Free Republic

Former CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said Wednesday on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” that former President Donald Trump has likely violated a gag order with a social media post. Trump quoted Fox News host Jesse Watters on Truth Social posting, “They are catching undercover Liberal Activists lying to the Judge in order to get on the Trump Jury.” Cooper asked, “Is that permissible given the gag order on Trump?”

Fox News legal editor Kerri Kupec Urbahn joined "The Faulkner Focus" Monday to discuss how former President Trump is experiencing a double standard when it comes to gag orders and why Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis should be issued a gag order similar to Trump's. Co-defendants in Trump's election interference case are reportedly considering asking for a gag order against Willis. KERRI KUPEC URBAHN: So let's talk first about what the purpose of gag orders are in the first place. It's to prevent harm to the case or the people involved in the case that otherwise could not...

Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman said Wednesday that the gag order recently imposed on former President Trump in his New York hush money trial is “so unusual.” “I think what the viewers have to understand is, this is so unusual,” Akerman told CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield in an interview. “This never happens, in over 50 years of law practice, both as a prosecutor, a defense lawyer. Akerman emphasized the unprecedented nature of how Trump’s case has unfolded, and that his attacks on Judge Juan Merchan could get the former president in “harm’s way.” Not only is the gag order itself unusual,...

A New York appeals court has again upheld a gag order that bars Donald Trump from commenting about court personnel in his civil fraud trial, ruling Thursday that the former president’s lawyers used the wrong legal mechanism to fight the restriction. A four-judge panel in the state’s mid-level appellate court ruled Thursday that Trump’s lawyers erred by suing trial Judge Arthur Engoron, who imposed the gag order in October after Trump disparaged his law clerk. Instead, the appellate judges wrote, Trump’s lawyers should’ve followed the normal appeals process by asking Engoron to reverse the gag order and then, if denied,...

A New York appeals court on Thursday temporarily blocked a gag order in former President Donald Trump's civil fraud trial that barred him from complaining about the judge's law clerk. The Appellate Division judge ordered the stay after Trump's attorneys appealed the gag order Judge Arthur Engoron had put in place as being "unconstitutional." The stay will remain in place until a full panel of appeals court judges considers the case.

The trans activist company behind the Miss Universe pageant has sensationally filed for bankruptcy just days before the pageant is due to take place in El Salvador. Thai-native and trans woman Anne Jakrajutatip acquired the event for $20 million in 2022 from IMG Media, adding it to the portfolio of JKN Global Group. Between 1996 and 2015, the Miss Universe Pageant was part of Donald Trump's business empire. The company also owns Miss USA and Miss Teen USA. The bankruptcy comes after the company missed out on fulfilling a $12 million loan repayment. Despite the setback, JKN has been bullish...

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie slammed former President Trump on Monday for his “awful temperament” in response to his mounting legal challenges. Judge Tanya Chutkan agreed Monday to impose a “narrow” gag order prohibiting the former president from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and their families involved in his Jan. 6 election interference case. Asked about Trump calling the gag order “unconstitutional,” Christie told former White House press secretary Jen Psaki: “Look, this is the awful temperament of the guy who is currently the front-runner for the domination of my party.”

Jack Smith has filed a ‘gag order’ against former President Donald Trump, aiming to restrict public statements that could potentially influence the outcome of an ongoing trial. The order seeks to prevent comments that might sway the trial’s result or bias potential jurors, the prosecution argues. Smith’s order cites the court’s “duty” to shield the trial process from external influences that could materially prejudice its proceedings. The order stipulates that parties involved in the case, including their attorneys, are barred from making or authorizing public statements, including on social media platforms, that carry a significant likelihood of causing material prejudice...

A federal judge issued a ruling ordering Donald Trump to respond to a protective order filed by the Justice Department that would block the former president from sharing details of evidence from his Jan. 6 criminal case proceedings. In a court order filed Saturday afternoon, Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled Trump's legal team must respond to the special counsel's motion by Monday at 5 p.m. The order comes after the DOJ issued a court filing at about 10 p.m. on Friday, calling attention to a message Trump posted on his Truth Social account that prosecutors say raises concerns the former president...

The Department of Justice asked a Florida court to stop former President Donald Trump from releasing classified documents given to his legal team in its defense of his alleged mishandling of sensitive records. Prosecutors claim some of that information is part of an ongoing investigation involving the 45th president’s alleged activities, according to The Hill. Information could pertain to people who haven’t yet been charged. The protective order requests that discovery material in Trump’s case “shall not be disclosed to the public or the news media, or disseminated on any news or social media platform” without approval from the court....

