The government contends that the acquisition of the No. 4 wireless carrier in the country by No. 2 AT&T would reduce competition.

At a news conference, Deputy Attorney General James Cole said the combination would result in "tens of millions of consumers all across the United States facing higher prices, fewer choices and lower quality products for mobile wireless services."

The lawsuit seeks to ensure that everyone can continue to receive the benefits of competition, said Cole.

AT&T said it would fight and ask for an expedited court hearing "so the enormous benefits of this merger can be fully reviewed." The company said the government "has the burden of proving alleged anti-competitive effects, and we intend to vigorously contest this matter in court."

Four nationwide providers -- Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint -- account for more than 90 percent of mobile wireless connections.

T-Mobile has been an important source of competition, including through innovation and quality enhancements such as the roll-out of the first nationwide high-speed data network, according to Sharis Pozen, acting chief of Justice's antitrust division.

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Mueller made the comments Wednesday to the Senate Judiciary Committee where he got a favorable reception from Republicans and Democrats who are considering legislation that would extend his job for up to two more years, a proposal initiated by President Barack Obama.

Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., expressed confidence that Congress would agree to the extension. A co-sponsor of the legislation, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said continuity in the arenas of national security and counter-terrorism is important, especially in light of increased threats.

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The decision by the Obama administration is an about-face from earlier plans to have the five go on trial in civilian federal court in New York.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity about the switch, which Attorney General Eric Holder was expected to announce at an afternoon news conference.

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Those familiar with the inquiry said the Justice Department is not ruling out the possibility of bringing manslaughter charges against companies or managers responsible for the explosion aboard the rig that killed 11 workers last April.

These people added that the department also is examining congressional testimony by company executives, including former BP CEO Tony Hayward, to determine whether their statements were untruthful.

They cautioned that the investigation is still far from complete and they spoke on condition of anonymity about the ongoing investigation.

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An analysis compiled by a private group using government data also found that there has been a decline in the Justice Department's felony prosecutions aside from immigration cases, particularly outside the Southwest.

The study was released Tuesday by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a private, nonpartisan group based at Syracuse University that compiled the data from the first two years of the Obama administration and the last two years of the Bush administration.

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Those percentages translate to the sexual victimization of 88,500 inmates behind bars nationwide from October 2008 to December 2009, according to a study by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The study found that:

--Female inmates were more than twice as likely as male inmates to report experiencing sexual victimization by another inmate.

--Among inmates who reported victimization by another inmate, 13 percent of male prison inmates and 19 percent of male jail inmates said they were victimized within the first 24 hours after being admitted to a corrections facility. In contrast, the figure for women was 4 percent for prison and jail.

Tens of thousands of rapes are occurring in America's prisons each year and the new study "finds the problem is even worse than we thought," Pat Nolan, vice president of Prison Fellowship, said in a statement.

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The six-count indictment alleges that one of the most dominant pitchers of his era obstructed a congressional inquiry with 15 different statements made under oath, including denials that he had ever used steroids or human growth hormone. As he did when he testified to a House committee in 2008, the seven-time Cy Young winner denied using the substances again Thursday and said he will fight to clear his name.

"I never took HGH or Steroids. And I did not lie to Congress," Clemens said on Twitter. "I look forward to challenging the Governments accusations, and hope people will keep an open mind until trial. I appreciate all the support I have been getting. I am happy to finally have my day in court."

Clemens is just the latest superstar to be ensnared in baseball's steroid scandal. All-time home run king Barry Bonds is scheduled to go on trial in March on charges of lying to a federal grand jury when he said he never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs. Slugger Mark McGwire admitted earlier this year to using steroids.

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The investigation looked into whether the Bush administration dismissed the nine U.S. attorneys as a way to influence investigations. The scandal contributed to mounting criticism that the administration had politicized the Justice Department, a charge that contributed to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

The people who spoke do The Associated Press about the case did so on condition of anonymity because an official announcement has not been made.

In 2008, the Justice Department assigned Nora Dannehy, a career prosecutor from Connecticut with a history of rooting out government wrongdoing, to investigate the firings. One of the people who spoke to the AP, a lawyer, said Dannehy called him Wednesday afternoon and told him no charges would be filed.

