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The U.S. Justice Department has asked a federal judge to hold Donald Trump's office in contempt of court for failing to fully comply with a subpoena to return all classified documents in the former president's possession, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell has not yet held a hearing or ruled on the request, the newspaper reported. One of the key areas of disagreement centers on the Trump legal team's repeated refusal to designate a custodian of records to sign a document attesting that all classified materials have been...

Judge Rules On Election Workers’ Suit Against Giuliani A federal judge on Monday declined to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed against former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani by two women who served as election workers in Georgia in November 2020. In the lawsuit filed last December, Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss accused Giuliani of defaming them by falsely stating that the pair had engaged in election fraud while counting ballots at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. The lawsuit says Giuliani repeatedly pushed debunked claims that the mother-and-daughter pair pulled out suitcases of illegal ballots and committed other...

WASHINGTON (CN) — A federal judge imposed a prison sentence plus house arrest and probation on a Tennessee man who stormed the Capitol, saying the government wants to keep an eye on people like him as the 2024 presidential election approaches. U.S. District Chief Judge Beryl Howell spoke at the Thursday hearing about the “conundrum” many sentencing judges are facing as they decide how to sentence a nonviolent Capitol riot defendant like Blake Reed, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of entering and remaining in a restricted building. There’s a trade-off in punishment, she said, with jail time on...

<p>Special Counsel John Durham on March 4 told a federal judge not to dismiss a charge against a lawyer who lied to the FBI about representing Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.</p><p>Michael Sussman was representing the Clinton campaign when in 2016 he passed along information to an FBI counsel. His lawyers say the documents “raised national security concerns” while prosecutors describe them as purportedly detailing a covert channel between a Russian bank and the business of Donald Trump, Clinton’s rival at the time.</p>

The leader of the Oath Keepers and two of the men captured on video urging people to enter or proceed into the U.S. Capitol on January 6 have been subpoenaed by the defense to testify in the government’s case against Kelly Meggs, an Oath Keeper accused of conspiring to storm the Capitol.Stewart Rhodes, Ray Epps, and John Sullivan have been subpoenaed to testify at Meggs’ trial in a move defense attorney Jon Moseley told National File he believes will prove his client’s innocence, and will prove the entire prosecution to be politically motivated.

One of the more bizarre January 6 cases delved further into the peculiar when an accused Capitol rioter who was arrested while touring in a Broadway production of "Jesus Christ Superstar" earlier this month attended his first court hearing on Monday. James Beeks, an actor who was playing Judas in the musical production, was arrested in Milwaukee last week on charges related to the Capitol riot after investigators attended two performances of the show to find him... ...The actor's antics irritated Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court in Washington, DC, when he declined to represent himself, saying,...

A judge playing a central role overseeing the criminal cases stemming from the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol building has forcefully rejected claims from many alleged rioters that they’re being treated more harshly than people who broke the law during the widespread protests that arose last year in response to the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. Speaking during a sentencing hearing for Capitol riot defendant Glenn Croy, Chief Judge Beryl Howell disputed the notion that participants charged in last year’s unrest were treated leniently. She also insisted that the motivations of those involved rendered the Jan. 6...

A Colorado man who in August pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of “parading” inside the Capitol during the January 6 “insurrection” begged a federal judge for leniency, declaring himself “an idiot,” new court filings show, and repeatedly apologized to America for his participation in the day’s events.Colorado Springs resident Glen Wes Lee Croy, 46, wrote in the letter to the federal judge in his case, as reported by WUSA in Denver:I am guilty of being an idiot and walking into that building, and again apologize to America and everyone for my role in participating.Croy apologized in a number of...

Afederal judge thrashed the Justice Department on Thursday for offering “petty offense” plea deals to Jan. 6 defendants who she said tarnished America’s reputation in the world and enabled violent rioters to threaten the peaceful transfer of power — even if they committed no violence themselves..... Howell then made clear that she considered all participants in the Jan. 6 Capitol breach — which the Justice Department now estimates at 2,000 to 2,500 people — enablers of an assault against the republic. “The damage to the reputation of our democracy, which is usually held up around the world … that reputation...

WASHINGTON—Attorney General Merrick Garland’s move last month to limit Justice Department probes of journalists is facing an early test from an unlikely source: a federal judge overseeing a criminal case against a talk-show host on Infowars, a right-wing website known for touting discredited conspiracy theories. In an order made public Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said prosecutors refused to answer on the record whether they had complied with the department’s updated media policy when seeking a warrant to arrest the talk-show host, Owen Shroyer, for his alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. “The events...

