Free Republic

Former President Donald Trump lost three major legal challenges in the past week, including his efforts to dismiss a racketeering case on First Amendment grounds. Here is a look at the rulings in three separate cases this week in Georgia, Florida, and New York. New York judge denies Trump’s attempt to delay hush money trialNew York Judge Juan Merchan denied the former president’s attempt to delay his criminal hush money trial on Wednesday, after Trump claimed he was protected under presidential immunity. Merchan said that Trump had plenty of opportunity before March to claim presidential immunity in the case. Trump...

This is a developing report. Arizona Ballots Make Stop at Runbeck Printing Company to Sort Ballots Before They Are Sent to County — WITH NO OBSERVERS Ben Bergquam was outside the Maricopa County election center and followed a Penske truck leave the center and return to Runbeck. Once at Runbeck, the gate is closed.

Every kid on the playgrounds knew that if you showed fear before bullies, they’d be stealing your lunch money next. Much has been written this week about the pro-abortionists’ plans to picket the homes of the six Republican-appointed justices over the egregiously leaked Alito draft overturning Roe v. Wade. Those criticisms, which I summarize below, are certainly valid. If we had an attorney general who cared about enforcing the law, he’d seek injunctive relief and criminal penalties for such conduct. If AG Merrick Garland fails to do so, the attorney general of Virginia, Jason S. Miyares, may step in to...

GOP-led investigation cites 'glaring' evidence of Burisma bribe, suspicious foreign money transfers and sex trafficking. A year-long Senate investigation concluded Wednesday that Hunter Biden's efforts to cash in on foreign business deals during his father's vice presidency raised alarm among U.S. government officials, who perceived an ethical conflict of interest and flagged concerns about possible criminal activity ranging from bribery to sex trafficking. The long-awaited joint report by the GOP-led Senate Homeland and Government Affairs and Senate Finance Committees delivered several blockbuster revelations less than two months before Election Day, suggesting Obama administration officials ignored clear warning signs about ethical...

Hey, kids, let's all play "Guess the Party"! It's the media's favorite game when covering criminal activities by members of the Democratic Party. The local rag in Fayetteville, North Carolina could not bring itself to write the word "Democrat" in covering the remarkable behavior of a candidate for mayor in that city. Monica Vendituoli writes in the Fayetteville Observer: A candidate running for mayor of Fayetteville has been arrested twice in 55 days, accused of stealing and interfering with a water company's equipment.

Did anyone really expect Madame Secretary to meander forever? Even in the wake of her unexpected defeat, Hillary’s professed pining for natural seclusion was, as usual, a lie. Henry David Thoreau she’s not. Having barely survived ordering a meal at the counter of a roadside Chippotle, Mrs. Clinton is not the sort who would cozy up to Mother Nature. And though her walks in the park supposedly resulted in a resolve to “resist, insist, persist and enlist, ” Hillary is better known for scheming than for rhyme schemes. So off she headed to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by speaking at...

When police spotted Freddie Gray and he took off running through his Baltimore neighborhood, officers made a split-second decision to give chase, setting in motion his death in custody and rioting in the streets. Fleeing from police is not, by itself, illegal in America, and the U.S. Supreme Court has made clear that in safe neighborhoods, people not suspected of criminal activity can ignore a police officer who approaches them, even to the point of walking away. But courts have set a different standard for places where street crime is common, ruling that police can chase, stop and frisk people...

The mayor of Lynn, Mass. says that some of the illegal aliens from Guatemala who are enrolled in her city’s public schools are adults with graying hair and “more wrinkles than I have.” “They are not all children,” Judith Flanagan Kennedy told reporters at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. “One of the things that we did notice when we were processing some of these students coming in was that they were adults,” she said. She added that the federal government will not allow school officials to verify their ages even though one...

On Thursday, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) stated that he was "not, at this point, calling for impeachment." He continued, "The president has two years left in his term. We hope they pass quickly." That hope is empty. They will pass slowly. And even should Republicans win back the Senate in 2014, President Obama promises heavy executive action--action that will surely violate the Constitutional delegation of powers. Which is why, says Breitbart senior editor-at-large Ben Shapiro, impeachment isn't the answer: prosecution is. And in his new book, The People vs. Barack Obama: The Criminal Case Against The Obama Administration, Shapiro lays...

Without any explanation, the White House has scrubbed from its website an amnesty advocate who was honored by President Obama but who was then indicted for immigration fraud. Immigration attorney Bonnie M. Youn was picked by the White House as one of 11 Cesar Chavez “Champions of Change” activists who purportedly embody the spirit and legacy of Chavez, a labor leader and civil rights activist. According to a Breitbart report, however, on April 1, Youn was indicted on three criminal counts related to harboring illegal aliens. The charges included perjury, harboring an illegal alien for commercial and private financial gain...

