Free Republic

A Berlin court ordered Germany’s far-right party to retract a false accusation that the country's environment ministry gave money to Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign. Georg Pazderski, leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AFD) party, was ordered to scrub its website of the accusation and issue a correction stating that the German ministry "paid no money whatsoever to support the election campaign of Hillary Clinton,” Deutsche Welle news reported Monday. Pazderski and his party claimed that millions that Germany’s Federal Environment Ministry donated to the Clinton Foundation’s climate initiatives in Africa were really funneled into Clinton’s campaign....

"Hillary Clinton laughed about getting the convicted rapist of a 12 year old child off on a technicality. Hillary got him off with time served in county jail, about 2 months. She says she used a legal technicality to plead her client, who faced 30 years to life in prison, down to a lesser charge."

Remember the Halbig case? If not, catch up right now by re-reading this post from January, written after a D.C. district court judge ruled in Obama’s favor. O-Care is a famously complex law but the lawsuit that could end up demolishing it is surprisingly simple. In a nutshell, there’s a line buried deep in the statutory text that says federal subsidies for insurance premiums will be available to anyone who buys a plan on “an Exchange established by the State.” Question: Does Healthcare.gov, the exchange built by the federal government after 34 states refused to build their own exchanges, qualify...

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina said Wednesday that she knew states are prohibited by federal law from declaring bankruptcy despite her comments the day before that bankruptcy "should always be considered" as an answer to California's fiscal problems. Fiorina also called the fact that California can't declare bankruptcy a "technicality." Her comments Tuesday, made in the city of Colton, has spurred speculation about whether she was familiar with the federal law. The Riverside Press-Enterprise quoted Fiorina saying, ""Whether that is the right approach now, I don't know. I think bankruptcy, as a possibility, at the very least focuses the...

Congress is considering permanent protection for 26 million acres of beautiful and historic landscapes in the American West, but has quietly excluded millions of acres of California desert. In a system that would rival the national parks and forests, the National Landscape Conservation Act would unify the management and funding for areas such as the original Pony Express National Historic Trail, Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, a million acres of Alaskan caribou calving grounds, 38 wild rivers, Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and a tiny ghost town near the Mexican border. But more than half of the 10.6 million-acre...

Former "blogging pedophile" Jack McClellan has been released from jail, following his arrest last week for violating a restraining order in California. His release follows the prediction of observers in law enforcement, child advocacy, and the judicial system who think it will be difficult to take effective or even constitutional steps against McClellan to protect children. The 45-year-old self-professed pedophile was arrested August 13 for violating a three-year restraining order that required him to stay 30 feet away from all children. He was being held in jail with a $150,000 bail bond. But according to Associated Press, he was released...

Federal prosecutors in the District yesterday sought to drop felony murder charges against three Rwanda citizens who faced possible death sentences in connection with the 1999 kidnapping and killing of two American tourists in Uganda. The move comes five months after U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle suppressed confessions by defendants Francois Karake, Leonidas Bimenyimana and Gregoire Nyaminani, who were reputed members of the Liberation Army of Rwanda.

ATLANTA -- A judge has struck down Georgia's ban on same-sex marriages, saying a measure overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2004 violated a provision of the state constitution that limits ballot questions to a single subject. The ruling by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Constance C. Russell had been eagerly awaited by gay-rights supporters who filed the court challenge in November 2004, soon after the constitutional ban was approved. Russell said the state's voters must first decide whether same-sex relationships should have any legal status before they can be asked to decide whether same-sex marriages should be banned. "People who...

2008 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is blasting former top White House aide Lewis Libby for allegedly lying to investigators, saying his decision to leak CIA employee Valerie Plame's name to the press was "simply reprehensible." "Taking such action for political purposes is simply reprehensible and should never be tolerated," Clinton complains in a statement posted to her web site. The former first lady, who had her own truth-telling problems in the Travelgate scandal, said Libby's attempts to "interfere with the investigation" by deceiving investigators "raises serious national security concerns." "This administration owes our CIA agents around the world a promise...

NEWS ANALYSIS Patrick Fitzgerald Uses Martha Stewart Technique to Indict Scooter Libby By Sher Zieve Oct 29, 2005 After Martha Stewart was convicted for saying she was innocent of a crime, which could not be proved, many saw this as the test-case for allowing prosecutors free reign to employ any and all manners of Stalinesque prosecutorial techniques.  Stewart was deemed "guilty" of a non-crime for essentially saying she wasn't guilty.  Is it no longer acceptable to defend oneself?  In Martha's case, it most certainly appeared not.  However, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald advised that he supported the case against Ms. Stewart. ...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- The 1975 murder of Martha Moxley set in motion more than a quarter century of grief and intrigue as the attractive teen's family waited for justice while two Kennedy cousins lived under a cloud of suspicion. The long delay in an arrest fueled suspicions of a powerful cover-up in a wealthy Connecticut town. Authorities ultimately charged one of the cousins, Michael Skakel, with bludgeoning Moxley with a golf club and accused his wealthy family of a cover-up to thwart his prosecution during a trial that led to his conviction in 2002. Now Skakel says he should...