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Judge Juan Merchan admitted in court Monday that former President Donald Trump could become “the next president” — a tacit acknowledgement not only of recent favorable polls, but that his business records trial is occurring in the middle of a presidential election with direct bearing on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. “The last thing I want to consider is jail,” Merchan warned Trump about violating a gag order placed on him. “You are [the] former president and possibly the next president.” Merchan said Monday he would consider jail time for Trump if he continued to violate a gag order he...

NEW YORK — The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s hush money trial has fined him $1,000 for violating his gag order and sternly warned the former president that additional violation could result in jail time. The fine marks the second sanction for Trump for inflammatory comments about witnesses since the start of the trial last month. He was fined $9,000 last week for nine violations. Judge Juan M. Merchan warned Monday that additional gag order violations could potentially result in jail time, though he said that was “the last thing I want to do.” Prosecutors in Trump’s hush money trial...

NYC judge retiring to Florida days after setting free deranged brute who broke mom-of-three’s jaw The turn-em-loose judge who released an alleged predator who randomly sucker-punches people left the bench Friday — just days after the bizarre ruling — and is moving to Florida. Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Matthew Sciarrino retired with more than a year-and-a-half left on his mayoral appointment, two days after setting free the deranged suspect accused of socking Dulche Pichardo of Crown Heights in the face and breaking the 57-year-old mother-of-three’s jaw.

New York County Judge Juan Merchan has ruled that former President Donald Trump violated a gag order during his trial, holding him in criminal contempt and threatening him with jail time for any further infractions.

A federal judge on Friday declined to force the recusal of a fellow Joe Biden-appointed colleague in Hunter Biden’s “hacking” lawsuit against a former policy analyst in the Trump White House, writing that the effort failed just like the former president failed to remove a Clinton appointee from the never successful Trump v. Clinton RICO case. U.S. District Judge Hernan Vera was the target of Garrett Ziegler’s recusal motion, which reasoned that Vera’s status as a 2023 appointee of President Joe Biden appointee, coupled with a donation to the president’s 2020 election campaign and the political “subject matter of the...

Special counsel Jack Smith on Monday implored the judge in charge of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago documents case not to force the government into complying with defense discovery motions. In January, attorneys for the 45th president accused Smith and his office of myriad discovery violations in a rambling defense filing that also asserted that the genesis of the federal Florida case could be traced to “politically motivated operatives” within President Joe Biden’s administration who launched a “crusade” against their client to hamstring his chances in the 2024 presidential election. In the government’s response in opposition, Smith aims to methodically...

There's been a case in New York that I should have been following more closely. Dexter Taylor was a hobby gunsmith. He liked the nature of putting together guns from lawfully purchased parts. However, the state of New York disapproved of this pastime. They arrested Taylor and, on Monday, he was convicted. My friend Jeff Charles over at our sister site RedState has been covering this case pretty much from the jump, and in his story from Monday about the sentencing, there was something we had to talk about. You see, the judge in the case has decided that a...

The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s New York criminal case, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, is a Biden donor, Trump lawyer Jesse Binnall said during an appearance on Breitbart News Daily. Discussing the case involving Democrat Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who charged Trump with 34 felonies, accusing him of falsifying business records in relation to a “hush money” payment made to Stormy Daniels, Binnall reminded listeners that the entire case “is based on the word of Michael Cohen,” an “admitted perjurer.” “That’s the kind of the best they have. That’s what they’re building their case around...

Whoever, being a person employed in any administrative position by the United States, or by any department or agency thereof, or by the District of Columbia or any agency or instrumentality thereof, or by any State, Territory, or Possession of the United States, or any political subdivision, municipality, or agency thereof, or agency of such political subdivision or municipality (including any corporation owned or controlled by any State, Territory, or Possession of the United States or by any such political subdivision, municipality, or agency), in connection with any activity which is financed in whole or in part by loans or...

New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan has yet to say that former President Donald Trump can attend his son Barron Trump’s high school graduation, refusing to rule on the former president’s request to not attend the trial that specific day for that event. Monday was the start of the criminal trial at the hands of Democrat Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who charged Trump with 34 felonies, accusing him of falsifying business records in relation to payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels. As Breitbart News pointed out, Trump is not being accused of “covering up a sex scandal.”...

