Free Republic

A right-wing group specializing in hidden-camera investigations will not be able to use the First Amendment to stop the federal government from accessing documents and communications related to the group’s apparent acquisition of a stolen diary belonging to President Joe Biden’s daughter.As Law&Crime previously reported, the FBI executed a search warrant in 2021 at the property of Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe, as well as from Project Veritas staffers Spencer Meads and Eric Cochran. The search warrants were granted in connection with the theft and sale of the personal journal belonging to Ashley Biden, the president’s daughter. Two people, Aimee...

Criminal prosecutors may soon get to see over 900 documents pertaining to the alleged theft of a diary belonging to President Joe Biden’s daughter after a judge rejected the conservative group Project Veritas’ First Amendment claim. Attorney Jeffrey Lichtman said on behalf of the nonprofit Monday that attorneys are considering appealing last Thursday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan. In the written decision, the judge said the documents can be given to investigators by Jan. 5. The documents were produced from raids that were authorized in November 2021. Electronic devices were also seized from the residences of...

It was on Guo’s yacht that Bannon, the former chief White House strategist for Donald Trump, was arrested in a criminal fraud case in 2020.Guo Wengui, a Chinese billionaire and associate of Steve Bannon, was denied bail on Thursday after being charged in a $1 billion fraud case in March. U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres rejected Guo’s proposed bail package, saying he must remain behind bars pending trial because there is “no condition or set of conditions” that would ensure his return to court or the safety of the community, according to the court order. Torres said Guo “has means...

The We Build the Wall campaign to crowdfund a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border was spearheaded by Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage and Steve Bannon, the erstwhile chief White House strategist to former President Donald Trump. Along with two associates, Kolfage and Bannon were indicted in August 2020 on charges that they siphoned donors’ money from the organization for their personal use. Steve Bannon was pardoned by President Trump. Brian Kolfage pleaded guilty after months of threats and abuse by his government. It should be noted that the We Build the Wall organization accomplished more than the US government and...

Two fraudsters who ripped off donors of a fundraising campaign that purportedly sought to collect money for a wall along the southern US border during Donald Trump’s presidency pleaded guilty Thursday for their roles in the scam. The swindlers, Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato, each copped to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud during a remote hearing before Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan federal court. Kolfage also pleaded guilty making false statements on tax returns to hide from the IRS the hundred of thousands of dollars he siphoned off from the GoFundMe campaign, which was dubbed “We Build...

Microsoft Corporation legal documents obtained by Project Veritas show that after a U.S. District Court Judge rejected the DOJ’s argument to ignore Project Veritas’ “journalistic privileges,” the DOJ went behind the judge’s back to obtain an extension on two sealed non-disclosure orders from a magistrate judge to conceal the fact they already had unsupervised and unfettered access to privileged emails and contacts of eight Project Veritas journalists. • Judge Torres had ruled that prosecutors must operate under the supervision of a Special Master to ensure first amendment protections are upheld for Project Veritas journalists and their source material. • These...

One of the reasons the 1st Amendment gives protection to the free press is because they are supposed to be one of the most important checks against a tyrannical government. Independence and protection for journalists can be argued as one of the biggest reasons the United States has flourished for a quarter millenium. Project Veritas has been targeted by our government on multiple occasions they do not abide by the standing orders given to journalists that they must be supportive of progressive ideologies. While most major news outlets pander to the left willingly, offering cover for corrupt Democrats while seeking...

James O’Keefe on Tuesday revealed the Biden DOJ spied on Project Veritas journalists with sealed search warrants then concealed the communications from a federal judge. Project Veritas obtained legal documents from Microsoft Corporation revealing the DOJ obtained an extension on two sealed search warrants after a federal judge denied the Department’s efforts to “unsupervised and unfettered access to privileged emails and contacts of eight PV journalists.” According to O’Keefe, Judge Torres ruled that federal prosecutors must be supervised by a Special Master to protect the journalists’ First Amendment rights. The documents obtained by Project Veritas prove the DOJ went behind...

A federal judge is siding with Project Veritas over its request for an independent party to review the cellphones the FBI seized from the group's founder James O'Keefe. On Wednesday, District Court Judge Analisa Torres from the Southern District of New York is ordering a "special master" to be appointed to oversee the review of O'Keefe's devices, citing "potential First Amendment concerns." "The Court recognizes, as other courts in this district have concluded, that ‘the Southern District prosecutors have integrity and decency,' and the filter team alone could conduct the review ‘with utmost integrity,’" Torres wrote. "However, the Court determines...

Ashley Biden, Joe Biden’s daughter, apparently left her diary behind or someone stole it from her and it was problematic for Joe Biden, both in terms of allegations concerning Ashley and Hunter. Project Veritas was offered the diary and decided against publishing it, but another conservative site, The National File, did publish it. James O’Keefe of Project Veritas turned it over to law enforcement. However, on Sunday, after raiding the homes of two of his journalists and taking their notes and documents. The raid on O’Keefe’s home was a pre-dawn raid. The FBI shone white lights in his face, threw...

