Free Republic

A federal judge on Thursday agreed to toss a lawsuit from former CIA Director John Brennan, arguing he did not yet have standing to sue over an investigation targeting him for his role in reviewing the 2016 election. Brennan brought the suit in July, seeking to compel the Department of Justice (DOJ) to preserve records related to the investigation, saying they would be needed for an expected vindictive prosecution filing if an indictment was brought. But U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb said the matter was not yet ripe, agreeing with the Trump administration to toss the suit. “To have standing...

When an anti-abortion activist held a sign depicting a fetus in utero with the caption "What about her body and her rights?" to the side of a University of South Florida weekly open-air market, campus police didn't just order him into a so-called free speech zone, as did Tucson, Ariz. police when an evangelist showed up to a nonsectarian Christmas street festival. USF police arrested and jailed Tyler Newton for 14 hours on Sept. 23 at the behest of campus officials for standing with his sign and sharing his "abolitionist" views with passers-by, a new First Amendment lawsuit claims. Describing...

Law Enforcement Actions in Ohio and Texas Result in Charges, Arrests, and Seizures of Approximately 187 Computer Devices Today the Department of Justice announced coordinated actions against the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea (DPRK) government’s schemes to fund its regime through remote information technology (IT) work for U.S. companies. These actions include an indictment, two arrests, searches of multiple known or suspected “laptop farms” in Texas pursuant to “Operation Lonestar Roundup,” and the seizure of approximately 187 computer devices used by DPRK IT workers. “North Korea’s rogue regime uses its pervasive IT worker schemes to raise revenue for various...

An employee of OpenAI has been arrested for and charged with using or endeavoring to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications. Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a national of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, was arrested on Oct. 9, and made his initial appearance in federal court today. “This serious situation underscores why winning the global super intelligence race is a national security prerogative — and why President Trump’s leadership in creating the Super Intelligence Force is so important,” said Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton. “I thank Director Patel and our FBI partners for their diligence...

Since the Trump Justice Department warned state and local election officials that they could be charged with allowing fraudulent voting activities, more than 200 arrests and indictments have been secured in a crackdown on election fraud and noncitizen voting, and that number could double soon, a top official revealed to Just the News. "I think there are a lot of nervous election officials because I think some of them know that they've been looking the other way when this is happening, and we're catching it all over the country," Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said Monday night in an interview...

WASHINGTON — A Philadelphia federal judge referred the City of Brotherly Love’s George Soros-backed District Attorney Larry Krasner to the Justice Department Tuesday for investigation into whether he violated the law while trying to protect the reputation of his top underling. US District Judge Paul Diamond, a George W. Bush appointee, also ordered that both Krasner and Assistant District Attorney Matthew Stiegler be removed from involvement in relitigating a 2009 murder case at the center of the scandal. In a shocking memo, Diamond wrote he had “reluctantly concluded that Philadelphia’s highest law enforcement official and one of his top assistants...

“It’s astonishing that anything exists.” — Ludwig Wittgenstein Is this a week to drain our souls, or what? Yesterday, the memory of Charlie Kirk, a decent young man known for acting nobly in an ignoble era, cut down (it is alleged in court) by a pathetic product of Woke cultism — the trans avenging angel, avatar of our national mental illness. And today, the memory of 9/11, for which no alt-theory or engineering lecture can obviate the lonely arc of those little bodies free-falling out of the flaming towers into nothingness. So, we move on because there is nothing else...

The Justice Department announced Friday that an Afghan woman whose sons were connected to the 2024 Election Day terror plot has been deported from the United States through the never-before-used Alien Terrorist Removal Court. Nazira Haji Zada, 47 years old and living in Fort Worth, Texas, was deported last month through the unusual court, and she agreed to accept the "terrorist" label that bars her from ever returning to the United States, the department said. The Justice Department accused Zada of working to “indoctrinate her children with ISIS ideology and have them pledge loyalty to ISIS," which resulted in her...

Joe diGenova, the prosecutor who was tapped by Attorney General Todd Blanche to supervise the "grand conspiracy" investigation targeting Obama- and Biden-era officials, abruptly resigned on Thursday. In a brief call with CBS News, diGenova said he had turned in his resignation letter to Blanche at 3 p.m. on Thursday. "It was an honor and a privilege to serve the president and the department," he said. He added that his wife, attorney Victoria Toensing, who also worked with the team of federal prosecutors in Fort Pierce, Florida, will be leaving the Justice Department on Friday. diGenova declined to comment on...

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy on Sunday teased an upcoming announcement about the Trump administration’s fraud crackdown. In a post on X, Duffy said there would be “unprecedented fraud crackdown” announcement on Monday. “TOMORROW: UNPRECEDENTED FRAUD CRACKDOWN,” the secretary wrote. In the post, he also tagged Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Justice and the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, suggesting a multi-department effort targeting fraud. Duffy did not disclose details of the announcement, including when or where it will take place, what type of fraud will...

