminal background check, and walk out with a gun," Robyn Thomas, executive director of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, wrote in a letter to FBI Director Christopher A. Wray on Wednesday. The Giffords organization, founded by former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, called on the FBI and ATF to "correct this self-inflicted loophole" and recover all guns illegally purchased this year because of the purge of names from the database. -WaPo

"The Justice Department is committed to working with law enforcement partners across the country to help ensure that all those who can legally be determined to be prohibited from receiving or possessing a firearm be included in federal criminal databases," a Justice Department official told the Washington Post last November.

 

[Colts4me]

No surprise the Obama administration was criminal friendly, look up his pardons and commutations. Over 1900 I think.

 

[nammac]

Hey now, Obama was just tryin to "fundamentally change America"... His phone and his pen sure created a lot of damage, still think he and Hillary should be brought up on charges of treason and interfering with the presidential election...

Trump sure inherited one helluva mess. Guess that's what happens when you let a smooth talking, pot smokin, community organizer be President.

Heck Obama even made Carter look good, making him the second worse president...

 

[albin25]

Uhhhh.... If those people were FUGITIVES, just how would the "authorities" know for absolutely certain whether or not they had ever crossed State lines ? If the "authorities" knew for certain where they had or hadn't travelled, or in other words, "where they were"....they wouldn't/shouldn't be fugitives........would they ?

This smells like another one of Holder's "Fast and Furious" wet dreams.

 

[DunRanull]

I wonder if this includes "outstanding warrants" for misdemeanors? State or just Federal warrants?