I have always believed that regardless of the laws of a nation, the social fabric that binds it is woven of mutual trust between the people and their private and governmental institutions. Once that fabric is weakened, the dangers to an ordered society are extreme. This week, the holes in the U.S. social fabric are manifest, and they are caused by the administration's ever-expanding lawlessness.. The statements by the high-tech self-exile Snowden set off alarms even among those who are willing to repose their confidence in the general integrity of our intelligence services. In my case, not because I believe...

The following is a copy of a letter to the editor I am sending to several local papers in my region. Is it time for another letters to the editor campaign like was so successful in thwarting Al Gore in 2000? Yeah, looks like it is! Recently, a press conference was given in Maricopa County, Arizona by Joe Arpaio, a five times elected Sheriff who served in the United States Army from 1950 to 1953, served as a federal narcotics agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and served as head of Arizona DEA. What Sheriff Joe revealed should...

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico, August 15, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a new 911 tape from an Albuquerque abortion facility released by the national pro-life group Operation Rescue, an abortion worker agrees to “act dumb” with the dispatcher during a late-term abortion emergency while she thought she was on hold. “I don’t know – I don’t know what information he’s asking me,” says the Southwestern Women’s Options employee. “Just talk to him – act dumb,” replied her colleague. “Okay. Exactly. Yeah,” the worker said. Including five 911 calls released last month, the 13 calls obtained by Operation Rescue show that life-threatening abortion...

America’s self-described toughest sheriff has issued a warning to the CEO of Craigslist saying the popular Internet website is providing a “mechanism to facilitate criminal activity.” Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s warning to Jim Buckmaster follows the arrest last month in Arizona by Maricopa County Sheriff's Office detectives of two men — one a middle school teacher and the other a handyman — on charges of conspiracy to commit bestiality. Sheriff Arpaio said an undercover investigation by his office began after detectives became aware that persons in the Phoenix area were using Craigslist to engage in illegal acts with animals. Detectives set...

What I did in this article is use an angle that very few people have bothered to look at, when it comes to the illegal immigration problem. In this article I discuss the "Rape Trees" that many have found in the Sonoran Desert, about 50 miles South of Tuscon Arizona. In the other article I go after the ridiculous claim that illegals actually contribute in a positive way to our society. I debunk it by showing the ecological disaster they left for us to clean up in the Sonoran Desert. I titled that article, The Many Contributions To America, by...

Note: The following text is a quote: YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Warden Message: Increased Crime, Jamaica CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS Americas - Jamaica 7 Aug 2009 WARDEN MESSAGE: JAMAICA SECURITY CONCERNS U.S. Embassy Kingston issued the following Warden Message on August 7, 2009: The U.S. Embassy in Kingston is issuing this Warden Message to alert U.S. citizens in Jamaica to an increase in armed robbery, break-ins, and larceny on the island as a whole and, in particular, the New Kingston area in the capital. The Embassy also reminds U.S. citizens of the crime...

A new congressional report accuses the radical activist group ACORN of organized criminal activities. I will have a full article here on the American Spectator website in the morning about it. The report, called "Is ACORN Intentionally Structured As a Criminal Enterprise?" comes from minority staff on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The ranking member on the committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California), is appearing on the "Glenn Beck Program" on Fox News today to discuss the report. The report, available here, contains information about the ACORN network's interlocking directorates, various unethical and possibly unlawful activities, and the shocking...

NATIONAL GANG THREAT SUMMARY Gangs pose a serious threat to public safety in many communities throughout the United States. Gang members are increasingly migrating from urban to suburban areas and are responsible for a growing per- centage of crime and violence in many communities. Much gang-related criminal activity involves drug trafficking; however, gang members are increasingly engaging in alien and weapons trafficking. Additionally, a rising number of U.S.-based gangs are seemingly intent on developing working relationships with U.S.- and foreign-based drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) and other criminal organizations to gain direct access to foreign sources of illicit drugs.

The tech savviest administration history is facing an existential crisis: their preferred mode of communication -- e-mail, IM and text messeges -- are subject to stringent government regulations. Ben Smith reported last week that deputy counsel Cassandra Butts laid down the law in a staff meeting: no Instant Messaging; assume that every e-mail you write will be logged. For a generation so used to communicating so easily with each other, with outsiders, with the press, it will be an enormous challenge. One senior official told a colleague of mine that he would no longer rely on e-mail for casual conversations...

Activist: Clubs Promoting Risky Behavior Should Be Booted from Campus (AgapePress) - A Michigan school board is defying the requests of parents who want Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) clubs banned in the district. Despite the objections of concerned parents, the Forest Hills School Board has vowed it will not shut down three GSA clubs in the district. The board claims the federal Equal Access Act requires schools to allow sex-based clubs. But Gary Glenn, director of the American Family Association of Michigan, says schools can ban student groups that promote risky behavior -- and it has already been done, he...