Free Republic

Former President Donald Trump has reportedly said he wants to be hauled into court in handcuffs if he’s slapped with unprecedented charges in the “hush money” case involving porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump, 76, told advisers of his plan, saying that if he has to go through the ordeal of getting arrested and arraigned, he’d prefer making it a “spectacle,” The Guardian said Wednesday, citing unidentified sources close to him. The ex-president — who’s seeking the Republican nomination for a third White House bid in 2024 — also wants to avoid any special treatment that could make him look weak,...

Gov. Kathy Hochul treated herself to nearly $1 billion worth of pork-barrel spending in this year’s state budget — allowing her to freely hand out cash as she runs for election against Republican challenger Lee Zeldin. Hochul and her Democratic allies in the Legislature added the $920 million worth of outlays to the $220.5 billion fiscal plan in an 11th-hour move in April that government watchdogs warn is wide open to abuse. “These slush funds are totally unaccountable. It’s not how public dollars should be doled out,” senior policy adviser Rachael Fauss of Reinvent Albany said Friday.

If this isn’t a sign of the times, nothing is. Amid rising crime in the Big Apple, one of Mayor Eric Adams’ aides was mugged in broad daylight Tuesday while scouting a location in Brooklyn for a planned visit by Hizzoner, law enforcement sources told The Post. The brazen caper took place even though the victim, a civilian member of Adams’ advance team, cautioned that he was a well-connected City Hall employee, a high-ranking police source said. “You don’t want to do this. I work for the mayor,” he told the two crooks. But in a show of utter contempt,...

The Hollywood lawyer who allegedly loaned Hunter Biden $2 million-plus to pay off his tax debts is reportedly working on a documentary about the scandal-scarred first son’s life since he came under scrutiny for his controversial overseas business dealings. The project is apparently part of the legal and media strategy being developed by Kevin Morris amid an ongoing federal grand jury probe of Biden over potential tax fraud, money laundering and violations of lobbying laws. It was revealed by a Democratic Party source in Washington, DC, according to CBS News, which first reported on the connections between the two men....

President Biden sent his inner circle a devastating analysis of then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s looming legal troubles during the 2016 race after he opted against running, according to an email stored on his son Hunter’s infamous laptop. “Interesting,” Biden wrote in the subject line of the email, which contained a link to a column published by Real Clear Politics.

President Biden and the White House have repeatedly denied that he and Hunter Biden ever discussed the first son’s controversial overseas business dealings — yet there are at least a dozen times when Joe Biden had to know what his son was doing.

Hunter Biden’s ex-wife plans to break her silence about how his cheating and substance abuse destroyed their marriage in a new memoir that’s set for release during the lead-up to November’s critical mid-term elections. Kathleen Buhle’s “If We Break: A Memoir of Marriage, Addiction, and Healing” is described by its publisher as a “page-turning and heartbreaking” account of “why she kept so much hidden — from her daughters and herself — for so many years.” “When my marriage ended, I felt like I’d lost my sense of who I was,” Buhle told People magazine, which on Wednesday was first to...

HarperCollins Publishers has dropped plans to release a book by Chris Cuomo amid the controversy that led to his firing by CNN, The Post has learned. A spokesperson for the company’s Custom House imprint confirmed the decision Tuesday following a report that a listing for the planned hardcover was recently removed from the Amazon website. “I can confirm that we don’t intend to publish the book,” spokesperson Kelly Rudolph told The Post. Rudolph declined to elaborate.

Chris Cuomo could return to CNN as early as next month following his suspension for secretly helping his brother, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, try to counter the sexual harassment scandal that made him quit, the network’s chief media correspondent predicted. During an appearance on CNN’s “New Day” program Wednesday, Brian Stelter said it was a “complicated situation” because despite widespread outrage, “a lot of viewers … love Chris Cuomo and they want to see him back on the air.” “I think the bottom line is, [Chris] Cuomo is on the bench for now,” he said.

Disgraced ex-pol Anthony Weiner is trying to rebuild his shattered life — by running a company that makes countertops out of broken glass. The former Democratic congressman — whose serial sexting cost him his political career and later sent him to prison — was recently named CEO of IceStone, which has a factory in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, The Post has learned.

