Free Republic

Many find it shocking the Department of Justice (DOJ) could be capable of ginning up false allegations against a former president in a previous election and would again do the same prior to the 2024 election. This shock, however, is a mark of just how drastically conservatives have failed to recognize the long decline of the DOJ and its ultimate transformation into a political subsidiary of a radicalized Democratic Party. Conservatives would do well to observe seminal moments that have led the country’s top law enforcement entity to its present dire state. In that review, all roads ultimately lead back...

A highly unusual move by the Justice Department to retry Florida nursing home owner Philip Esformes on health-care fraud criminal charges after then-President Donald Trump commuted his 20-year prison sentence is headed to an appeals court hearing as defense lawyers suggest prosecutors are motivated by anger at Trump. "The situation is entirely unique because the actions of the prosecutors here are incredibly outrageous," said Joe Tacopina, a leading New York criminal defense attorney. "There's no question in my mind that the [Justice Department's] flagrant disregard of President Trump's clemency order is motivated by acrimony towards him," said Tacopina. Tacopina is...

This is the story of how the FBI framed four innocent men for murder, destroyed families, and tried to cover it up. It’s also the story of the convergence of John Durham and Robert Mueller: how Durham uncovered the FBI’s crimes and how Robert Mueller’s FBI disputed the innocence of the men the FBI framed. The FBI knocked and Mike Albano opened the door. It was 1983. As a member of the Massachusetts State Parole Board, Albano thought he had been doing his job when he looked into voting to commute the sentence of Peter Limone, who along with Joseph...

he best thing that can be said about Willard Mitt Romney, the future one-term RINO Senator from Utah, is that he looks good in an empty suit. The wooden Romney, who holds the distinction of being the only candidate to lose a presidential debate to both Barack Hussein Obama and CNN’s Candy Crowley, has climbed down from the top of the wedding cake to opine that Trump has now become the poster child for ultimate corruption with his commutation of the outrageous sentence given to former associate Roger Stone for made-up process crimes. Romney’s saying Trump’s commutation of Roger Stone’s...

Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Saturday penned an OpEd in the Washington Post, slamming President Donald Trump's decision to commute Roger Stone's sentence. According to Mueller, even though Stone's sentence has been commuted, he "remains a convicted felon, and rightly so." Mueller has repeatedly said his report speaks for itself, calling it his "testimony." It's why he refused to comment any further, until this opinion piece. Even during his testimony in front of Congress, Mueller remained rather tight-lipped to avoid straying away from the report's conclusions. "The work of the special counsel’s office — its report, indictments, guilty pleas...

Former special counsel Robert Mueller, in a very rare move, has written an op-ed for The Washington Post defending his office's prosecution of Roger Stone and saying he is still a convicted felon and "rightly so" in light of President Donald Trump's commutation of Stone.

President Donald Trump commuted the prison sentence of his longtime friend and political adviser Roger Stone on Friday, days before Stone was required to begin his 40-month prison term for lying to Congress about the Trump campaign's ties to WikiLeaks. The extraordinary act of clemency was announced by White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. She released a lengthy statement that was littered with lies and false claims about the Russia investigation, special counsel Robert Mueller and the details of Stone's legal case.... Here's a breakdown of 12 baseless claims from the White House statement..... There is no proof whatsoever that...

Roger Stone told Fox News he is 'praying' for Trump to intervene ahead of his prison sentence.President Trump is expected to announce that he will commute Roger Stone’s sentence, just days before the longtime political operative is slated to report to prison to serve more than three years for charges stemming from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, Fox News has learned. Sources told Fox News Friday that the president could announce a commutation of Stone’s sentence as early as Friday evening. The president, as recently as Friday morning, has said he was "looking at" offering Stone clemency, saying he...

President Trump has released a list of the people whose sentences he's commuted, such as former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, and pardoned, such as Eddie DeBartolo Jr., the former owner of the San Francisco 49ers. But there are a couple of names missing. The hashtag "Stone and Flynn" is trending on Twitter. Townhall columnist Kurt Schlichter: Pardon Stone and Flynn. Commute Manafort. cc: @realDonaldTrump— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) February 18, 2020 In a filing today, General Michael Flynn is asking a judge to throw out the entire case against him due to "THE GOVERNMENT’S OUTRAGEOUS CONDUCT AND REPEATED BRADY VIOLATIONS...

The Illinois House Republican leader blasted President Trump on Tuesday for granting clemency to former Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted of trying to sell Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat after he was elected president. "It's very disappointing," Jim Durkin told reporters in the state capitol in Springfield. “We have a massive federal investigation into corruption in the state of Illinois and this action distracts and dilutes what I think is the proper role of the Department of Justice — to root out corruption,” He said Blagojevich was "rouge on steroids" during his tenure as governor.