Much of the investigation focused on the firing of New Mexico U.S. attorney David Iglesias and whether the Bush administration misled Congress about his and other firings.

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"The key provision of the United States-Russia agreement is that the Russian Federation has agreed to release four individuals who are incarcerated in Russia for alleged contact with Western intelligence agencies," said the letter to U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood in New York.

Some of the Russian prisoners worked for the Russian military, and some worked for both the military and various Russian intelligence agencies.

On the U.S. end of the spy swap, Wood ordered 10 defendants who admitted acting as Russian spies deported from the United States.

The letter did not name the four, describing three of them as having been "convicted of treason in the form of espionage on behalf of a foreign power" and serving lengthy prison terms.

"The Russian prisoners have all served a number of years in prison and some are in poor health," the letter added.

The family members of the four will leave with them for resettlement.

Three of the four were accused by Russia of contacting Western intelligence agencies while they were working for the Russian or Soviet government, the letter stated.

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The Justice Department announced the arrests Monday.

According to court papers in the case, the U.S. government intercepted a message from Russian intelligence headquarters in Moscow to two of the defendants. The message states that their main mission is "to search and develop ties in policymaking circles in US" and send intelligence reports.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ten people have been arrested for allegedly serving as secret agents of the Russian government in the United States, the Justice Department said Monday.

Eight of 10 were arrested Sunday for allegedly carrying out long-term, deep cover assignments in the United States on behalf of Russia.

Two others were arrested for allegedly participating in the same Russian intelligence program within the United States.

Their job, according to the court papers in the case, was "to search and develop ties in policymaking circles" in the United States.

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U.S. intelligence agencies have made 183 complaints about unauthorized disclosure of classified information in the past five years, but the FBI has identified just 14 suspected leakers, none of whom has been prosecuted, according to data assembled by the Justice Department.

Despite getting 183 complaints, the FBI opened just 26 leak investigations, often because referrals from intelligence agencies lacked sufficient information to proceed, FBI Director Robert Mueller told Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

The starting point for a leak investigation is identifying everyone with authorized access to the information, and the most typical information gap is a failure to identify them all.

Even when investigators find a suspect, the leaker often cannot be identified beyond a reasonable doubt, as is required for a successful prosecution.

"Because indictments in media leak cases are so difficult to obtain, administrative action may be more suitable and may provide a better deterrent to leaks of classified information," the FBI director said in April in response to questions from Senate Judiciary Committee member Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. Whitehouse had asked the questions following a Senate hearing last September.

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The indictment in Virginia alleges that Lee Bentley Farkas and co-conspirators carried out the scheme at their company, Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Corp. of Ocala, Fla., where Farkas was chief executive.

The attempt to get TARP funds was just one part of a scheme that was "truly stunning in its scale and complexity" and that resulted in losses of more than $1.9 billion, Lanny Breuer, the Justice Department's assistant attorney general for the criminal division, told a news conference.

The co-conspirators even gave a name to their alleged effort to defraud the TARP: they called it Project Squirrel, said Neil MacBride, the U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Virginia.

Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for TARP, told reporters that investigators uncovered the alleged conspiracy over TARP funds before the theft could occur.

Farkas was arrested Tuesday night while working out in a gym that he owns in Ocala, Fla., said Shawn Henry, head of the FBI's Washington, D.C., field office.

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During that delay, van der Sloot arrived in Lima, Peru, on May 14, and authorities say he has confessed to last week's killing of a 21-year-old woman in his hotel room there.

The law enforcement officials say the investigation into Holloway's unsolved murder was revived about six weeks ago when van der Sloot reached out to someone close to Holloway's mother in Alabama and requested $250,000 in exchange for disclosing the location of Holloway's body on the island of Aruba.

Aruba authorities have been frustrated in their efforts to prosecute van der Sloot because they have been unable to find her remains.

The officials said that Holloway's mother, Beth Twitty, contacted law enforcement authorities in Alabama, and the FBI set a sting operation in motion targeting van der Sloot. The agency wired $15,000 to a bank account he controlled, officials added.

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The move by the ethics office's board focused renewed attention on the politically sensitive subject of congressional earmarks. It also was a slap at the House Ethics Committee, which had concluded early this year that the evidence did not support a finding that any House member broke a law or regulation.