Twitter has refused to unlock The Post’s account unless the news organization deletes six tweets about its own reporting on Hunter Biden’s emails — despite a policy change sparked by outrage over that very same social-media suppression of the stories. In a Friday afternoon email, a Twitter representative told The Post, “While we’ve updated the policy, we don’t change enforcement retroactively. You will still need to delete the Tweets to regain access to your account.” The demand that The Post remove links to its own stories came even though a new policy announced Thursday night allows other users to tweet...

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s sister could be the Hermit Kingdom’s most brutal leader if she succeeds him, experts told The Post on Monday. Kim Yo Jong, 32, appeared poised to take the reins of power amid a claim that her older brother has been in a coma for months and his recent public appearances have been staged. “I haven’t seen any evidence, any indication of how she might rule, but my speculation — given the reputation and history of the family — is that she would rule with an iron fist,” retired US Army Col. David Maxwell said.

Some of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims will urge a judge to keep his former lover, Ghislaine Maxwell, locked up pending trial as an alleged accomplice in his infamous pedophilia scheme, according to court papers filed Monday. In addition, the “strong evidence” against Maxwell could soon get “even stronger” - with the help of additional witnesses who came forward following her arrest, prosecutors wrote. The Manhattan federal court filing says that a lawyer for one of Epstein’s victims has already asked prosecutors to tell Judge Alison Nathan that “their client opposes bail for the defendant.” “The Government also expects that one or...

Harvey Weinstein suggested that Jennifer Aniston “should be killed” upon learning that the National Enquirer was planning to report he sexually assaulted her, court papers revealed Tuesday. On Oct. 31, 2017, amid the barrage of #MeToo allegations against the disgraced movie mogul, Weinstein’s spokeswoman forwarded him an email from the Enquirer, the records show. “Not sure if you saw this one. Jennifer Aniston,” wrote Sallie Hofmeister, a senior executive at the powerhouse Sitrick public relations company. In its email, the Enquirer said that “Jennifer confided to a friend that during the production of the 2005 movie ‘Derailed’ Weinstein sexually assaulted...

State officials are investigating allegations of sexual misconduct and related cover-ups at NBC News -- and have interviewed potential witnesses including Megyn Kelly, The Post has learned... Former NBC staffer Brooke Nevils, who claims that Lauer raped her in 2014, is also among those who’ve been interviewed, as is Addie Zinone, who’s said she had an affair with Lauer when she was a "Today" show production assistant in 2000, sources said. Kelly -- who left NBC News with her $30 million contract intact following a "blackface" row in 2017 -- sat down with investigators in January, according to a source...

He has a dream — of leading a New York City that is home to far fewer Midwesterners. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams — the leading fundraiser in the 2021 mayoral race — used Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday to deliver an inflammatory broadside against newcomers from the nation’s heartland. “Go back to Iowa, you go back to Ohio,” he said during a speech in Harlem. “New York City belongs to the people that was here and made New York City what it is.” Speaking at the National Action Network’s “King Day Celebration,” hosted by founder the Rev....

Mayor de Blasio intervened in the prosecution of an accused anti-Semitic attacker — leading to her lock-up in a psych ward — because she was generating negative publicity for his administration, The Post has learned. Brooklyn’s supervising judge was forced to hold an unscheduled hearing late on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve after City Hall contacted the state Office of Court Administration about Tiffany Harris, 30.

So sorry we had to lock you up — please accept these parting gifts as an expression of our hope, it won’t happen again! Mayor Bill de Blasio’s latest soft-on-crime initiative has workers stationed on Rikers Island presenting newly released jailbirds with free transit passes and two $25 debit cards each, The Post has learned. Plans even call for the addition of prepaid, “burner”-style cellphones and drawstring bags for the ex-inmates to carry their swag, a source familiar with the program said. The “crime pays” giveaways build on another de Blasio policy — revealed by The Post last month — that showers freebies...

The woman suing Hunter Biden for paternity was a stripper at a Washington, DC, club he frequented around the time he was dating his brother’s widow, sources told The Post. Biden was repeatedly seen at the Mpire Club in the capital’s historic Dupont Circle neighborhood — where Lunden Alexis Roberts, the mother of his alleged love child, worked under the stage name “Dallas,” the sources said.

Jeffrey Epstein was found hanging in his Lower Manhattan jail cell with a bedsheet wrapped around his neck and secured to the top of a bunk bed, The Post has learned.