Free Republic

The NCAA received another serious blow to its credibility today. In court documents filed Thursday in the Paterno lawsuit, Oregon State President and then-NCAA Executive Committee Chairman Ed Ray admitted to not actually reading the Freeh Report — the entire basis for the NCAA sanctions — prior to sanctioning Penn State in 2012. In his testimony in the Paterno Family’s ongoing case, Ray said he was unaware that he needed to prep for anything related to the Freeh Report before the organization’s executive board met to discuss possible sanctions on the University. Instead, Ray spent time in Hawaii where he...

Oceanfront views, 24-hour doorman, heated pool, and perhaps best of all, a “private tunnel to the beach.” This $3 million Palm Beach, Florida penthouse could be yours, but unfortunately it isn’t because this prize has already been claimed by a former high-level U.S. official who helped pave the way for the over decade-long “war on terror,”which has been a near complete catastrophe. Iraq is aflame, the Islamic State is on the rampage, the situation in Afghanistan worsens by the day, and thousands of Americans—and many more Iraqis and Afghans—have died during the post-9/11 conflicts. Meanwhile, the combined cost of the...

In what looks like another key turn in the battle for facts about the foundation of Penn State's Freeh Report, a Potter County judge has ordered former FBI Director Louis Freeh to start complying with former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno's heirs' requests for its raw materials. The ruling by Judge John B. Leete comes in the Paterno estate's lawsuit against the NCAA and Penn State, which seeks to invalidate the sanctions stemming from the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. Penn State's attorneys had objected to the subpoena of Freeh, arguing the work done by Freeh and...

Court documents filed in Pennsylvania show that the NCAA and investigators from a firm hired by Penn State University to conduct a wholly independent investigation of the university's handling of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal worked closely in the investigation. The firm, led by former FBI chief Louis B. Freeh, published damning conclusions about Penn State's "lack of institutional control" that were used by the NCAA as the basis for its sweeping sanctions against Penn State in July 2012. The court documents filed Tuesday but released publicly Wednesday, obtained by "Outside the Lines," strongly suggest the NCAA provided...

In two separate Commonwealth Court rulings this week, Judge Anne Covey denied an NCAA and Penn State motion for a protective order and ordered the NCAA to make President Mark Emmert available to give a deposition. The NCAA and the university had asked for the order to protect confidentiality of “certain discovery materials” in the lawsuit brought by state Sen. Jake Corman, R-Benner Township, and state Treasurer Rob McCord that tries to ensure the $60 million in fine money levied against Penn State by the NCAA remains in Pennsylvania. Covey declined that in an order dated Wednesday. “Defendants have demonstrated...

With all the recent court decisions siding in JVP's favor, I felt it a good time to boil this down to the bare truth. Cef gives it to you here if you want to listen.

The NCAA and Penn State lost a key battle in the ongoing question of the legality of the hotly contested consent decree that levied historic sanctions against the university after the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. On Friday, Commonwealth Court Judge Anne Covey issued a ruling on the September motion from the defendants to dismiss the lawsuit brought by state Sen. Jake Corman and state Treasurer Rob McCord. That suit protested the consent decree and asked that the $60 million in fines the decree dictated stay in Pennsylvania, backed up by Corman’s Endowment Act legislation. In filing the motion...

Louis Freeh is no longer the head of his law firm. In a press release Thursday, Pepper Hamilton LLP announced that the former FBI director was being succeeded as chairman of the executive committee by Thomas Gallagher. Officials for the firm confirmed that Freeh remains a partner and member of the executive committee, and that he is still chairman of Freeh Group International Solutions. Gallagher is a former federal prosecutor and two-year member of the firm’s executive committee. His focus has been representing those accused of white-collar crimes and corporate investigations. While the move comes on the heels of a...

Penn State students and fans Saturday showed support for late coach Joe Paterno with a “Joe-Out” – wearing clothing or displaying images of the Hall of Famer at the Nittany Lions' football game. As a Penn State alumnus, I am proud of my university and I remain proud of the work that JoePa did on and – more importantly – off the football field, with respect to inspiring students and improving academics at the institution.Yet there remains in the public sphere this erroneous belief that JoePa was a conspirator in the alleged cover-up of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Sandusky, a...

(CNN) -- Former FBI Director Louis Freeh was hospitalized after a car accident in Vermont, a U.S. law enforcement official told CNN. The official said Freeh was undergoing surgery for unspecified injuries. Freeh was director of the FBI from September 1993 to June 2001.

Longtime trustee and 1959 Penn State graduate Al Clemens resigned from the Board of Trustees during today’s meeting, citing wrong decisions and failed leadership over the last two years from himself and his colleagues. Clemens was a gubernatorial appointee, first appointed by Governor Tom Ridge in 1995. His term expired in 2012, but in absence of another appointment from Governor Tom Corbett, he has remained a member of the Board for the last two years. Previously outspoken about what he calls the questionable Freeh report, Clemens is also party to the Paterno-NCAA lawsuit aimed at reversing the NCAA sanctions. Here’s...

THE STAR WITNESS was anonymous, like each of Jerry Sandusky's victims. He was described in the grand jury presentment only as "a Penn State graduate assistant." Anyone reading the 23-page presentment released on Nov. 4, 2011, would be horrified by the prosecution's version of what the witness said he saw a decade ago. In the locker room shower inside the Lasch Football Building on Penn State's campus, he stumbled upon "a naked boy, Victim 2 ... with his hands up against the wall, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky. The graduate assistant was shocked but noticed that...

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 22, 2013-- Universal Entertainment Corporation announced today that Judge Michael Chertoff, the former U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary, has issued an assessment castigating last year's report by Former FBI Director Louis J. Freeh concerning the affairs of Japanese gaming entrepreneur Kazuo Okada and his affiliated companies. According to Judge Chertoff, the Freeh report was "structurally deficient, one-sided, and seemingly advocacy-driven." Moreover, its conclusions, "simply are not credible." Instead, Judge Chertoff found Freeh's report to be "deeply flawed" and "lack[ing] basic indicia of a credible investigation." Freeh's report was prepared on February 18, 2012 at the behest...

Franco Harris doesn't believe the NCAA sanctions against Penn State will stand, nor is he convinced that the trials of former Penn State officials will occur. Further, the former Penn State running back said, he sees opinions shifting about his alma mater's role in the Jerry Sandusky scandal. "The narrative is starting to change," Harris said Friday. "The [grand jury] presentment and the Freeh Report are falling apart. The NCAA [sanctions], that will fall apart. There will be no trials for [Tim] Curley and [Gary] Schultz. There's no case. We're starting to find the truth." More than 200 turned...