Free Republic

After invoking the Fifth Amendment 220 times under five hours of questioning Thursday, an investigator for Sheriff Joe Arpaio blurted out an impassioned tale that the sheriff's office investigated the federal judge overseeing Arpaio's contempt-of-court hearing because the judge was "a victim" of the federal government's illegal seizure of his bank and IRS records. The court heard a number of audio recordings Zullo made with his iPhone... In another recording, former billionaire Tim Blixseth tells Arpaio that then-Senator Barack Obama had hired computer hackers to doctor Obama's birth certificate and change Florida voting records to alter redistricting efforts. Blixseth said...

Two senior officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs have pleaded the Fifth Amendment in front of a House Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing on relocation bonus corruption. Philadelphia and Wilmington VA regional offices director Diana Rubens and St. Paul VA regional office director Kimberly Graves pleaded the Fifth and refused to answer any of the numerous questions put forward by HVAC chairman GOP Rep. Jeff Miller. “Sir, I’ve been advised by counsel not to answer that question to protect my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution,” Rubens repeated multiple times. The five employees from the VA involved in...

Fight on to stop government grab of money needed for legal defense It’s no secret that President Obama and his Democratic Party want to restrict the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. In addition, First Amendment religious-freedoms protections have been challenged by Obamacare. And freedom of speech? That’s just fine as long as it lines up with the “same-sex marriage” social agenda. Now, a case is posing a challenge to the Fifth Amendment’s property rights and due process protections along with the Sixth Amendment’s assurance of counsel for those accused of crimes. The U.S. Supreme Court now is...

On March 31, Ronald Machen, the outgoing U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, wrote House Speaker John Boehner to inform him that the Justice Department would not present Lois Lerner’s contempt citation to a federal grand jury. The letter explaining his decision is an exercise in misdirection—the kind of misdirection that magicians use to fool an audience. Why? Because at no point in his detailed, seven-page legal analysis does Machen mention the most important point demonstrating that Lerner did, in fact, waive her Fifth Amendment right.

The Justice Department will not seek criminal contempt charges against former IRS official Lois Lerner, the central figure in a scandal that erupted over whether the tax agency improperly targeted conservative political groups. Ronald Machen, the former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) in a seven-page letter this week that he would not bring a criminal case to a grand jury over Lerner’s refusal to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in March 2014. The House approved a criminal contempt resolution against Lerner in May 2014, and Machen’s office has...

The Obama administration informed House Speaker John A. Boehner this week it will not prosecute former IRS executive Lois G. Lerner for contempt of Congress, concluding that she did not waive her Fifth Amendment rights to avoid answering questions when she was called to testify nearly two years ago. Ms. Lerner, the figure at the center of the IRS’s tea party targeting scandal, is still facing investigation over the intrusive scrutiny of conservative groups, but the decision by U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen not to pursue the contempt charge approved by the U.S. House does away with at least some of...

A critic of mandatory child vaccinations made no apologies for her views in an appearance on Newsmax TV Tuesday, and said that public anger over the Disneyland measles outbreak should be directed at pharmaceutical companies and the federal government, not people like her. "What's happening is people are freaking out about measles outbreaks," Louise Kuo Habakus said ina combative interview with "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner. "They're pointing the finger at unvaccinated children and non-vaccinated families, when really what needs to happen is people need to be pointing the finger at industry and at Congress." Habakus, co-founder of a group called...

Sen. Rand Paul yesterday introduced S. 2644, the FAIR (Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration) Act, which would protect the rights of citizens and restore the Fifth Amendment’s role in seizing property without due process of law. Under current law, law enforcement agencies may take property suspected of involvement in crime without ever charging, let alone convicting, the property owner. In addition, state agencies routinely use federal asset forfeiture laws; ignoring state regulations to confiscate and receive financial proceeds from forfeited property.

California's measles outbreak has climbed to 91 confirmed cases, prompting a vicious attack from USA Today contributor Alex Berezow against "anti-vaxxers." He blames them for the epidemic that CDC officials say was introduced at the Disneyland theme park by a person infected with measles overseas. Berezow's knee-jerk reaction is to declare, "Parents who do not vaccinate their children should go to jail." He erroneously maintains that measles could not spread in a fully vaccinated society and discredits as "ludicrous" concerns regarding the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. Claiming there is a "mountain of data" proving otherwise, his one and only...

