Free Republic

A federal appeals court said on Monday that Alina Habba had been serving unlawfully as the U.S. attorney in New Jersey, dealing a blow to the Trump administration and most likely setting up a showdown at the Supreme Court. In its ruling, the three-judge panel, based in Philadelphia, affirmed an earlier ruling by a Federal District Court judge, shooting down each of the government’s arguments for why Ms. Habba could continue to serve. In their opinion, the judges wrote that the Trump administration appeared to have become frustrated by the legal and political barriers that have prevented its preferred U.S....

Donald J. Trump’s electoral victory alarmed most New York Democrats — but not Eric Adams. For Mr. Adams, the mayor of New York City who had been criminally indicted and faced political isolation, it was a golden opportunity. In the weeks before the presidential inauguration, Mr. Adams cozied up to Mr. Trump, his political allies and his family. The mayor called the president-elect on multiple occasions, congratulating him on his election victory and discussing city affairs. He met at a luxury Manhattan hotel with Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s ally and former top aide. And he contacted the president’s second...

Arms crossed, scowl set, President-elect Donald J. Trump avoided jail, but became a felon. Mr. Trump appeared virtually at his criminal sentencing on Friday from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, more than 1,000 miles away from the chilly Manhattan courtroom where his case was called for a final time. Projected on a 60-inch screen, his image loomed over the gallery as a prosecutor recounted his crimes and a judge imposed his sentence. Mr. Trump once faced up to four years in prison for falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal, but on Friday, he received only a so-called...

Allen H. Weisselberg, for decades one of Donald J. Trump’s most trusted executives, has reached a deal to plead guilty on Thursday and admit to participating in a long-running tax scheme at the former president’s family business — a serious blow to the company that could heighten its risk in an upcoming trial on related charges. Mr. Weisselberg will have to admit to all 15 felonies that prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office accused him of, according to people with knowledge of the matter. And if he is called as a witness at the company’s trial in October, he...