Free Republic

Another top Biden advisor refused to testify on Joe Biden’s health decline. Senior Joe Biden advisor Annie Tomasini pleaded the Fifth Amendment and did not answer any questions. House Oversight Chairman James Comer recently identified five Biden aides who were involved in the cover-up of Joe Biden’s mental decline and the autopen scandal. Comer demanded testimony from former Dr. Kevin O’Connor and four former aides related to the Biden health scandal. Chairman Comer had demanded testimony from: Biden White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Director of Domestic Policy Council Neera Tanden, Former Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to...

Anthony Bernal, who served as the chief of staff for former first lady Jill Biden, refused to answer questions regarding an alleged cover-up of former President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline. Bernal, who has been nicknamed Jill Biden’s “work husband,” pleaded the Fifth during a “closed-door testimony” in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, according to the Hill. Per the outlet, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) revealed that Bernal had “pleaded the Fifth” when asked whether the former president had “ever instructed him to lie about his health” or if “any unelected official or family members executed the...

While trying to catch President Donald Trump’s solicitor general nominee in a “gotcha” moment, Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin apparently defended enforcement of the infamous Supreme Court ruling that upheld the internment of more than one hundred thousand Japanese Americans during World War II. “Let’s go back to Korematsu — describe for me that circumstance that you think relieved an official from obeying a court order,” Durbin said to solicitor general nominee Dean John Sauer. “As bad as it was, that court order was followed for years, was it not?” In Korematsu v. U.S., the Supreme Court upheld the internment of...

Biden’s handlers did exactly what many expected—they issued blanket pardons for some of the swamp’s most corrupt and evil creatures, all under the guise of protection from revenge. But there’s an interesting twist to these desperate Deep State pardons that has a lot of people talking. ... Deep State is playing their usual game, pretending to protect innocent so-called “democracy warriors” from Trump’s supposed political revenge. But let’s call it what it really is: the powerful protecting their dutiful little flunkies. ... Biden issues 11th hour pardons of globalist crime syndicate members! The DEEP STATE is running scared! ... These...

Whether or not the government is required under the 5th Amendment to pay such victims will remain an open question.The Supreme Court last month declined to hear a case from an elderly woman whose house was destroyed by a SWAT team, leaving open the question of whether or not innocent people are constitutionally entitled to compensation when law enforcement lays waste to their property in pursuit of public safety. In July 2020, while chasing a fugitive, police arrived at Vicki Baker's home in McKinney, Texas. They threw dozens of tear gas grenades inside, used explosives to break the front...

In a surprising legal move, special counsel David Weiss filed a motion in the California federal court where Hunter Biden’s tax case is being conducted, calling on the judge not to dismiss the charges following President Joe Biden’s pardon that was announced on Sunday. Biden’s pardon covers the period from Jan. 1, 2014 to Dec. 1, 2024. That time frame includes Hunter’s jury-trial convictions in June for lying on a federal form about his drug use when he purchased a handgun. It also covers his September conviction on nine charges related to his failure to pay at least $1.4 million...

…. It is also notably that, after insisting that these cases were politically motivated, Biden also pardoned for ANY crimes that may have been committed " from Jan. 1, 2014 to Dec. 1, 2024... That is precisely the type of sweeping immunity grant that the federal judge balked at in the hearing when the earlier sweetheart deal feel apart. The judge asked the prosecutor if he had ever seen such a deal and he admitted that he had not...

Many of you may remember my reporting around "Operation Choke Point 2.0" from the spring of 2023; TLDR, Biden's financial regulators, namely the Fed, FDIC, and OCC, launched a crackdown on banks covering the crypto space. The first casualty was Silvergate Bank, which voluntarily liquidated. The standard reporting around Silvergate was that the bank lent to crypto depositors and those depositors were flighty; when rates rose, Silvergate suffered M2M losses on bond portfolios and ended up insolvent. Except that's not true. Silvergate weathered the storm, even though short sellers and members of Congress like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) encouraged a...

On Wednesday, in Darby Development Co. v. United States, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (which reviews takings claims against the federal government ruled that a takings lawsuit against the 2020-21 federal eviction moratorium can proceed. In so doing, it overruled a trial court decision by the Court of Claims, which I criticized here. The decision could well end up setting an important takings precedent. In September 2020, during the Covid pandemic, the Trump Administration Centers for Disease Control (CDC) imposed a nationwide eviction moratorium, claiming that it would reduce the spread of the disease. The Biden...

The heads of the Secret Service, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security have reportedly declined to testify on the second day of the Congressional hearing into the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. The news was first reported by FOX News, which stated that the House Homeland Security Committee is currently holding its second hearing on the matter. “The House, Homeland Security Committee, is holding the second Congressional hearing, looking into the attempted assassination of former President Trump. But for today’s hearing, heads of the Secret Service, FBI, and Homeland Security have all declined to testify. We are listening...

