Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s capital sued to block President Donald Trump’s takeover of its police department in court on Friday, hours after his administration escalated its intervention into the city’s law enforcement by naming a federal official as the new emergency head of the department.Washington’s police department chief said Trump’s move would threaten law and order by upending the command structure. “In my nearly three decades in law enforcement, I have never seen a single government action that would cause a greater threat to law and order than this dangerous directive,” Police Chief Pamela Smith said in a court...

“It is my opinion that the Bondi order is unlawful, and that you are not legally obligated to follow it,” DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb wrote The District of Columbia on Friday morning sued the Trump administration over Attorney General Pam Bondi's appointment of an emergency commissioner for the city's police department.The suit appeared inevitable since Bondi made the announcement Thursday afternoon, as part of President Trump's initiative to send federal agents to the nation's capitol to curb violent crime, and top D.C. officials challenged Bondi's move last night.DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in the lawsuit that Trump...

Two police officers who defended the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack filed a federal civil lawsuit, asking a judge to order the hanging of a plaque to honor police heroes who protected the Capitol, lawmakers and staff from rioters. The lawsuit cites a 2022 law signed by President Biden that required the honorary plaque be hung by March 2023. The plaque has been completed and in storage since at least last year, but GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson has not committed to installing it at the Capitol. The dispute over the plaque has angered victims and inflamed a...

President Donald Trump gave full pardons to former Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers convicted in connection to the death of Karon Hylton-Brown, 20, who was fatally struck while being chased by one of the officers in 2020. Trump, on Wednesday night, announced full and unconditional pardons for former officer Terence Sutton and Andrew Zabavsky, who was a lieutenant for the metropolitan police. “I HEREBY DESIGNATE, direct, and empower, the Pardon Attorney, as my representative, to sign a grant of clemency to the person named herein. The Pardon Attorney shall declare that her action is the act of the...

The J6 riot was not an insurrection but a protest that escalated into an out-of-control riot because then-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund was denied intelligence about potential threats that day and denied National Guard backup that he was begging for. In the cold light of hindsight, a new Trump administration will ensure that the narrative of J6 is rewritten to reflect the truth of that tragic day instead of the lies spun by Democrat Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi’s J6 committee. Sund is a crucial witness to history. Pelosi made him her scapegoat, firing him immediately, but she knew that he...

Missing American Feared a Victim of 'Dirty War' April 13, 2007 The Financial Times Guy Dinmore in Washington and Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran Just why Robert Levinson, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and now private investigator, should venture into Iran to meet a American fugitive wanted for murder in the US remains a mystery that the highest Bush administration authorities are trying to unravel. As the Financial Times revealed this week, Mr Levinson disappeared on March 8 after a six-hour meeting on the Iranian island of Kish with Dawud Salahuddin, an American who converted to Islam and was...

Recently released bodycam video from DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers provides more angles to the Jan. 6 beating of protester Victoria White in the Lower West Terrace tunnel at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.The newest bodycam footage, from Officer Jeffrey Leslie, was captured directly behind MPD Cmdr. Jason Bagshaw, who landed most of the baton strikes and punches to White’s head and face during a four-minute span on Jan. 6, 2021.

Footage captures DC officers talking Antifa, exhorting rioters to run into Capitol and may provide roadmap to future security reforms to avoid "blue-on-blue tragedy." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ VIDEO AT LINK................. Congressional investigators have obtained hours of video footage from undercover officers who were dispatched by the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department to the U.S. Capitol to conduct electronic surveillance during the Jan. 6 riot, a critical new piece of evidence that could help lawmakers fashion long-delayed security reforms. The footage reviewed by Just the News ranges from the mundane -- such as chronicling moments when Capitol Police officers are impacted by tear...