Former President Trump and his legal team won’t be barred from publicly discussing the case in which he was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. After much speculation about whether a gag order would be imposed on parties in the case, one was not requested during the Tuesday arraignment — and the judge presiding over the case said he wouldn’t have granted one if it had. Legal observers had wondered ahead of the high-profile trial whether Judge Juan Merchan would impose the uncommon order, which would have blocked Trump and his team from talking publicly about the...

Donald Trump's legal team is preparing for a New York judge to slap a gag order on the former president on Monday, DailyMail.com can reveal, a day before he is due to be arrested in Manhattan. The extraordinary move to potentially silence a candidate for president will likely enflame Trump's supporters as he prepares to fly out of his Florida home. 'The Trump legal team now thinks that the Manhattan judge will take the unprecedented step of silencing the presidential frontrunner with an unconstitutional gag order tomorrow,' said a source. 'The Trump legal team is considering adding a First Amendment...

An Idaho judge issued a GAG ORDER Tuesday blocking investigators and attorneys on both sides from discussing the murder case against Bryan Kohberger, the Pennsylvania man accused of killing four college students in November. On January 3, Latah County Magistrate Judge Megan Marshall issued a nondissemination order in regard to the murder case against Bryan Kohberger," Moscow police said. "The order PROHIBITS any COMMUNICATION by investigators, law enforcement personnel, attorneys, and agents of the prosecuting attorney or defense attorney concerning this case." The department said it would "no longer be communicating with the public or the media" regarding the high-profile...

Belize's Midnight Terror Cave is still leaving clues about more than 100 people who were sacrificed to the Maya rain god there more than a millennium ago. Used for burial during the Maya Classic period (A.D. 250 to 925), the cave was named by locals who were called to rescue an injured looter in 2006. A three-year excavation project by California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) professors and students concluded that the more than 10,000 bones uncovered in the cave represented at least 118 people, many of whom had evidence of trauma inflicted on them around the time...

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, New York Democrat, is inviting Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, to Washington to advocate for paid family leave. In an interview, Ms. Gillibrand said the former actress and wife of royal grandson Prince Harry called her to discuss the issue. “I could hear how sincere she was about advocacy,” Ms. Gillibrand said in an interview with The 19th, which ran on Thursday. The Duchess of Sussex called Ms. Gillibrand, who authored her own family leave bill in 2013, on the phone and expressed a desire to help.

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) said Saturday in a tweeted video of herself supposedly congratulating Joe Biden and celebrating a joint victory, “We did it, Joe.

Huddled with aides in the West Wing last week, his eyes fixed on Fox News, Trump wasn’t talking about how he had led the nation through the deadliest pandemic in a century. In a conversation overheard by an Associated Press reporter, Trump was describing how he’d just publicly rebuked one of his top scientists — Dr. Robert Redfield, a virologist and head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Redfield had angered the president by asserting that a COVID-19 vaccine wouldn’t be widely available to the general public until summer or fall of 2021. So hours later, with...

Former Trump Team Strategist Steve Bannon was indicted by corrupt Southern District of New York attorneys with three others, including Brian Kolfage, a war veteran who lost three limbs in Iraq.  These men were indicted on what appear to be overly aggressive and bogus charges related to their building a wall on the Southern border.  Their SDNY indictment screams of Andrew Weissmann-like corruption and prosecutorial abuse. 1. The timing is suspect.  The announcement came during the DNC and five days before the beginning of the RNC. 2. The announcement involves someone connected to President Trump in an attempt to embarrass...

Brazilian model Valentina Sampaio has made history by becoming the first transgender woman to grace the pages of the iconic Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. The 23-year-old trailblazer, who has also posed for Victoria's Secret, will appear in the publication's 2020 issue after being photographed by Josie Clough on Scrub Island in the British Virgin Islands. Valentina appeared on Good Morning America on Friday to announce the news while sharing how much the opportunity means to her and the LGBTQ+ community as a whole.

In January, the Trump administration issued a rule prohibiting immigration judges from speaking about their job or their take on US policy. The one exception is judges who serve in their union. But the Trump administration is also trying to decertify that union. On July 1, the National Association of Immigration Judges filed a lawsuit alleging that the administration is violating the right to free speech. "We are in the midst of an urgent public debate about immigration reform in this country and some of the most crucial voices in that debate are being silenced," Ramya Krishnan, staff attorney at...