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A federal appeals court dismissed a lawsuit challenging the legality of payments to President Donald Trump’s hotels by foreigners during his tenure in the White House. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that Maryland and the District of Columbia do not have legal standing to claim that Trump violated the so-called emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution. Trump still faces a similar lawsuit in Washington federal court filed by Democratic members of Congress. A federal appeals court on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit challenging the legality of payments to President Donald Trump’s...

The following article is an excerpt from a series offering a comprehensive legal analysis discussing the second Jack Smith indictment against President Donald Trump.Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution reads “[t]he executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” Therefore, President Donald Trump had executive power vested in him through his presidential office. From that power flows certain privileges and indeed executive immunities. Among these privileges are those expressly delineated in the Constitution itself. The impeachment process, for example, as stated in Article II, Sec. 4, requires that for all “high Crimes and...

Double JeopardyJack Smith’s indictments of Donald Trump are unconstitutional because he was already tried in the Senate.Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution reads “[t]he executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” Therefore, President Donald Trump had executive power vested in him through his presidential office. From that power flows certain privileges and indeed executive immunities. Among these privileges are those expressly delineated in the Constitution itself. The impeachment process, for example, as stated in Article II, Sec. 4, requires that for all “high Crimes and Misdemeanors,” the president “shall be removed from...

SNIP: GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A jury on Tuesday convicted two men of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020, delivering swift verdicts in a plot that was broken up by the FBI and described as a rallying cry for a U.S. civil war by anti-government extremists. The result was a big victory for the U.S. Justice Department. A different jury just four months ago couldn’t reach unanimous decisions on Adam Fox or Barry Croft Jr. but acquitted two other men, a stunning conclusion that led to a second trial. Their arrests nearly two years ago came...

The raid on Trump’s home last Monday was the high water mark of Merrick Garland’s politicization of the Department of Justice. That act of weaponizing the DOJ was shocking in that it violated accepted norms. Serving a search warrant and using the FBI as its enforcers were entirely unnecessary. A subpoena or even a phone would have sufficed, but a subpoena or a phone doesn’t send a “we can do whatever we want” message. A 9-hour-long rummage through desks, sock drawers, and Melania Trump’s closet do. Merrick Garland and his Justice Department aren’t done poking Trump in the eye. The...

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...

The federal government prosecuted Merle Denezpi twice for the same crime. It also punished him twice: the first time with 140 days in a federal detention center, the second time with a prison sentence more than 70 times as long.Although that may seem like an obvious violation of the Fifth Amendment's ban on double jeopardy, the Supreme Court last week ruled that it wasn't. As the six justices in the majority saw it, that puzzling conclusion was the logical result of the Court's counterintuitive precedents on this subject. The Fifth Amendment says no person shall "be subject for the same...

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said on Thursday the Navy will investigate SEAL Eddie Gallagher over his admission in a recent interview that he did intend to kill an ISIS detainee despite being acquitted of the man's murder in 2019. (emphasis mine) Gallagher made the bombshell admission in an interview on Apple's 'The Line' podcast on Tuesday regarding the 2017 death of a 17-year-old militant captive in Iraq. ... 'I didn't stab him. I didn't stab that dude,' Gallagher said. 'That dude died from all the medical treatments that were done – and there was plenty of medical treatments...

St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell said on Thursday that he will not charge the former Ferguson police officer who shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown in 2014. Bell said that the significance of the case and requests from Michael Brown’s family prompted his office to quietly re-open an investigation about five months ago, but the office did not have enough evidence to disprove a self-defense claim in trial. “This is one of the most difficult things I’ve had to do as an elected official,” Bell said beginning a news conference Thursday.

To almost no one's surprise, days before Roger Stone's prison sentence was about to begin, President Donald Trump has spared his long-time political crony from the pen — late Friday, Mr. Trump commuted Stone's sentence. It is time for New York prosecutors to answer this latest assault by Trump on the rule of law: They should ready a state prosecution of Stone. Bringing a new case against Stone is possible thanks to Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York Legislature for Assembly Bill 6653. Signed into law last October, AB6653 enables New York district attorneys to prosecute what effectively amounts...

by Joe Callen In a stunning, unexpected ruling, a judge on Wednesday tossed out New York State charges of mortgage fraud against Paul Manafort because of ‘double jeopardy’ laws. This is a huge victory for Paul Manafort, who remains in custody on federal charges, because this opens a way for Trump to issue him a presidential pardon. And not just for Manafort: this ruling throws a legal hand grenade into the entire Democrat strategy of punishing former Trump aides and supporters with state charges to bypass his pardon powers. Manafort, 70, is currently serving a seven and half year prison sentence...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signed a measure Wednesday permitting New York state to press charges against those who have received presidential pardons. The measure was passed to prevent President Trump's ex-aides facing prison time or potential sentencing from receiving pardons and avoiding criminal punishment, NBC News reported. The network added that the legislation was a direct response to the president's consideration of giving his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, a pardon. Manafort is serving in a federal prison after being convicted on bank fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy charges. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has also indicted him on state...