Since 2008, the Justice Department has been investigating members of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee who received a flood of campaign money over the years from the lobbying firm PMA and its defense contractor clients. The subcommittee had been chaired by Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who died in February. PMA went out of business after FBI agents raided its offices.

Conducting its own examination of Murtha and six other members of his subcommittee who took money from PMA's clients, the ethics office zeroed in on Reps. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., and Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan.

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The documents on the FBI's 3-decade-old investigation state that "during the course of the operations, Abscam has developed prosecutive federal cases against" 15 people, including Murtha.

The Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania was never charged, but the government named him as an unindicted coconspirator. He testified against two other congressmen.

FBI agents captured Murtha on videotape turning down a $50,000 bribe offer, while holding out the possibility that he might take money in the future.

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The official, speaking speaking Tuesday on condition of anonymity amid the ongoing investigation, says the man, Faisal Shahzad, was not known to the U.S. intelligence community before the failed bombing attempt in New York City.

The official says there was no derogatory information about the man in the government's various terrorism-related databases.

The official says investigators learned the man's identity on Monday, but declined to say how.

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In a letter to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, the attorney general wrote that the FBI told its partners in the intelligence community on Christmas Day and again the next day that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab would be charged criminally.

Holder's letter was the latest volley in a vigorous counterattack by the Obama administration to Republican charges that the arrest and FBI interrogation of the Detroit suspect was a mistake that cost a chance to learn key information.

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On 72 occasions, according to the 28-page FBI summary, Cheney equivocated to the FBI during his lengthy May 2004 interview, saying he could not be certain in his answers to questions about matters large and small in the Plame controversy.

The Cheney interview reflects a team of prosecutors and FBI agents trying to find out whether the leaks of Plame's CIA identity were orchestrated at the highest level of the White House and carried out by, among others, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's chief of staff.

Among the most basic questions for Cheney in the Plame probe: How did Libby find out that the wife of Bush administration war critic Joseph Wilson worked at the CIA?

Libby's own handwritten notes suggest Libby found out from Cheney. When Libby discovered Cheney's reference to Plame and the CIA in his notes -- notes that Libby knew he would soon have to turn over to the FBI -- the chief of staff went to the vice president, probably in late September or early October 2003.

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"I have instructed Mr. Lay to withdraw his prior acceptance of your invitation," Lay attorney Earl Silbert said in letters to the Senate and House panels that were to hear from him Monday.

"He cannot be expected to participate in a proceeding in which conclusions have been reached before Mr. Lay has been given an opportunity to be heard," Silbert added.

Lay had agreed to appear voluntarily and thus was not obligated to show up. There was no indication whether any of the committees seeking his testimony might subsequently subpoena Lay to appear.

In the letters, Silbert cited remarks on Sunday talk shows by various members of Congress suggesting there was rampant criminality at Enron.

"These inflammatory statements show that judgments have been reached and the tenor of the hearing will be prosecutorial," wrote Silbert.

"Mr. Lay firmly rejected any allegations that he engaged in wrongful or criminal conduct," the attorney wrote Democratic Sen. Ernest Hollings of South Carolina and Republican Rep. Michael Oxley of Ohio. Hollings chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, Oxley the House Financial Services Committee.

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"I have instructed Mr. Lay to withdraw his prior acceptance of your invitation," Lay attorney Earl Silbert said in letters to the Senate and House panels that were to hear from him Monday.

"He cannot be expected to participate in a proceeding in which conclusions have been reached before Mr. Lay has been given an opportunity to be heard," Silbert added.

Lay had agreed to appear voluntarily and thus was not obligated to show up. There was no indication whether any of the committees seeking his testimony might subsequently subpoena Lay to appear.

In the letters, Silbert cited remarks on Sunday talk shows by various members of Congress suggesting there was rampant criminality at Enron.

"These inflammatory statements show that judgments have been reached and the tenor of the hearing will be prosecutorial," wrote Silbert.

"Mr. Lay firmly rejected any allegations that he engaged in wrongful or criminal conduct," the attorney wrote Democratic Sen. Ernest Hollings of South Carolina and Republican Rep. Michael Oxley of Ohio. Hollings chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, Oxley the House Financial Services Committee.

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