Free Republic

A federal appeals court declined on Tuesday to reconsider its decision to allow the government to execute a search warrant for information related to former President Donald Trump‘s Twitter account, prompting a stiff rebuke from at least four Republican-appointed judges. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected Trump’s request on Tuesday to block special counsel Jack Smith from accessing his Twitter feed as part of his election interference case. A majority of the appeals court ruled to deny further review. “Upon consideration of appellant’s petition for rehearing en banc, the response thereto, the amicus curiae...

Trump’s lawyers on Wednesday afternoon attended a hearing in Fort Pierce, Florida on whether Judge Cannon will agree to postpone the classified documents trial currently scheduled for May 2024. Judge Cannon signaled she may postpone Trump’s trial. She also admonished one of Jack Smith’s prosecutors, according to Julie Kelly who attended Wednesday’s hearing. Trump’s lawyers dropped bombshell revelations during the hearing on Wednesday, according to reporter Julie Kelly. Julie Kelly attended the hearing in person on Wednesday. According to Kelly, Trump’s lawyers revealed: Trump’s lawyers told Judge Cannon they discovered a June 2023 letter asking DOE to remove Trump’s ACTIVE...

The White House asserted executive privilege over 200 records housed at the National Archives (NARA) concerning Hunter Biden’s business interactions with the Office of the Vice President during the Obama administration, according to America First Legal (AFL) on Wednesday.America First Legal launched a lawsuit to obtain records from NARA encompassing communications between January 2011 and December 2013 with the name of Hunter Biden’s company, “Rosemont Seneca.”In response to AFL’s records request, NARA refused to release the records, admitting the disclosure would reveal “confidential advice” between then-Vice President Joe Biden and White House advisers. NARA did provide 861 records that apparently...

Earlier this week we found out that Biden was in on the unprecedented, unnecessary and unlawful raid on President Trump’s iconic home Mar-a-Lago. Now we know that Biden was totally behind the raid because he had to remove President Trump’s executive privilege so the raid could occur. Only Biden could do that. Right after the illegal raid on Mar-a-Lago, Attorney Mike Davis went on FOX News. He pointed out that the raid was unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful. President Trump had the Presidential Records Act that allowed him to take whatever documents he wanted, classified or not, with him to Mar-a-Lago...

Attorneys for former President Donald Trump are trying to block ex-Vice President Mike Pence from testifying in a special counsel investigation of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, NBC News reported Monday. The latest move in the sealed court proceedings came less than a week after Pence said he would not fight a judge’s order for his testimony before the federal grand jury involved in the probe. Trump’s legal team has appealed that order from U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C., NBC reported, citing a source familiar with the litigation. The notice to the U.S. Court of...

Drew Angerer/Getty Images CNN — Donald Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows has been subpoenaed by the special counsel investigating the former president and his role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. Special counsel Jack Smith’s office is seeking documents and testimony related to January 6, and Meadows received the subpoena sometime in January, the source said. An attorney for Meadows declined to comment. The Justice Department did not respond to CNN’s request for comment on the subpoena. The move to subpoena one of Trump’s most senior aides – in addition...

The Biden White House has so far remained silent as it weighs whether to block the release of a trove of documents from the Obama administration that may contain information about Hunter Biden's relationship with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) informed the White House on Nov. 30 that it will soon release nearly 300 email messages in response to Freedom of Information of Act (FOIA) requests for emails that contain the word "Burisma," Insider reported. The Biden administration may stop the release of these records by invoking executive privilege, but the White House...

The Biden administration sicced the FBI on 15 boxes containing classified information that the National Archives retrieved from Mar-a-Lago earlier this year — escalating the investigation of former President Donald Trump for allegedly mishandling secret government information, a newly published letter reveals. The May 10 missive by Acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall to Trump attorney Evan Corcoran — published late Monday by JustTheNews — confirms that the White House counsel’s office, “affirming a request from the Department of Justice supported by an FBI letterhead memorandum,” asked the National Archives on April 11 to “provide the FBI access to the 15...

September 2nd, 2022 On Friday’s Mark Levin Show, why did former AG Bill Barr stay with the Trump Administration as long as he did if Trump was as bad as he said he was? Barr erroneously assumes that the appointment of a Special Master for the FBI raid is a red herring when the issue at hand is the protection of privilege or one’s fourth amendment right. If privilege simply didn’t matter then it wouldn’t be part of the Presidential Records Act.

Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Sunday defended the FBI’s execution of a search warrant at former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, saying critics in the GOP need to “pull back on casting judgment.” “The FBI is simply carrying out their responsibilities under the law, a lawful search warrant that a magistrate signed off on. And they didn’t go in there with FBI raid jackets. They tried to constrain their behavior carrying out that warrant,” Hutchinson said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” calling on fellow Republicans to “stand with” law enforcement. “If the GOP is going to be the party...

Despite claims that the FBI was attempting to retrieve classified documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, agents also seized boxes of records covered by attorney-client privilege and possibly executive privilege during its unprecedented raid, according to a new report. Sources familiar with the investigation told Fox News that in addition to their seizure of potentially privileged records, the Department of Justice denied a request from Trump’s lawyers for an independent special master to review the records. Sources told Fox News that Trump’s team was informed that boxes labeled A-14, A-26, A-43, A-13, and A-33 as well as a set of documents,...

Steve Bannon faced two misdemeanor charges that could mean 30 days to a year in prison each Former Trump White House official Steve Bannon was found guilty of contempt of Congress after he ignored a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 committee.

With his criminal trial for contempt of Congress approaching, Stephen K. Bannon, an ally of former President Donald J. Trump’s who was involved in his plans to overturn the 2020 election, has informed the House committee investigating the Capitol attack that he is now willing to testify, according to two letters obtained by The New York Times. His decision is a remarkable about-face for Mr. Bannon, who until Saturday had been among the most obstinate and defiant of the committee’s potential witnesses. He had promised to turn the criminal case against him into the “misdemeanor from hell” for the Justice...

Yahoo News reports that the court decided against the former president, meaning that the National Archives will provide the documents to the Select Committee. The court’s decision to formally reject Trump’s appeal follows its Jan. 19 order that led to the documents being handed over to the House of Representatives investigative committee by the federal agency that stores government and historical records. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Dec. 9 upheld a lower court ruling that Trump had no basis to challenge President Joe Biden’s decision to allow the records to be handed over...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday brought a formal end to former President Donald Trump's request to block the release of White House records sought by the Democratic-led congressional panel investigating last year's deadly attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters. The court's decision to formally reject Trump's appeal follows its Jan. 19 order that led to the documents being handed over to the House of Representatives investigative committee by the federal agency that stores government and historical records. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Dec. 9 upheld a lower court...

The vote was 8-1, with Justice Clarence Thomas dissenting. The Supreme Court on Wednesday denied former President Donald Trump's request for a stay of a lower court mandate that hundreds of pages of his presidential records from Jan. 6 be turned over to the congressional committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol. The vote was 8-1. Justice Clarence Thomas would have granted the application. In November, an appeals court put a temporary pause on the records handover after Trump sued the committee and the National Archives, asserting executive privilege over more than 750 pages of records that the National...

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was indicted by a federal grand jury Friday, charged with contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions from the House Committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. The indictment is a first. No one has ever been prosecuted before for contempt of Congress when executive privilege was asserted. The past cases involved defendants whose testimony was sought regarding their government service. Bannon, by contrast, left his White House job in 2017, well before the period of interest to the House committee. If convicted, Bannon could face up to a year behind bars and a...

Dear President Trump, Immediately designate EVERY completed segment of the Border Wall as a National Monument. Every morning do the same for the previous day's completion.

During his opening remarks in the Senate impeachment trial, President Donald Trump's lawyer Jay Sekulow quoted Democrats' own words against them. He condemned the House Democrats' rush to impeach Trump, adding an article of impeachment for "Obstruction of Congress" rather than litigating a matter of executive privilege in court. He quoted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), each of whom defended Barack Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder when he was held in contempt of Congress in 2012. "Mr. Schiff did say the courts don't really have a role in this. Executive privilege?...

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., said Tuesday that if President Trump refuses to send the documents and witnesses that House Democrats requested in the impeachment inquiry, “We can only conclude that you’re guilty,” sparking critics on Twitter to accuse him of suggesting the president is guilty until proven innocent. "In America, innocent men do not hide and conceal evidence," Swalwell added, in his conversation with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "They are forthcoming and they want to cooperate and the president is acting like a very guilty person right now." Among those objecting to Swalwell's remarks was Ben Williamson, communications director for Rep....