I, like most people from my home state of Illinois, am a great admirer of Abraham Lincoln. Recently I've wondered what would have happened had Nancy Pelosi been the Speaker of the House when Abraham Lincoln was president. Would Speaker Pelosi's House Democrats use the same flimsy impeachment standard they are currently using to impeach Honest Abe, one of the greatest presidents in the history of our country? In 1998 I was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the Clinton impeachment, and in 2009, as the 40th governor of Illinois, I had the unhappy experience of being...

A total of 527 inmates had their sentences commuted Friday, but 65 of them have detainers and will be released later. In 2016, Oklahoma passed reforms that would turn some low-level felonies into misdemeanors. For example, possession of a small amount of drugs became a misdemeanor, and the threshold for a property crime becoming a felony increased from $500 in property value to $1,000 in value. Of the hundreds of inmates who had their sentences commuted: -- The average age is 39.7 years old -- 75% are men, and 25% are women -- They had been incarcerated for three years...

US rabbinical organization The Coalition for Jewish Values welcomed news that US President Donald Trump had commuted the sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, former head of the country’s largest kosher meat-processing company, who had been sentenced to 27 years in prison for fraud and money laundering. snip Rubashkin is a 57-year-old father of 10 children. He previously ran the Iowa headquarters of a family business that was the country’s largest kosher meat-processing company. In 2009, he was convicted of bank fraud and later sentenced to 27 years in prison. He was charged with defaulting on loans after his funds were frozen...

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich is seeking a presidential commutation, according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice. The longshot request comes more than four months after U.S. District Judge James Zagel reinstated the 14-year prison sentence Blagojevich, 60, is serving for a series of schemes that included his attempt to sell then-President-elect Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat. The news of Blagojevich’s commutation request also comes days after Blagojevich’s lawyer, Leonard Goodman, filed a brief with the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asking for yet another sentencing hearing.

President Barack Obama has pardoned 78 people and shortened the sentence of 153 others convicted of federal crimes, the greatest number of individual clemencies in a single day by any president, the White House said Monday. Obama has been granting commutations at rapid-fire pace in his final months in office, but he has focused primarily on shortening sentences of those convicted of drug offenses rather than giving pardons. A pardon amounts to forgiveness of a crime that removes restrictions on the right to vote, hold state or local office, or sit on a jury. The pardon also lessens the stigma...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is cutting short the sentences of 214 federal inmates, including 67 serving life sentences. The White House says it's the largest batch of commutations on a single day in more than a century. Almost all the prisoners were serving time for nonviolent drug offenses. The commutations bring to 562 the total number of sentences Obama has shortened. The White House says that's more than the past nine presidents combined. Almost 200 of those who have benefited were serving life sentences. White House counsel Neil Eggleston says Obama will continue granting clemency to more inmates...

President Barack Obama on Wednesday cut short the sentences of 214 federal inmates, including 67 life sentences, in what the White House called the largest batch of commutations on a single day in more than a century. ADVERTISEMENT Almost all the prisoners were serving time for nonviolent drug crimes, reflecting Obama's long-stated view that the U.S. needs to remedy the consequences of decades of sentencing requirements that put tens of thousands of Americans behind bars for far too long. Obama has pushed for a broader fix to criminal justice laws and has used the aggressive pace of his commutations in...

Congress can pass legislation giving judges more discretion in the sentencing of prisoners, but President Obama “also has the ability to take executive action” to commute the sentences of “low-level” drug offenders—and that’s just what he plans to do, Deputy Attorney General James Cole told the New York State Bar Association annual meeting on Thursday. “A little over a month ago, the President commuted the sentences of eight men and women who were sentenced under severe—and out of date—mandatory minimum sentencing laws,” Cole said. …

As a candidate for president in 2008, Barack Obama pledged to "immediately" review federal mandatory minimum sentences "to see where we can be smarter on crime and reduce the ineffective warehousing of nonviolent drug offenders." Obama also had written memoirs, in which he admitted to using marijuana and cocaine -- "maybe a little blow when you could afford it" -- as a teen. And he's the first black president. Linda Aaron, a black Alabama grandmother, voted for Obama. For years, Aaron had been hoping that President George W. Bush would commute the obscenely long prison sentence of her son, Clarence....

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sat down with Newsweek recently for one of the most extensive interviews since his January exit from office. Schwarzenegger addresses everything from criticisms of one of his final acts as the state's chief executive to his own body image in his post-bodybuilding days, saying the effect of aging on his 63-year-old physique makes him "feel sh--y when I look at myself in the mirror." Below are some excerpts from the more than 2,500-word piece. Read the full article at this link. On controversy surrounding his 11th hour decision to reduce the prison sentence for the son...