A federal judge scolded the Justice Department on Friday for refusing to allow attorneys involved in the Hunter Biden investigation to comply with subpoenas issued by House Republicans. The House Judiciary Committee filed a lawsuit last month in the federal District Court in Washington seeking to force DOJ lawyers Mark Daly and Jack Morgan to provide testimony as part of the panel’s impeachment inquiry into President Biden. The GOP-led panel co-leading the impeachment probe related to the 81-year-old president’s alleged involvement in his family’s business dealings claims the DOJ has “thwarted” efforts by the committee to get depositions from the...

During her confirmation hearing, 7th Circuit Court nominee Nancy Maldonado was questioned by Sen. John Kennedy about supporting Illinois’ “assault weapons” ban. Maldonado had signed a brief arguing such weapons could be banned as too dangerous for self-defense.

A federal judge admonished a Jan. 6 rioter during his sentencing Wednesday after the man downplayed the severity of the riots and his violent conduct. “This cannot become normal. … We cannot condone the normalization of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot,” Judge Royce Lamberth said during the sentencing of Taylor James Johnatakis, CNN reported. Johnatakis, a self-described “sovereign citizen,” was found guilty of assaulting a police officer and other felony and misdemeanor charges related to the riot, and he was sentenced to seven years in prison. After his conviction last year, he repeatedly downplayed the riots in interviews, calling...

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis spoke about race in a speech on Friday, seemingly in response to part of Judge Scott McAfee's recent order that said she could remain on Donald Trump's Georgia election interference case. **SNIP** Willis previously rejected the accusations and said during a speech in January at an Atlanta church that her critics were "playing the race card" given that they had singled out Wade, who is Black. As part of his March 15 ruling, McAfee focused on Willis' January speech and noted that "the District Attorney described the effort [to disqualify her] as motivated by...

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' case against former President Donald Trump in Georgia may have been dealt a blow after the judge presiding over the matter agreed to hear pretrial motions and an appeal against Willis' ability to bring charges against one of the defendants. In August, Trump and 18 other defendants were indicted as part of Willis' probe into alleged interference in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. On March 28, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee is expected to hear arguments from Trump's lawyers that the Georgia election interference case is intended to criminalize political speech....

A Manhattan judge ripped Sam Bankman-Fried as a “remorseless” scammer obsessed with political power as he sentenced the fallen crypto mogul to 25 years in prison Thursday — five months after he was found guilty of stealing more than $8 billion of funds from customers of his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Judge Lewis Kaplan said the 32-year-old convicted fraudster “presented himself as the good guy” all in favor of “appropriate regulation of the crypto industry” — but it was just an “act.” “He did it because he wanted to be a hugely, hugely political influential person in this country,” Kaplan...

A gag order issued Tuesday in the New York hush money case bars Donald Trump from popping off against witnesses, jurors, and "court staff" — but it makes no mention of the judge and members of his family, who remain fair game. Trump wasted little time exploiting that loophole Wednesday, when he used his Truth Social account to take aim at both state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan and the judge's progressive daughter, Loren Merchan. The daughter is a Democratic political consultant whose social media has been critical of Trump, including during his administration, when she condemned his family-separation border...

During her confirmation hearing, 7th Circuit Court nominee Nancy Maldonado was questioned by Sen. John Kennedy about supporting Illinois’ “assault weapons” ban. Maldonado had signed a brief arguing such weapons could be banned as too dangerous for self-defense. However, when Kennedy pressed her to define “assault weapon,” Maldonado said she was “not a gun expert” and could not remember the exact definition. Kennedy said, “You said, ‘Assault weapons may be banned because they’re extraordinarily dangerous and are not appropriate for legitimate self-defense purposes.’ Tell me what you meant by ‘assault weapons’?” Kennedy noted she had submitted a brief calling to...

Just wanted ones to see wovoted on another liberal Biden nominate to serve as a United States circuit judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit judge moving toward being appointed. Berner is a resident of Montgomery County, residing in Takoma Park, Maryland, where she and her former wife raised their three sons. She is married to civil rights attorney Debra Katz. If confirmed, Berner would be the first openly LGBTQ judge to serve on that court.

“Novel legal theory,” a term applied in whole or part to every case, criminal and civil, lodged against Donald Trump. That term is best understood as using the law in ways it was never intended to be used, and/or never has been used, most specifically for political purposes. A "novel legal theory" might consist of applying a vicious dog ordinance to someone who owned only a parrot that could bark like a dog. During my police career, professional officers were careful never to use the law in that way. If there was a law on the books that had never...