Saying the government “effectively snookered” the defense, a D.C. federal judge on Thursday criticized prosecutors for litigation tactics in a foreign bribery case that kept defense lawyers in the dark about key notes that belong to a government witness.

At oral arguments Thursday, 9th Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski repeatedly challenged the Justice Department’s position on the scope of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act — a position that could lead to the criminalization of seemingly innocuous computer activity that runs afoul of employer policies or terms of use agreements.

Shortly before reports of gunfire rocked the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University campus Thursday, arguments concluded before an administrative judge in the university’s challenge to a $55,000 fine over its handling of the April 16, 2007, shootings that left 33 people dead.

In a filing Thursday, prosecutors took what could be a final swing at Barry Bonds, asking for a 15-month prison term and objecting to a pre-sentence report recommending two years’ probation for his obstruction of justice conviction, a punishment below the advisory guidelines.

In testimony Thursday before the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. criticized the “inflammatory and inappropriate rhetoric” swirling around “Operation Fast and Furious,” a botched gun trafficking investigation that Holder himself has repeatedly called “fundamentally flawed.”