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., once falsely accused President Ronald Reagan's CIA of all but causing urban cocaine dealing in the '80s. She claimed that Reagan, by working with Nicaraguan drug dealers to defeat the communists running that country, colluded with them to created the urban drug epidemic. Never mind that The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times all debunked Waters' claim. At a town hall meeting about these allegations, Waters shouted, "If I never do anything else in this career as a member of Congress, I'm gonna make somebody pay for what they've done to...

Back in June, the Justice Department approved the Paramount deal to buy Warner Bros., a merger that would give David Ellison control over not just Warner Bros. but CNN and HBO Max, too. The merger is happening because Warner Bros. cannot stand on its own anymore, but the Left isn't happy about this. They think Ellison, who has worked with President Trump in the past, will allow some sort of weird MAGA influence over the network. Advertisement In July, 12 states moved to block the merger, including California Attorney General Rob Bonta, citing concerns about a "reduction in competition" and...

There are cases where the law tells you what happened but leaves out almost everything that explains why it happened… and that can be very troubling, and you go straight into the weaponization pool. Shana Gaviola’s case feels like one of those situations. The federal government’s version of this case is brutal and really straightforward. They say Gaviola violated a restraining order involving her teenage son, arranged to have him taken from California to a Christian boarding school in Missouri, and the people transporting him kept him handcuffed for more than 24 hours. She broke the law, a jury convicted...

The Justice Department is planning to deploy a record 1,000 federal monitors to polling places throughout the U.S. for the midterm elections, the head of the department's Civil Rights Division said this week. Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, made the announcement in remarks to Bloomberg on Monday. The Civil Rights Division has long sent out monitors to polling places throughout the country to ensure compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act. That law prohibits discrimination in voting and ensures voters are not intimidated or otherwise prevented from casting a ballot on the basis of...

A federal appeals court just handed DOJ a win in its investigation of a telehealth clinic that prescribes gender-transition treatment, including to minors. QueerDoc, a Washington-based practice, got a HIPAA subpoena from DOJ demanding 15 categories of records: personnel files, billing data, communications with drug manufacturers, and patient medical records and consent forms. DOJ has argued that the clinic's webpages promoting off-label puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones count as unlawful drug "labeling" under the FDCA's misbranding provisions. A district judge quashed the subpoena in its entirety, finding the DOJ issued it to advance the administration's declared goal of ending gender-transition...

The federal government's ban on carrying firearms in U.S. post offices may soon be over, now that the Dept. of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel has issued an advisory opinion stating the ban does not comply with federal law. … The OLC opinion argues that in order to legally carry, both the entry into the federal facility and the carrying of the firearm must be for a lawful purpose. … Carrying arms for self-defense when entering a building held open to the public is a paradigmatic lawful purpose. The Supreme Court recognized as much in District of Columbia v. Heller,...

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division has uncovered roughly $350 million in alleged fraud across the Southeastern U.S., the Daily Caller has learned. The charges span seven states in 17 different cases and involve SNAP benefits, Small Business Administration loans, housing benefits and tax fraud, officials told the Caller. The DOJ is expected to announce the cases Thursday alongside state partners in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina, which helped uncover the fraud. Going forward, the seven states have agreed to data-sharing agreements with the division that will give the DOJ access...

More than 50 officials from seven southeastern states convened Thursday to sign a data-sharing agreement with the Department of Justice aimed at rooting out fraud. Across the seven states, officials have uncovered roughly $350 million in alleged fraud, according to information shared with the Daily Caller. Under the Memorandum of Understanding signed Thursday, the states will give the DOJ access to “publicly available corporate registration and public benefits payment data held by these state agencies.” It is data officials said will help the department spot fraud patterns faster. Colin McDonald, assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s National Fraud...

It’s moments like these when you really miss Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). The memorial service for the late South Carolina Republican was held on Tuesday, and Mr. Graham’s ability to navigate the Senate, his skills in retail politics, and his experience made him invaluable, especially in his semi-ambassador role between the Senate GOP and the Trump White House. Much of Trump's legislative agenda is uncertain after his passing on July 11 at age 71 from an aortic dissection. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s full confirmation was one of the first issues at risk, and it has now become a reality....

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced Tuesday that she will defy a Justice Department request for information about the identities of the 6,600 non-citizens who were erroneously registered to vote in the Garden State. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, had demanded the names, dates of birth, addresses, nationalities and registration dates of the non-citizens on New Jersey’s voter-rolls – 400 of whom are believed to have cast ballots – on July 21 and gave the Democratic governor a five-day deadline to comply with the request. “Today, I informed [Dhillon] that New Jersey will...