Free Republic

Jury members in Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial are being "treated like chumps," says legal analyst Jonathan Turley. He also believes star prosecution witness Michael Cohen suffered a "dramatic implosion" on Thursday. Turley, who is a frequent Fox commentator and professor at George Washington University Law School, expresses extreme doubt in a blog that the prosecution has any basis for conviction and poses the question of whether the jury "is realizing that they are being played by the prosecution." He also says: "With the dramatic implosion of Michael Cohen on the stand on Thursday with the exposure of another...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is teaming up with John Boehner, the conservative nemesis ousted from the Speaker’s office for cozying up to Democrats, for an Ohio fundraiser on May 30. Boehner, who now works for Squire Patton Boggs, one of the largest lobbying firms in the world, is hosting and speaking at the event for Grow the Majority. Punchbowl News, which reported the fundraiser, noted “if you’ve listened to Speaker Mike Johnson recently, there is some John Boehner influence poking through.” Boehner, who was infamously chummy with Barack Obama, was ousted in October 2015 amid a conservative mutiny over Boehner...

President Donald Trump’s national polling advantage has narrowed to less than one percent since he became the presumptive Republican nominee in the race for the White House. In two Southern battlegrounds, Georgia and North Carolina, his lead looks stronger at five-and-a-half points and six points, respectively. But can the region be written off as solidly Trump? The answer isn’t so obvious in key cities, counties, and polling places.... On the ground, conservatives sense weakness. “Republicans have got to organize the grassroots to the same level [as] the Democrats,” a local GOP insider told The Epoch Times. That sentiment was echoed...

KEY POINTS: * Mercedes-Benz workers in Alabama have voted against union representation by the United Auto Workers, the National Labor Relations Board said Friday. * The results are a blow to the UAW’s organizing efforts a month after the Detroit union won an organizing drive of roughly 4,330 Volkswagen plant workers in Tennessee. * The Mercedes-Benz vote was expected to be more challenging for the union than the Volkswagen plant, where the union had already established a presence after two failed organizing drives in the past decade. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The man convicted of attempting to kidnap then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and attacking her husband with a hammer was sentenced Friday to 30 years in prison. Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley handed down the sentence for David DePape, 44, whom jurors found guilty last November of attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault on the immediate family member of a federal official. Prosecutors had asked for a 40-year prison term. DePape admitted during trial testimony that he broke into the Pelosis’ San Francisco home Oct. 28, 2022, intending to hold the speaker hostage and “break her kneecaps” if she lied...

Shocking video showed a Jewish student being pummeled by a classmate outside a Canadian high school in what she says was an antisemitic attack. Shaked Tsurkan, who is Israeli Canadian, identified her attacker as an older female Muslim student who allegedly threatened her earlier in the day at Leo Hayes High School in Fredericton, in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, according to Canadian Jewish News (CJN). A video of the alleged assault posted on social media shows a female student wearing a pink hoodie run up to Tsurkan from behind, grab her by the hair and start laying multiple...

Former President Donald Trump and former First Lady Melania Trump appeared at their son Barron Trump’s high school graduation on Friday — a significant showing for the former president, as it was uncertain if he would be able to attend due to his ongoing business records trial in New York. “Going to Barron’s High School Graduation. Great student, wonderful boy! Very exciting!!! DJT,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday ahead of Barron’s graduation. 🚨President Trump's motorcade arrives for Barron Trump high school graduation Congratulations, Barron! pic.twitter.com/3gHGcwjwTQ — AJ Huber (@Huberton) May 17, 2024 It remained uncertain if he would...

ROME — Pope Francis told CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell that conservatives are willfully blind and manifest a “suicidal attitude” in their narrowmindedness. In an interview set to air Sunday on 60 Minutes, the pope asserts that a conservative “is someone who clings to something and does not want to see beyond that. It is a suicidal attitude.” “One thing is to take tradition into account and consider situations from the past but quite another is to be closed up inside a dogmatic box,” he adds. The Pope addresses his conservative critics in the church. “Conservative is one who clings to...

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said he laughs at the term “America first,” an increasingly common phrase heard in the Republican Party regarding U.S. foreign policy that he finds “disorienting.” Romney said during an interview with MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle” earlier this week that growing isolationism in the GOP is “unimaginable” considering its past leaders, like former Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, as well as former Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Romney argued the term, popularized by former President Trump, “flows” in from talk radio and TV, where “outrageous” things are embraced by the party’s...

