Free Republic

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is asking a federal court to quash a grand jury subpoena for his testimony in the Fulton County district attorney’s investigation into former President Trump’s efforts to undermine Georgia’s election results. Graham intends to ask a federal judge to quash the subpoena on the grounds that he cannot be compelled to testify because his conversations with state officials were part of his official conduct as a legislator, according to copies of the filings provided to The Hill by Graham’s lawyers. “Senator Graham’s contact with Georgia officials referenced in the Certificate falls within the ‘legislative sphere’ because...

The Justice Department’s (DOJ) leveling of seditious conspiracy charges against the founder of the Oath Keepers has renewed interest — and in some cases faith — in DOJ and whether its investigation could yield charges against other high-level figures involved in the attack on the Capitol, including those in former President Trump’s orbit. Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the far-right militia group, was never in the Capitol on Jan. 6, but he’s been charged alongside other members who used a military “stack” formation to enter the building.

The seditious conspiracy charges brought by the Justice Department on Thursday against the leader of the Oath Keepers and other members of the right-wing group signal the government is prepared to take on an ambitious fight to show that they joined the Jan. 6, 2021, attack as part of a coordinated effort to deny President Biden the White House. The indictment contains the first sedition charges that have been brought following the riot and mark a significant escalation in prosecutors’ efforts by drawing a connection between the physical acts of mayhem that day and the broader effort by former President...

A group of House Republicans is calling on Attorney General Merrick Garland to rescind a recent Justice Department memo aimed at combating a rise in threats against school board members and other local education officials. Nineteen Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee, who last week attacked Garland over the policy during a hearing, signed a letter on Monday urging him to revoke the memo. "During your testimony, you sidestepped the obvious effect of your ill-conceived memorandum and the chilling effect that invoking the full weight of the federal law enforcement apparatus would have on parents’ protected First Amendment speech," the...

The Trump administration is heading to court this week in two lawsuits charging that the president is violating the Constitution by profiting off of his hotels and other businesses while in office. The cases revolve around the Constitution’s once-obscure emoluments clauses, which critics say President Trump has flouted, giving foreign diplomats an opening to curry favor with him by patronizing his businesses. On Monday, a panel of judges on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments over whether members of Congress can sue the president for alleged emoluments violations, and on Thursday, the full 4th Circuit Court...

The Manhattan district attorney's office asked the Supreme Court to reject President Trump's effort to shield his tax returns from a grand jury subpoena, in a case where the president's lawyers have argued that he is immune to any criminal investigation or prosecution. A federal appeals court had ruled that Trump's accounting firm must hand over eight years of tax returns and other financial records and the president last week appealed that decision. The district attorney's office argued in a brief filed Thursday that the appellate ruling was narrowly focused to the facts of the case and does not merit...

A federal prosecutor on Wednesday told a jury that Roger Stone lied to Congress about his contacts with WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign in order to protect President Trump. The accusation came in the government’s opening arguments in the trial for the longtime Trump adviser over charges of making false statements, obstruction and witness tampering. “The evidence in this case will show that Roger Stone lied to the House Intelligence Committee because the truth looked bad — the truth looked bad for the Trump campaign and the truth looked bad for Donald Trump,” Aaron Zelinsky, a prosecutor with the Department...

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said in an interview broadcast Sunday that two of the country’s most prominent newspapers are in an “all-out war” against Donald Trump. During a radio interview with John Catsimatidis, Gingrich blasted the news outlets, saying they are lying about the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. “Both The New York Times and The Washington Post have been in an all-out war to try to redefine Donald Trump,” he said. Gingrich pointed to a Times article that portrayed Trump as often being inappropriate with women. The report relied on testimony from dozens of women who have interacted with...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says the Republican Party may be forced to support presidential hopeful Ted Cruz in order to stop front-runner Donald Trump. "You know Ted Cruz is not my favorite, by any means,” Graham, who dropped his own bid for the White House in December, said in an interview with CBS. “But we may be in a position where we have to rally around Ted Cruz as the only way to stop Donald Trump, and I'm not so sure that would work.” His comments came with Super Tuesday results indicating Trump would win as many as eight states....

Republican presidential hopeful John Kasich said on Saturday that he will drop out of the race if he doesn't win his home state of Ohio. "I will beat Donald Trump in Ohio, and that will be the beginning of a new day," Kasich told a crowd in Nashville, according to the New York Times. "Some of the other candidates, if they can't win their home state, they got to get out, OK?" he added. "If I don't win my home state, I'll get out. But you know what? I'm going to win Ohio." The remark was a dig at his...

News articles concerning the most influential political donors in America typically list the same names: The Koch brothers, George Soros, Sheldon Adelson and, lately, Tom Steyer. But as we reach the end of 2015, none of these billionaires has spent big in the 2016 contest, at least not at an individual candidate level. In their absence, a number of lesser known donors are shaping up to be major players in 2016. Here are five to watch: 1. The DeVos Family We're cheating by including a whole family in our list, but there is no way of separating out this high-spending...