Project Veritas founder and Journalist James O’Keefe just received good news from the United States District Court of Southern New York.His attorney Harmeet Dhillon tweeted this out:BREAKING! The federal court has just ordered the DOJ to STOP extracting data from our client, journalist James O’Keefe’s phone, and ordered a hearing. Counsel for Project Veritas asked the court to do this yesterday!pic.twitter.com/nBrmf4myuj— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) November 11, 2021District Court Judge Analisa Torres ordered that:By November 12, 2021, the Government must confirm that it has paused its extraction and review of the contents of the O’Keefe’s phones;By November 16, 2021, the...

Federal judge Analisa Torres, an Obama appointee, dismissed a shooting case against a reputed gang banger because the grand jury that indicted him was drawn from a grand jury pool in White Plains with an “underrepresentation of Black and Latinx individuals.”It looks to me that Judge Torres is using an invented term, Latinx” to invoke an invented right. Via the New York Post:“The Government has failed to meet its burden by coming forward with evidence rebutting the presumption that such underrepresentation was the result of purposeful discrimination,” she wrote Monday.“Therefore, Defendant has established a violation of his Fifth Amendment right...

A federal judge in Manhattan tossed an indictment against a Bronx shooting suspect because of a lack of racial diversity in the White Plains grand jury pool — the first such ruling since city cases were moved to the suburban county amid the pandemic. Judge Analisa Torres sided with defendant William Scott, who had argued that black and Hispanic people were underrepresented in the grand jury pool that returned an indictment against him in June of last year. Scott was charged with possessing ammunition in connection to a shooting in the Bronx, but was charged in the Southern District of...

A federal judge in Manhattan tossed an indictment against a Bronx shooting suspect because of a lack of racial diversity in the White Plains grand jury pool — the first such ruling since city cases were moved to the suburban county amid the pandemic. Judge Analisa Torres sided with defendant William Scott, who had argued that black and Hispanic people were underrepresented in the grand jury pool that returned an indictment against him in June of last year. Scott was charged with possessing ammunition in connection to a shooting in the Bronx, but was charged in the Southern District of...

BREAKING: Judge dismisses indictment against ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon https://t.co/1kkOc1TzEv— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) May 25, 2021 Judge dismisses indictment against Steve Bannon NEW YORK — An indictment against Steve Bannon was dismissed Tuesday over the objection of prosecutors who said it should stand despite Trump’s decision to pardon his former chief strategist. The dismissal came in a written ruling by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres, who called it the “proper course.” The Manhattan jurist said it was not the practice of the region’s federal courts to remove a defendant from a case’s docket without resolving the indictment. And she...

Kolfage, a Purple Heart veteran who lost an arm and two legs in Iraq in 2004, was arrested at his home in Florida and is accused of being the main beneficiary of the scam, allegedly pocketing a staggering $350,000 of donor money while he and his wife flaunted their extravagant lifestyles on social media. Newly resurfaced footage of the pair taken on June 24, 2019 shows the two men openly laughing and joking about peddling money from the border wall scheme, more than a year before the feds swooped in. In the video, part of We Build The Wall's 'Wall-A-Thon'...

Headline only at this point

(Reuters) - A U.S. judge late on Monday ordered all local boards of election in New York state to count “thousands” of absentee ballots received the day after a congressional primary held last June 23 but previously disqualified because of postmark problems. According to the ruling by Judge Analisa Torres of Federal District Court in Manhattan, the absentee ballots are to be counted “without regard to whether such ballots are postmarked by June 23.” Carolyn Maloney, the Democratic Party incumbent, got 40.29% of votes previously counted, while challenger Suraj Patel received 38.43%. The ruling also ordered ballots received on June...

A federal judge has ordered the New York Elections Board to count more than one thousand disqualified absentee ballots in the primary race between House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and challenger Suraj Patel. It appears that the limited ruling will not be enough to impact the outcome of the race. The New York Times estimates the ruling will affect 1,200 ballots. Maloney leads Patel by about 3,700 votes. Maloney declared victory in a statement and called on Patel to concede. “Weeks ago I called for all of these ballots to be counted," Maloney said. “Although the...

Score one for former Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang. A federal appeals court on Tuesday agreed with a lower federal court judge’s ruling that the Democratic presidential primary contest must be included on the ballot when New York holds its primary on June 23. *snip* Sanders, the populist senator from Vermont, suspended his presidential campaign in April and endorsed presumptive nominee Joe Biden a week later. But Sanders pledged to keep his name on the ballot in all upcoming primaries and caucuses to accumulate as many delegates as possible at this summer’s convention.