Double-jeopardy rules almost certainly prohibit settling a federal case and then prosecuting it again in federal court. Alex Acosta did a bad job on the Jeffrey Epstein case. This column was nearly finished when news broke Friday that he would resign as labor secretary. I was going to argue that his lapses did not justify joining the nakedly political mau-mauing by Democrats who have no interest in exploring the behavior of Democrats who are neck-deep in a monstrous pedophile’s activities. My friend Jennifer Braceras has ably addressed that point in a Washington Examiner column. I was also going to add...

The Supreme Court left intact a century-old exception to the Fifth Amendment’s double jeopardy clause that permits a state and the federal government to prosecute a person for the same criminal offense. The court ruled 7-2 in declining to overturn the separate sovereigns doctrine, with Justice Samuel Alito delivering the opinion of the court. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Neil Gorsuch dissented. The case before the high court involved a challenge to the Supreme Court’s “separate sovereigns” doctrine, an exception to the Fifth Amendment’s double jeopardy clause, which states no one can be “subject for the same offense to be...

Conservative activist Dinesh D’Souza faced political persecution after he directed and released anti-Obama film, “2016: Obama’s America”. He was indicted over illegal campaign contributions. It was an obvious witch hunt. On Thursday, President Trump announced publicly he would be issuing a full pardon to Dinesh D’Souza. The New York Attorney General is so angry over the presidential pardon of Dinesh that she wants to get rid of double jeopardy to go after him again. Dinesh D’Souza celebrated on his Twitter account with an epic smack down of the Obama hack who made his life hell, former US Attorney Preet Bharara....

New York interim Attorney General Barbara Underwood said on Thursday that President Trump's pardoning of conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza shows his willingness to thwart justice and adds urgency to the state's double jeopardy loophole.“President Trump’s latest pardon makes crystal clear his willingness to use his pardon power to thwart the cause of justice, rather than advance it," Underwood said in a statement. "By pardoning Dinesh D’Souza, President Trump is undermining the rule of law by pardoning a political supporter who is an unapologetic convicted felon. First, it was Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Then it was Scooter Libby. Now it’s Dinesh D’Souza,"...

A former “Jeopardy!” winner and one-time record holder; has been charged with two felony counts after an investigation into alleged cyber crimes commited in the school she worked as a history professor. Stephanie Jass appeared in Lenawee County court, in southern Michigan, on Tuesday to face charges of unauthorized access to a computer in Adrian College, where she taught, and using it to commit a crime. According to The Daily Telegram, a local news outlet, the first charge alone carries with it a potential penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The former game show champ allegedly...

When big government collides with the rights guaranteed under the Constitution, it is usually the latter that give way. Many people know that to be the case with free speech and firearms, but they aren’t aware that that the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee that no person shall be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb for the same offense has similarly eroded. That is something they should worry about. A Texas case that has been appealed to the Supreme Court gives the justices an opportunity to restore the power of the Double Jeopardy Clause. Walker v. Texas arose when state...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A condemned Ohio killer who survived a 2009 botched execution is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to declare that a second attempt to put him to death would be unconstitutional. Lawyers for death row inmate Romell Broom argue that giving the state prisons agency a second chance would amount to cruel and unusual punishment and double jeopardy. A divided Ohio Supreme Court rejected Broom's arguments in March. Broom's attorneys appealed that ruling earlier this month to the U.S. Supreme Court and filed notice of that appeal on Monday with the state court. The state stopped Broom's execution...

The Government said it would not change double jeopardy laws to open the way for a retrial of a prime suspect in the murders of 16-year-olds Colleen Walker-Craig and Clinton Speedy-Duroux, and four-year-old Evelyn Greenup. The children went missing from a road in Bowraville over a five month period in 1990 and 1991. In early 1991, the bodies of Evelyn and Clinton were found in bushland along the Congarinni Road on the outskirts of the town. Clothing belonging to Colleen Walker-Craig was found in the Nambucca River nearby, but her body has never been found. A man identified as the...