Free Republic

Former Attorney General Bill Barr did not improperly pressure prosecutors to reduce sentencing recommendations for political activist Roger Stone, according to a new government watchdog report. The exoneration of Barr came more than four years after a deluge of media reports alleging wrongdoing. However, J.P. Cooney, a Justice Department official now serving as Special Counsel Jack Smith’s top deputy, cultivated a politically toxic environment, disseminated baseless conspiracy theories about Trump and his political appointees, and engaged in unprofessional conduct as he oversaw the team making sentencing recommendations, according to the same report. Cooney is mentioned (as the “Fraud and Public...

For Justice Department employees who had spent weeks contemplating the possibility of two-time federal criminal defendant Donald Trump returning to the presidency, Joe Biden’s decision to drop out and endorse Kamala Harris offered a sense of relief. Former and current Justice Department employees believe that a future president Harris, a former prosecutor, unlike Trump, would respect the norms that have been in place to ensure DOJ independence in the half-century since Watergate. Those fears of another Trump term are central to a new letter endorsing Harris, signed by more than 40 former Justice Department officials who served under presidents of...

Some former Justice Department officials who served under Donald Trump during his first term fear that the Supreme Court’s recent immunity ruling will make it easier for him to use the department against his enemies if he is re-elected president. Other ex-officials downplayed the impact of the ruling — or endorsed it. Two former Justice Department officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the ruling would embolden Trump. They said it would give Trump cover to improperly pressure the Justice Department for his own political benefit — to prosecute an enemy or go easy on an ally — by...

The Washington Post is reporting that Special Counsel Jack Smith may try to convict former president Donald Trump all the way through the election and up to 11:59 am on January 20th. After the oath, the Justice Department has long maintained that it will not prosecute a sitting president.There is also a long-standing policy of the Justice Department to abstain from criminal proceedings before an election to avoid the appearance of trying to influence the outcome. Smith has signaled that he will discard that policy and that he is prepared to try Trump not only up to the election but...

John Solomon @jsolomonReports Justice Department looks for ways to continue January 6 cases after Supreme Court ruling From justthenews.com 4:15 PM · Jul 1, 2024

Garland reportedly requested for the president to claim executive privilege on the recordings, fearing that “releasing them could harm future efforts to get officials to cooperate with investigations and sit for taped interviews,” per the Post. Speaking before the House Judiciary Committee this week, Garland accused Republicans of “seeking contempt as a means of obtaining — for no legitimate purpose — sensitive law enforcement information that could harm the integrity of future investigations. This effort is only the most recent in a long line of attacks on the Justice Department’s work.”WATCH: Attorney General Merrick Garland Opening Statement: "I will not...

Eithan Haim blew the whistle on Texas Children’s Hospital’s illegal child sex-change program. Now he’s being prosecuted. A few years ago, Texas Children’s Hospital made no secret of its support for transgender medicine. Its doctors proudly administered puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and other medical interventions to children who self-identified as “trans.” Then the tone shifted. In the face of public pressure, CEO Mark Wallace announced that he was shutting down the child gender clinic. But doctors at the hospital, including Richard Ogden Roberts, David Paul, and Kristy Rialon, never stopped. The public would not have known if not for a...

Jack Poso 🇺🇸 @JackPosobiec BREAKING: GARLAND TO LAUNCH 'ELECTION THREAT TASK FORCE' TO GO AFTER ANYONE QUESTIONING ELECTION INTEGRITY IN 2024 HE WILL CREATE FBI ATTACK TEAMS TO TARGET ANYONE ATTEMPTING TO VERIFY OUR ELECTION PROCESS

Following Donald Trump’s conviction in Manhattan last week, Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer proclaimed, “The undeniable fact is Donald Trump went through the same legal process that all Americans go through, he was tried according to the facts and the law, and he was found guilty by a jury of his peers.” Nothing could be further from the truth, and Schumer knows it because his brother’s law firm, branded the “Biden-Era N.Y. Power Center” by Bloomberg, spurred the indictment of the former president. Sen. Schumer’s brother, Robert Schumer, is a partner in that law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton, and Garrison....

In response to Americans’ outcry over the political prosecutions of Donald Trump and a Manhattan jury convicting the former president on 34 felony counts, President Joe Biden declared, “It’s irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged, just because they don’t like the verdict.” Coming from the Commander-in-Rigging, this proclamation means nothing. Biden and those seeking to ensure his re-election have their hands all over Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of the former president. A lead prosecutor for Bragg during the trial was Matthew Colangelo. In December 2022, Colangelo left the Biden Department of Justice to “jump start” the...