More good news out of the Northern District of Texas. Judge Reed O’Connor has issued a rulling in Mock v. Garland vacating the ATF’s byzantine rule that effectively bans pistol braces. You know…the same pistol braces the ATF had previously said were perfectly fine. Back before the Biden administration waged a war on gun owners, their rights, and companies that make legal products those people want to buy. This comes the same week the decrepit but still rabidly anti-gun president was trundled out of the White House and propped up behind a podium at Everytown’s “Gun Sense University” meeting of...

Authorities claim there's no need for sentencing hearing, bail option.. A state legal action in Pennsylvania is sparking outrage .. for the result it demanded: Two farmers arrested and jailed on 30-day sentences with no sentencing hearing and no option for bail. ... Their lawyer, Robert Barnes, charges, "This is the craziest thing I've every seen." ... This is an unlawful civil contempt order. There are certain procedures that must be followed in a civil contempt action and to our knowledge those were not followed here. Even if they had been followed, the maximum allowable punishment is 15 days in...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton got a chilly reception at the nation’s highest court this month, when his office argued against Texas ranchers who were seeking compensation from the state over a Fifth Amendment takings clause issue. The Institute for Justice (IJ), a nonprofit public interest law firm, represented rancher Richie DeVillier in the litigation, who sued after his ranch was repeatedly flooded by a new median wall built by Texas officials along a highway just to the south of his property, which ended up functioning like a dam during hurricanes and other periods of heavy rain. The Fifth Amendment...

Republican strategist Karl Rove urged Democrats to “go hard” at former President Trump’s rhetoric surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, calling the former president’s pledge to free imprisoned rioters a “critical mistake.” “If they were smart, they’d take the January 6 and go hard at it. And they would say, ‘He wants to pardon these people who attacked our Capitol,'” Rove said told MSNBC’s Ari Melber. “One of the critical mistakes made in this campaign is that Donald Trump has now said ‘I’m going to pardon those people because they’re hostages,'” Rove said in the interview, which...

Special counsel Jack Smith has reached agreements with at least two fake GOP electors to provide them limited immunity in exchange for testifying before a grand jury investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, CNN reported Friday. People familiar with the situation told the outlet that federal prosecutors have been trying to quickly confirm evidence on the record recently and have refused to grant extensions to subpoenas for testimony for some witnesses. They also said Smith’s office was prepared to compel testimony from witnesses who were given immunity but indicated they would refuse to answer questions under their Fifth...

‘Life, Liberty & Levin’ host Mark Levin says nondisclosure agreements are not ‘hush money,’ and says Democrats are setting a ‘dangerous precedent.’

Two new lawsuits over the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) controversial pistol brace rule were filed yesterday, with over half the states and the country joining in suits challenging the ATF’s rule. Gun Owners of America, Gun Owners Foundation, and the state of Texas teamed up to sue the ATF. over what they see as an unconstitutional rule that violated the American Procedures Act (APA). The lawsuit highlights that both pistols and short-barreled rifles (SBR) are protected arms. It points out that SBRs are also no more dangerous than any other firearm and that the length doesn’t...

This week Hunter Biden broke from the Democrat Party line asserting that his laptop was Russian disinformation and acknowledged that the infamous computer device was, indeed, his. Now he wants justice for "the invasion of my privacy leading to my involuntary disclosure of incriminating evidence against myself. This violates my Fifth Amendment rights." Biden's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, demanded that "computer repair shop owner John Paul Mac Isaac must be prosecuted and the evidence of our client's criminal activities be thrown out under the 'fruit of the poisonous tree' doctrine. Hunter Biden never gave consent to the examination of his laptop....

Justice Department lawyers asked Judge Aileen Cannon to force Trump to confirm documents seized from Mar-a-Lago in a sworn affidavit. The Justice Department asked Judge Cannon to compel Trump to affirm or dispute the records seized under penalty of perjury in a 20-page unsealed filing on Monday dated November 8. "The Special Master has received an affidavit of accuracy from the government. Since the Court appointed the Special Master to ensure fairness, integrity, and even-handedness in the review process […], Plaintiff should be required to verify or correct the property inventory just as the government has done,” the Justice Department’s...

The three jurors who voted against the death penalty for Parkland killer Nikolas Cruz did so based on “mitigating circumstances” from Cruz’s life. They made the wrong call, but their rationale is superior to the reason many will agree with the sentence: a blanket opposition to the death penalty. Public support for capital punishment has slid over the last 30 years, remaining a majority opinion but barely so. Those who oppose death as a punishment often have kind, even noble intentions. Yet their well-meaning beliefs do not translate into justice or the common good. The death penalty is consistent with...