Free Republic

A federal judge ordered Thursday that former President Donald Trump can be questioned in sworn testimony by attorneys for ex-FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page as part of their lawsuits related to the government's disclosure of their private text messages. Trump and current FBI Director Christopher Wray can each be deposed for two hours on a "narrow set of topics" that were hashed out during a sealed hearing earlier in the day, Judge Amy Berman Jackson wrote in an order in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. But there are still some lingering questions about executive privilege to be...

WASHINGTON — A Jan. 6 rioter who dragged former D.C. Police Officer Michael Fanone into the crowd on the steps of the U.S. Capitol was sentenced to 7.5 years in federal prison on Thursday. Albuquerque Head, a 43-year-old from Tennessee, was sentenced to 90 months in federal prison, a bit shy of the 96 months that prosecutors had requested, but still one of the longest sentences to date in the Capitol riot cases. Head will get credit for the roughly 18 months he's spent locked up already. Fanone urged Judge Amy Berman Jackson to sentence Head to the maximum, saying...

The Aug. 8 search of former President Donald Trump’s home and the unprecedented criminal investigation into his possession of White House documents all began with David Ferriero, the now-retired national archivist who alerted the Justice Department after finding classified information in boxes he retrieved from Mar-a-Lago. Critics say Mr. Ferriero is a partisan who changed the rules to help excuse Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she was under scrutiny for mishandling classified documents on her private, unsecured email server. They also say the raid for a criminal investigation is just another politically motivated scheme to take down Mr. Trump,...

A Georgia man who drove cross-country with an assault rifle and threatened to kill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was sentenced to 28 months behind bars in an emotional hearing on Tuesday. Cleveland Meredith Jr. pleaded guilty in September to sending threatening communications. Though he missed the January 6 rally because of car troubles, Meredith was one of the first people charged in relation to the Capitol riot after his mother reported concerning texts to the FBI on January 7. Agents found Meredith in a hotel one mile from the Capitol with thousands of rounds of ammunition, a handgun and an...

For many rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, self-incriminating messages, photos and videos that they broadcast on social media before, during and after the insurrection are influencing even their criminal sentences. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Amy Jackson read aloud some of Russell Peterson’s posts about the riot before she sentenced the Pennsylvania man to 30 days imprisonment. “Overall I had fun lol,” Peterson posted on Facebook. The judge told Peterson that his posts made it “extraordinarily difficult” for her to show him leniency. “The ’lol’ particularly stuck in my craw because, as I hope you’ve...

A federal judge on Wednesday said the speakers at the "Stop the Steal" rally that preceded the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol attack, including former President Trump, "stoked" the crowd and possibly "inspired" what went down that day, according to a CNN report. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson made the remarks while sentencing defendant Russell Peterson, who reportedly sat in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) chair after storming the Capitol on Jan. 6. He was arrested on Feb. 12 and entered a plea agreement in September. Jackson, without saying the former president's name directly, said that Trump and the other speakers...

An accused U.S. Capitol rioter was ordered released from jail on Oct. 26 after a federal judge expressed concerns about him remaining among fellow Jan. 6 defendants. Thomas Sibick was released to the custody of his parents and told to submit to continued mental health treatment, according to court documents. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama nominee, said the defendant cannot use any social media, watch “any political news programs,” or attend any political rallies. She also said he cannot have access to “any internet-capable devices.”

A federal judge rejected the argument that US Capitol rioters held in jail are being prosecuted for their political views and disavowed attempts to downplay the magnitude of the deadly insurrection during a sentencing on Wednesday. "You called yourself and everyone else patriots, but that's not patriotism," Judge Amy Berman Jackson said of defendant Karl Dresch. "Patriotism is loyalty to country, loyalty to the Constitution, not loyalty to a head of state. That is the tyranny we rejected on July 4." Jackson, known for her sharp criticism of the Trump administration's moves, called Dresch an "enthusiastic participant" in the effort...

The Biden administration said Monday that it would appeal a judge's order directing it to release in its entirety a legal memo on whether President Donald Trump had obstructed justice during the Russia investigation. But it also agreed to make a brief portion of the document public. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson earlier this month ordered the Justice Department to release the entire March 2019 memo as part of a public records lawsuit from a Washington-based advocacy organization. She said the department, under Attorney General William Barr, had misstated the purpose of the document in arguing that it was...