The Department of Justice pushed back on the releasing of the audio tapes of special counsel Robert Hur's interview with President Joe Biden, citing "deep fake" concerns. The DOJ stated that if the audio tapes were released, they could potentially be altered by artificial intelligence and passed off as authentic. “The passage of time and advancements in audio, artificial intelligence, and ‘deep fake’ technologies only amplify concerns about malicious manipulation of audio files,” a Friday filing obtained by Politico states. “To be sure, other raw material to create a deepfake of President Biden’s voice is already available, but release of...

The chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government announced Friday that he is calling on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and prosecutor Matthew Colangelo to testify next month about “the unprecedented political prosecution of President Trump.” “This hearing will examine actions by state and local prosecutors to engage politically motivated prosecutions of federal officials, in particular the political prosecution of President Donald Trump by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote in letters to Bragg and Colangelo. The move comes one day after Bragg secured a conviction of Trump on 34 counts...

The Department of Justice saw fit to monitor the goings on within the group "Moms for Liberty," a grassroots organization designed to protect children and schools from radical leftist, especially when it came to matters of sex and LGBT indoctrination. According to the Daily Wire, the DOJ’s Community Relations Service (CRS) tracked the group alongside actual hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, as internal documents show. The emails that detail the DOJ's monitoring of Moms for Liberty were revealed thanks to a FOIA request from America First Legal on behalf of the Daily Wire. The CRS is tasked...

resident Biden plans to address former President Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial in a “White House setting” when the jury delivers its verdict, according to a report. The 81-year-old president’s message will be tailored to the outcome of the trial, according to Politico, but in any scenario, he intends to stress that the US legal system worked and Americans should respect the process. Biden will deliver remarks whether the 77-year-old former president is convicted, acquitted or the jury cannot agree on a verdict. Closing arguments in Trump’s trial over alleged hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels are...

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis appealed on Thursday a Georgia judge’s decision to dismiss six charges lodged at former President Donald Trump and his allies. Willis asked the Georgia Court of Appeals to reverse Judge Scott McAfee’s decision to throw out the charges, including three against Trump, that were part of her 41-count election interference case against Trump and his co-defendants. In March, McAfee dismissed six of the charges saying that Willis had not been specific enough. “As written, these six counts contain all the essential elements of the crimes but fail to allege sufficient detail regarding the nature...

An eighth pro-life activist was sentenced on Wednesday under the Freedom of Access the Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and “conspiracy against rights” for an abortion clinic protest in Washington, DC, in October 2020. Heather Idoni, 59, was sentenced to 24 months in prison, with credit for the nine months she has already served since being found guilty in August 2023, the Department of Justice announced. Seven other pro-life activists were sentenced to years in federal prison last week for protesting at the Washington Surgi-Clinic in Washington, DC, an abortion clinic infamous for late-term abortions. Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) activist Lauren...

Special Counsel Jack Smith on Friday took the extraordinary step of seeking an order from the federal judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's classified documents case to bar Trump from making statements that could pose a significant risk to law enforcement. The request follows Trump's efforts to seize on an item of recently released discovery in the case that he falsely claims shows President Biden planned to assassinate him during the search of his Mar-a-Lago club in August 2022.

President Trump’s election lawyer John Eastman on Friday was arrested in Phoenix on conspiracy, fraud, forgery and other felony charges related to the 2020 Trump alternate electors plan even though he had ZERO communication with the Arizona electors! Last month Trump 2020 alternate electors, GOP state legislators, former Arizona GOP chairwoman Kelli Ward and others were indicted by a state grand jury in Arizona. A total of 18 people involved in the Arizona alternate electors plan were indicted by the Arizona grand jury last month.

The DOJ’s troubles are at least partly the result of an inspector general who has completely fallen down on the job of holding the agency accountable. The Department of Justice, and specifically its Office of Inspector General (OIG), loves to give the impression that its offices are staffed by independent, nonpartisan lawyers whose only goal is to investigate and root out corruption within the department. Records, however, show the watchdog is staffed by Democrat activists eager to use their power to crush their political enemies. This partisanship has been on display in how the OIG, the DOJ’s internal watchdog office,...

The Justice Department’s Kristen Clarke issued a statement this week celebrating news that seven pro-life activists would spend time in prison for attempting to stop abortions from taking place. Clarke, who heads the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and is responsible for enforcing the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, painted the pro-life activists as violent radicals in her remarks: “Violence has no place in our national discourse on reproductive health.” The activists’ actions were nonviolent, and the DOJ’s release on the matter even notes that they “passively” resisted “their anticipated arrests.” “Using force, threatening to use force or...