Beryl Howell, the chief judge of the federal court in Washington deluged with more than 550 prosecutions from the Capitol riot, raised questions about why some defendants were being permitted to resolve their criminal cases by pleading guilty to a misdemeanor and why the amount of money prosecutors are seeking to recover through those plea deals was based on a relatively paltry estimate of about $1.5 million in damages caused by the rioters. Howell aired her doubts during what was expected to be a routine morning hearing to take the guilty plea of a Capitol riot defendant, Glenn Croy of...

Richard “Bigo” Barnett, whose conduct in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office made him among the most visible faces of the Capitol Hill insurrection, was ordered Thursday to remain jailed pending trial. Mr. Barnett, 60, of Gravette, Arkansas, was remanded to federal custody by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell, who days earlier blocked a magistrate’s decision that he waits for trial at home. Federal prosecutors have charged over 150 people so far with crimes related to storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, and the FBI is still trying to identify a number of suspects nearly a month...

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton reacted today to a federal court decision , which Judicial Watch may appeal, upholding the secrecy of controversial subpoenas for phone records issued by Adam Schiff, Chairman of the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence relating to the impeachment of President Trump. “Adam Schiff secretly subpoenaed, without court authorization, the phone records of Rudy Giuliani and then published the phone records of innocent Americans, including President Trump’s lawyers, a member of Congress, and a journalist. And now a federal court ruled today that Schiff, or any member of Congress can’t be...

The Department of Justice will appeal to the Supreme Court after it was ordered to hand over sealed documents from former special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation to Congress. The department on Friday asked the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to stay its ruling while it petitions the high court. "Whether and under what circumstances Congress may resort to the courts to seek grand jury materials generated in a criminal investigation in aid of an impeachment inquiry is plainly a question of great significance to all three branches of government, as well as to the functioning of the grand jury...

A Trump administration rule that would have tightened work requirements for food stamps was blocked by a federal judge on Friday, who cited the rapidly spreading coronavirus in her decision. D.C. District Court Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell granted a preliminary injunction blocking the new rule, which government estimates predicted would kick as many as 700,000 Americans off of food stamps. “Especially now, as a global pandemic poses widespread health risks, guaranteeing that government officials at both the federal and state levels have flexibility to address the nutritional needs of residents and ensure their well-being through programs like SNAP, is...

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a ruling that allows House Democrats to view secret grand jury information from Robert Mueller’s Russia probe that had been redacted from his report. The court’s 2-1 decision agreed with a lower court that the House Judiciary Committee can obtain the information for impeachment investigations of President Trump under an exception for “judicial proceedings,” per the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. ~snip~ The DOJ, opposing the House Democrats, argued that because Trump had already been impeached and acquitted by the time the court was to rule, there was no longer a...

WASHINGTON—A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that Congress can have access to grand-jury materials from Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in a 2-1 ruling, sided with the Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee, which sought access to material that was redacted from the 448-page special counsel report. as well as some of the exhibits and transcripts referenced in the report. ... TO READ THE FULL STORY

Judge Beryl Howell could be the one person who ultimately decides the fate of President Trump. Have you ever heard of her? She’s the judge who reportedly approved of Special Investigator Robert Mueller’s request for a grand jury to question Trump officials. Howell was made a federal judge in 2010 by President Obama. She has extensive knowledge when it comes to cyber-security, so she understands some of the intricacies involved in tech-heavy cases. Her experience comes from working in the office of Senator Patrick Leahy and in the Senate Judiciary Committee. **SNIP** One former federal prosecutor is recommending that the...

A U.S. District Court Judge in Washington, D.C., issued a statement Thursday obtained by The Hill rejecting the notion that outside pressure will influence the court’s ruling on Roger Stone’s case. Judge Beryl A. Howell responded to President Trump’s attacks on Stone’s sentencing judge, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, assuring “public criticism or pressure is not a factor” in the court’s decision. Howell and Berman Jackson are both Obama appointees. SNIP Howell further underscored that judges do not take sentencing lightly and said that his colleagues take all aspects of the case into consideration when they make a decision....

There is an important granular aspect to the validity of the House impeachment process that few are paying attention to. If the HJC loses this case in the DC Appellate Court, it means there is no constitutional foundation recognized to the “impeachment inquiry.” Without the constitutional recognition of the judicial branch then: (a) Pelosi/Lawfare have to restart the process with a genuine House vote; or (b) the ongoing impeachment process will have no recognized constitutional standing; and (c) the Senate could ignore any House impeachment vote, cast without recognized constitutional standing. On October 25th DC Judge Beryl Howell granted the...