A federal judge has ordered the release of a legal memorandum the Trump-era Justice Department prepared for then-Attorney General William Barr before he announced his conclusion that President Donald Trump had not obstructed justice during the Russia investigation. The Justice Department had refused to give the March 24, 2019, memorandum to a government transparency group that requested it under the Freedom of Information Act, saying the document represented the private advice of lawyers and was produced before any formal decision had been made and was therefore exempt from disclosure under public records law. But U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson...

A top Department of Justice prosecutor who authored the letter informing former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s legal team that it would not file criminal charges against McCabe for lying to federal investigators, was the latest prosecutor added to DOJ’s prosecution against Roger Stone.  J.P. Cooney, the head of Fraud & Public Corruption, became part of the new prosecution team against Stone after the former prosecutors resigned in protest.Cooney, head of the DOJ’s Fraud and Public Corruption, and John Crabb, who also handles public corruption cases for the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., replaced the previous prosecution team last week after they...

A federal judge on Monday ordered the government to explain the “scope” of President Trump’s commutation of longtime GOP operative Roger Stone, including whether the move only involved the sentence of incarceration, or also the period of supervised release. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered the government to provide the court by Tuesday, July 14, “a copy of the Executive Order commuting the defendant’s sentence and to address the question of the scope of the commutation, in particular, whether it involves the sentence of incarceration alone or also the period of supervised release.” In February, Jackson sentenced Stone to...

Roger Stone is asking a federal appeals court to delay the date when he has to report to prison to begin serving his 40-month sentence. A federal judge last week granted him a short delay, to July 14 after Stone cited coronavirus concerns. But late Monday Stone’s lawyers asked the D.C. Court of Appeals to delay his reporting date to Sept. 3. “He is at considerable risk from serious health consequences, including death, if his surrender date is not extended,” Stone’s motion says. The judge “failed to give adequate deference to the government’s uniform policy not to oppose surrender date...

@JackPosobiec BREAKING: Roger Stone to report to federal prison in 7 days Developing story...

Detention in a federal prison in Jesup, GA, amounts to a “virtual death sentence,” said Roger Stone on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Saturday with special guest host Ed Martin, referencing his age and health. “I’m looking at a virtual death sentence in two weeks,” declared Stone, of his prison sentence scheduled to begin on July 14. “Wayne County has five hundred employees who work in the correctional facility. The infection rate in Wayne County today is 25 percent of the the population and growing.” Stone continued, “There’s no use of masks or gloves in [Federal Correctional Institution, Jesup]. There is no...

A federal judge said Tuesday that he would allow interested parties to weigh in on Michael Flynn's case, an unusual move for a criminal prosecution, after the Department of Justice (DOJ) sought to drop the charges against the former national security adviser. Judge Emmet Sullivan of the D.C. District Court said in a brief order that "at the appropriate time, the Court will enter a Scheduling Order governing the submission of any amicus curiae briefs." The case was upended last week when the DOJ moved to dismiss its charge against Flynn for lying to the FBI about his conversations with...

D.C. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan issued an order Tuesday indicating that he'll soon accept "amicus curiae," or "friend of the court" submissions, in the case of former national security adviser Michael Flynn -- essentially allowing the court to use an "ask the audience" lifeline in what has already proved to be an unpredictable and chaotic prosecution.

Now the purpose of the leaked conference call, aka instructions, from former President Barack Obama come into play. In a very unusual move today Michael Flynn’s judge, Emmet Sullivan, enters an order granting outside parties the time to enter amicus briefs (friend of the court) to assist in guiding the court; a briefing schedule to follow. …”Given the posture of the case the court anticipates individuals and organizations will seek leave to file amicus briefs” … It looks like the judge wants to give former DOJ employees (2,000 signatures on letter) an opportunity to publicly undermine and undercut the position...

A protest in Idaho's capital city Boise this afternoon against the de-facto martial law in the state with mainstream media saying a thousand people participated... President Trump tweeting in apparent support of protests against states where Democrats are governors.... Police in Israel using stun grenades to enforce coronavirus restrictions in a Jerusalem neighborhood where Orthodox Jewish activists have resisted with makeshift weapons..... Amazon trying to shut down a virtual meeting for workers to protest the company.... Large restaurant chains took in 30 million dollars in federal coronavirus loans meant to help small businesses..... A six percent jump in profits for...