David DePape, the man convicted of breaking into the home of House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and bludgeoning her husband with a hammer was sentenced to 30 years in prison Friday by a federal judge. DePape was convicted in November of attempting to kidnap a federal official and assaulting a federal official’s family member after a four-day trial. A jury returned a verdict after less than 10 hours of deliberation.

GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and more than a dozen other House Republicans are pushing a measure that targets the Federal Reserve System. The measure includes text that declares, "The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and each Federal reserve bank are hereby abolished" and "the Federal Reserve Act is hereby repealed." Massie announced the introduction of the measure on Thursday, the same day that the Dow Jones Industrial Average stock index surpassed 40,000 for the first time before ultimately giving up its gains and closing slightly down for the day. 'If we really want to reduce...

On the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, my Administration stands in support and solidarity with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) people around the world as they seek to live full lives, free from violence and discrimination. This is a matter of human rights, plain and simple. ... {skipping to the end} ... Today marks the 30th anniversary of when the World Health Organization made the wise and overdue decision to declassify ‘homosexuality’ as a mental disorder. That was a victory for LGBTQI+ people and human rights defenders everywhere. 30 years later, the work of equality...

NATO allies are inching closer to sending troops into Ukraine to train Ukrainian forces, a move that would be another blurring of a previous red line and could draw the United States and Europe more directly into the war. (snip) So far the United States has said no, but Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Thursday that a NATO deployment of trainers appeared inevitable. “We’ll get there eventually, over time,” he said. (snip) As a part of NATO, the United States would be obligated under the alliance’s treaty to aid in...

Financial planning guru says providing a safe place for the event is a gift to friends from Israel.. Personal finance expert Dave Ramsey is rescuing a pro-Israel conference from cancellation after a Nashville hotel backed out from hosting because of alleged threats by anti-Israel activists. When Ramsey heard that a Nashville hotel revoked access for the Israel Summit, an event scheduled for next week that will feature prominent Christians and Jews, organizers say Ramsey got in touch and offered not only to host it, but also to help make it even bigger. “Dave Ramsey reached out and said, ‘You’re going...

There are three key issues that are being leveraged by those seeking to compromise Elections in America. The threat actors will constantly evolve to evade the security and remediation established to address the last successful play – so expect something different in 2024. Vigilance, awareness, and publicly addressing matters in a vigorous manner are a deterrent. The perpetrators behave differently when they know they are being watched. The most important factor in the November 2024 election will be the involvement of the citizen. For those wanting election integrity, the best thing is to become a sworn election officer and work...

My wife is a wonderful woman, but she has horrible taste in television. She, at times, will acknowledge this shortcoming as “guilty pleasures.”One of her favorite streaming “programs” is the hospital drama “New Amsterdam.” It’s god-awful. More unreal than reality TV. This woke piece of soap opera pabulum is utterly unwatchable. Every once in a while, perhaps to punish me for crimes I am not aware I have committed, she will turn “New Amsterdam” on the bedroom TV before we go to sleep. When the latest overwrought episode mercifully comes to an end, I ask the love of my life...

The Justice Department’s Kristen Clarke issued a statement this week celebrating news that seven pro-life activists would spend time in prison for attempting to stop abortions from taking place. Clarke, who heads the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and is responsible for enforcing the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, painted the pro-life activists as violent radicals in her remarks: “Violence has no place in our national discourse on reproductive health.” The activists’ actions were nonviolent, and the DOJ’s release on the matter even notes that they “passively” resisted “their anticipated arrests.” “Using force, threatening to use force or...

The state's election office on Monday began proceedings against an advocate for wolves in Colorado over allegations of illegally lobbying during the 2024 session at the state Capitol. ... The complaints, filed in March by John Williams, who operates Colorado Wolf Tracker, claimed Stephen Capra and his organization, Bold Visions Conservation, lobbied multiple legislators on behalf of a paying client, all without registering and without disclosing the client’s identity as required by law. The Elections Division of the Secretary of State launched the proceedings against Capra ... The bill Capra was lobbying on was House Bill 1375, which was sponsored...

A new poll revealed young registered voters trust former President Donald Trump over President Joe Biden when it comes to reducing prices and securing the border, two defining issues of the 2024 general election. The polling released on Thursday by Democratic-aligned public opinion research group Blueprint found most young voters trust Biden over Trump to handle most things, except for two concerns that “may be the defining issues of the 2024 election.” The poll found 52% trust Trump more when it comes to lowering prices and that 53% trust Trump more to secure the border, statistics that gave pollsters pause....