Free Republic

The Justice Department is preparing to roll back the legal protections big tech companies have used to shield themselves from lawsuits over their content, a move that comes after President Donald Trump threatened to shut them down over what he says is bias against conservatives. The reforms would make companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter more liable for a wide array of content posted on their sites. And it would also push those companies to be more aggressive in addressing harmful conduct on their sites, The Wall Street Journal reported, and to be fairer and more consistent in their decisions...

The FBI and California Attorney General's Office will now be monitoring the investigation of a man found hanging from a tree in Palmdale, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said at a press conference Monday. Robert L. Fuller, 24, was hanging from a tree early Wednesday. Fire department personnel who responded to the scene determined he was dead, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said in a statement. Fuller's death was described as "an alleged death by suicide." The Department of Justice and the FBI announced Monday they will be reviewing the hanging death of Fuller as well as the...

Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Committee are requesting that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launch an investigation into reports of white supremacist groups interfering to instigate violence at peaceful protests. The Democrats said the Trump administration is making baseless accusations that antifa is involved in an “effort to delegitimize” the peaceful protests and to “win cheap political points” while ignoring the involvement of white supremacist groups. “The Trump Administration’s decision to ignore the involvement of white supremacist groups in these protests in favor of spreading wildly exaggerated rumors about Antifa has only...

I’m reposting a prior research outline below because something odd is happening in the background of this story. I’m not sure what it is, but there are small -seemingly disconnected- issues surfacing, that might tie back to this much bigger and purposefully avoided story.  I have learned to trust my instincts on this. ♦One – The FISA reauthorization legislation was dropped by Nancy Pelosi and all media conversation immediately vaporized. ♦Two – Crowdstrike is very concerned about this story every time it surfaces. ♦Three – If you understand the scale and scope of surveillance… does that explain the behavior of...

At the end of the day, Judge Henderson may decide, based on the long and sordid history of this case, that it isn’t just Judge Sullivan’s amicus who is intemperate. Over the course of nearly two hours, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals quizzed attorneys for Michael Flynn, the Department of Justice, and Judge Emmet Sullivan. The questions posed during oral argument suggest the court is hesitant to order Sullivan to dismiss the criminal case against Flynn — at least at this time. How the court will rule, however, likely rests in the hands of Judge...

Prince Andrew will launch an extraordinary public fight back today after US authorities made a formal request for him to be quizzed over the Epstein affair. The Duke of York is poised this afternoon to release “evidence” that he says will show he has been cooperating with U.S.officials. He is expected to say that the Department of Justice has made false claims that they have faced a wall of silence from him and his team. The dramatic update comes as it emerged that the US Department of Justice has filed a “mutual legal assistance” (MLA) request for help to the...

U.S. Attorney General William Barr rebuked the false narrative perpetuated by legacy media Sunday that protestors cleared near the White House last week were gathering in peaceful demonstrations. On Monday, protestors were dispersed by park police by pepper balls as the city neared at 7 p.m. curfew by Barr’s orders moments before President Donald Trump walked across the street to observe the damage done to the historic St. John’s Church.“They were not peaceful protestors,” Barr said on CBS’ Face the Nation. “That’s one of the big lies that the media is⁠—seems to be perpetuating at this point.”CBS’ Margaret Brennan pushed...

Attorney General Bill Barr announced Thursday that the Justice Department has evidence that Antifa and similar extremist groups instigated violent activity among those protesting George Floyd’s death during a police arrest in Minnesota last month. “While many have peacefully expressed their anger and grief, others have hijacked protests to engage in lawlessness - violent rioting, arson, looting of businesses, and public property, assaults on law enforcement officers and innocent people, and even the murder of a federal agent. Such senseless acts of anarchy are not exercises of First Amendment rights,” he said at a DOJ press conference. They are crimes,...

Well, it’s former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s day to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the Russian collusion fiasco. And it’s not going very well. Well, for starters, Rosenstein doesn’t feel that disgraced ex-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe lied to him. McCabe was fired because he lied. He, like Robert Mueller, also appeared to put the second act of this clown show on autopilot. As Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said, Rosenstein was either incompetent or complicit in this whole witch hunt. He also said that knowing what he knows now, he would not have signed off on the...

President Trump on Wednesday blasted John Huber, the U.S. attorney from Utah whom former Attorney General Jeff Sessions once tapped to review Clinton-related issues, saying he did “absolutely nothing.” “Undercover Huber is a great spoof, funny, but at the same time sad, because the real @JohnWHuber did absolutely NOTHING,” Trump tweeted early Wednesday. “He was a garbage disposal unit for important documents & then tap, tap, tap just drag it along & run out of time.” He added: “A.G. Jeff Sessions was played like a drum!”