A number of commentators have argued tonight, with no challenge by their media interviewers, that even if the evidence was insufficient to indict Officer Darren Wilson, justice would have been better served if the grand jury had indicted anyway. That way, the reasoning goes, we could have had a public trial in the light of day where everyone could have seen that the case was insufficient. That, we are to believe, would have made it easier for the community to accept the result. The interests of the community, however, are not the only ones in the equation, much less the...

Anthrax: Source of Fishy, Shaggy Dog Stories Pleads Fifth December 20th, 2007 by Ross E. Getman In October 2007, the former Criminal Chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, Daniel Seikaly, was deposed in the civil rights action by Steve Hatfill about whether he was the source of leaks relating to Steve Hatfill in connection with Newsweek and Washington Post stories about the use of bloodhounds and the draining of ponds in Frederick, Maryland. Attorney Seikaly pled the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination in connection with most substantive questions. Attorney Seikaly has had a very distinguished career....

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)If the local grand jury brings no charges against police Officer Darren Wilson in the case of Michael Brown's killing, street protests in Ferguson, Missouri, are inevitable. Demonstrators angry about Wilson's shooting of the unarmed black teenager in August already decry the grand jury's secrecy and "lack of transparency." But for those who believe that the grand jury procedure is some sort of cop and prosecutor conspiracy to trample the rights of minority citizens, a little background on this hallowed institution might be in order. Although prosecutors are often accused of controlling grand jury proceedings, the institution was actually created...

<p>Flores Laboy and Bigley said that police photographed the teenager's genitals last month but wanted the additional photos for better comparison to their evidence. In order to make his penis erect, they planned to take him to a hospital and give him an injection, Bigley said.</p>

In 1981, a lawyer tried to subpoena Ron Paul to testify in the trial of Don Black, a Grand Wizard for the Ku Klux Klan who would later go on to found the white supremacist, neo-Nazi website, Stormfront. Black was charged along with two other Klansmen with planning to violently overthrow the small Caribbean country of Dominica in what they called “Operation Red Dog.” While a judge refused to subpoena Paul, Don Black would come back to haunt him many years later. In 1981 a group of American and Canadian white supremacists lead by Klansman and mercenary, Michael (Mike) Perdue...

Lerner’s lawyer below says she did NOT waive her 5th Amendment rights. Professor Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Law says she did waive them. Bottom line — on close questions — you steer your client to a SAFE path. That is the role of a lawyer – to protect your client. As a former criminal defense attorney, I know the SAFE path would have been to say ZERO before the Committee (except to assert the 5th) and then go outside and say whatever you want to the cameras. The same would have been achieved with the safe route (and more!) except...

Hissy fit! Moments ago, embattled ex-Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner appeared before Darrell Issa's House Oversight Committee. She was supposedly there to answer questions about the IRS targeting of Tea Party groups.  You may remember that President Obama has dismissed this entire scandal because he claims there wasn't "even a smidgen of corruption" involved. That's weird, because Lois Lerner promptly invoked her rights under the 5th Amendment and refused to answer any questions. For the record, the 5th Amendment is the one that deals with not offering testimony that might incriminate yourself.  You'd think that would be hard to do if...

Full title: Pleading the Fifth: Official Won't Answer Questions About Making Parody Videos While Injured Vets Wait for Benefits Veterans coming back from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with severe injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder have been left behind by their government as they desperately wait for a response about disability benefits from the Department of Veteran's affairs. Many veterans returning from war have been waiting for over a year. Currently, the VA system has a backlog of approximately 500,000 cases and they're being cleared extremely slowly, causing further long term pain to veterans and their families. Under relentless pressure...

The vote was 13-5 for a compromise defining a "covered journalist" as an employee, independent contractor or agent of an entity that disseminates news or information. The individual would have been employed for one year within the last 20 or three months within the last five years. It would apply to student journalists or someone with a considerable amount of freelance work in the last five years. A federal judge also would have the discretion to declare an individual a "covered journalist," who would be granted the privileges of the law.

The response was predictable, even to those who had maintained hope for a different outcome. After the jury found George Zimmerman not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin, many cities erupted into protests of what was perceived as a fundamentally unfair and racially-biased verdict that was the result of a broken justice system. Among those protesting that Zimmerman should be punished, some admitted that the flaw was actually found within the Florida law which departs significantly from the common law by allowing individuals who initiate confrontations to use deadly force to defend themselves without a duty to escape. Florida's Stand Your...

Petition for the DOJ to allow the American Justice system and due process to stand. No double jeopardy for George Zimmerman. "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be...