Free Republic

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is pushing back against a federal judge's request for more information about the deportation flights that took off over the weekend after President Donald Trump invoked the rarely used Alien Enemies Act. The government submitted a filing Wednesday morning asking for a pause of Boasberg's order to answer his questions. "Continuing to beat a dead horse solely for the sake of prying from the Government legally immaterial facts and wholly within a sphere of core functions of the Executive Branch is both purposeless and frustrating to the consideration of the actual legal issues at stake...

A federal judge in Seattle on Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order pausing the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, siding with arguments that the order likely exceeded the president's authority. “The president has substantial discretion to suspend refugee admissions. But that authority is not limitless,” U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead said in his decision. "He cannot ignore Congress’ detailed framework for refugee admissions and the limits it places on the president’s ability to suspend the same." Between the halt in admissions, staff layoffs at refugee agencies and the indefinite suspension of family reunification, Whitehead said there appeared to be an...

A federal judge on Tuesday barred the Justice Department from sharing former special counsel Jack Smith's final report on the classified documents case against Donald Trump with members of Congress. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, found there was no urgent need for the Justice Department to share the report with the chair and ranking members of the House and Senate judiciary committees while an appeal involving Trump's co-defendants in the case is still pending. Then-U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said earlier this month he would not make the report public until the appeals involving Trump co-defendants Walt...

The two Georgia election workers defamed by Rudy Giuliani are seeking to take possession of his multimillion-dollar homes in New York and Florida and some of his valuable personal property, including three Yankees World Series rings.Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea "Shaye" Moss, were awarded $146 million in damages last year after a judge found Giuliani liable for repeatedly defaming them by falsely accusing them of election fraud during the 2020 presidential election. They filed action seeking to get ahold of his properties in federal court in New York on Friday. They argue the move is necessary because, "Mr. Giuliani...

The special master appointed to review documents federal agents seized at Donald Trump’s Florida estate has given the former president until next Friday to back up his allegation that FBI planted evidence in the search on Aug. 8. Following the FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Trump and his lawyers have publicly insinuated on multiple occasions without providing evidence that agents had planted evidence during the search. “Planting information anyone?” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Aug. 12. In an filing Thursday, Senior U.S. District Judge Raymond J. Dearie of New York, the court-appointed special master,...

The former Florida tax official whose criminal case spawned a sex trafficking investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz is expected to plead guilty, court filings show. Joel Greenberg, the former Seminole County tax collector, had previously pleaded not guilty to several charges, including stalking, wire fraud and sex trafficking of a minor. But it was revealed in court last month that Greenberg had been in talks with prosecutors to plead guilty. At the time, Greenberg lawyer Fritz Scheller told reporters, “I’m sure Matt Gaetz isn’t feeling very comfortable today," later clarifying that when he said Gaetz "was worried, let me tell...

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Friday that she's been working with "a fairly small group" of Republican senators to make sure witnesses can be called in President Donald Trump's impending Senate impeachment trial. "We should be completely open to calling witnesses," Collins told reporters in Bangor, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported. She declined to say who or how many GOP lawmakers she's been working with, but said “I am hopeful that we can reach an agreement on how to proceed with the trial that will allow the opportunity for both the House and the president's counsel if they choose...

Laura Cooper, the top Pentagon official overseeing U.S. policy regarding Ukraine, told House impeachment investigators last month that President Donald Trump directed the relevant agencies to freeze aid to Ukraine over the summer, according to a transcript of her testimony released Monday.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is dropping out of the 2020 presidential race, he announced Wednesday night on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.” "It's become clear that I'm not going to be carrying the ball, I'm not going to be the president so I’m withdrawing tonight from the race," he told Maddow, vowing he'd help keep the other 2020 candidates focused on issue of climate change, the focal point of his campaign. "I’ve been fighting climate change for 25 years and I’ve never been so confident of the ability of America now to reach critical mass to move the ball."