Against the backdrop of a national crisis over race and law enforcement, the Senate Judiciary Committee plans to convene a hearing on Wednesday about the now-closed investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. **SNIP** The sole witness is former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who'll likely be grilled about revelations about the Russia investigation that have come to light since he left the Justice Department last year. The political context has evolved: Republicans want to tie former Vice President Joe Biden into what they call the abuses of power from the end of the Obama era. **SNIP** In the...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday asked the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court decision granting House Democrats access to redacted grand jury materials from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. The Monday filing serves as the Trump administration’s formal appeal of a March order to hand over secret transcripts and exhibits that Democratic leaders of the House Judiciary Committee initially sought as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. The justices previously granted the administration’s request to halt the disclosure order, issued by a divided three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, from...

Judge Emmet G. Sullivan should not be required to act as a “mere rubber stamp” for the government’s unusual move to undo the guilty plea of President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, the judge’s lawyers told a federal appeals court in Washington on Monday. Sullivan’s attorneys asked the appeals court to stay on the sidelines to give the judge an opportunity to ensure the “integrity of the judicial process” and to rule on the Justice Department’s request to dismiss Flynn’s case. The judge must evaluate Flynn’s dramatically different claims, Sullivan’s lawyer Beth Wilkinson told the court: “What, if...

Attorney General Bill Barr has directed the Bureau of Prisons to send riot teams to Washington, D.C. and Miami to respond to the violent protests and riots that have broken out in the cities and across the country in response to the death of George Floyd, Fox News has learned. A senior Justice Department official told Fox News Monday that Barr has directed the BOP to send Special Operation Response Teams to the two cities. The riot team was present in Miami during protests over the weekend. The official told Fox News that all FBI field offices have set up...

On Sunday, President Trump took aim at Antifa, which apparently has driven the violent side of the protests ripping through America's Democrat-run cities. With full-throated support from Attorney General Barr, Trump is designating Antifa as a terrorist organization. This is an extremely important announcement because Antifa is more than just a terrorist group. It is, in fact, the paramilitary arm of the Democrat Party. *snip* Antifa claims to be Anti-Fascist, so people think it’s a good organization. It’s not. When fascism appeared in the 1930s, its biggest enemy was communism. This was not because fascism and communism were antithetical ideologies....

Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is a master of prevarication and deflection. He holds an M.S. in BS and a Ph.D. in vacuous excuses. He’s a professor emeritus of duplicity and deception. As a prodigious suck-up, he’s the Eddie Haskell of lawyers. We can expect Rosenstein’s skill set to be on full display Wednesday when he finally and belatedly appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee as its first witness in an investigation into the origins and evolution of the fallacious Trump-Russia collusion probe. During his ignominious tenure at the Justice Department, Rosenstein was at the center of the Russia...

More than two dozen former prosecutors, judges and active trial lawyers filed a brief backing the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) decision to dismiss the case against President Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn. The bipartisan group of former government attorneys are asking U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan for them to formally file an amicus brief on the case. The group includes former Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr and U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.). “The issue presented in this case is whether the court has discretion to deny a motion to dismiss to which the defendant consents, as...

The Justice Department said on Wednesday that it opposes House-proposed changes to surveillance reform legislation and will urge President Trump to veto the bill if it reaches his desk. The statement, from Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd, is the latest setback for the legislation, which is currently scheduled to get a vote on the House floor on Wednesday, after Trump on Tuesday night urged GOP opposition to vote against it. The veto threat from the Justice Department is a marked shift from March, when Attorney General William Barr helped negotiate the initial version of the bill with House leadership. The...

S. Lee Merritt, an attorney for the family of Ahmaud Arbery, told CNN on Monday that the US Department of Justice is investigating the shooting death as a hate crime.

The Michael Flynn case has gone off the hinges. In reality, there is no case. The Department of Justice has filed a motion to dismiss the case against the former national security adviser after new documents showed a large-scale plot from within the FBI to entrap Flynn despite a lack of evidence concerning Russian collusion. Remember, Flynn made some phone calls to the Russians which made him a target. These weren’t pernicious calls.This was standard operating procedure for any incoming administration. Yet, James Comey wanted to get Flynn at all costs.  No one has opposed the motion to dismiss. The...