Free Republic

'Russia collusion' investigation continues to rock Washington with 'bombshells'. Special Counsel John Durham's investigation into the origins of the "Russia collusion" conspiracy theory that Democrats projected on the 2016 Trump campaign – for years – continues to be rocked by bombshells. Among the latest, according to constitutional expert and popular commentator Jonathan Turley, is that so far "at least five of the former Clinton campaign contractors/researchers have invoked the Fifth Amendment," refusing to cooperate "in fear that they might incriminate themselves."

Five associates of Hillary Clinton and her campaign are invoking their Fifth Amendment rights and refusing to cooperate with Special Counsel John H. Durham, according a filing in federal court revealed later Friday in Washington, DC. The revelation emerged in a motion filed by Durham to oppose the efforts of defendant Michael Sussmann and the Clinton campaign to withhold some documents from evidence by asserting attorney-client privilege. Sussmann is charged with lying to the FBI in 2016 when he informed the FBI about a fraudulent link between then-candidate Donald Trump and the Russian government via Alfa Bank. Sussmann allegedly presented...

National Public Radio issued a correction after running a false statement about the laptop of Hunter Biden in a story about Biden’s recent memoir, “Beautiful Things.” The article by NPR senior editor and correspondent Ron Elving stated categorically that the laptop story was discredited by news organizations. It was later compelled to correct that false statement but still has language casting doubt on the story and evades glaring contradictions in Biden’s book and his interview. Moreover, NPR continues to run false claims from prior controversies. The NPR story originally stated that “The laptop story was discredited by U.S. intelligence and...

Amendments by Acclamation: Democrats Move to Simply Declare the Equal Rights Amendment as RatifiedBelow is my column in the Hill on the Democratic campaign to simply declare the Equal Rights Amendment ratified as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. The question is whether raw politics is enough to shock the unratified and undead into life.Here is the column:Madison, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin: The names of great constitutional figures are etched in the minds of every schoolchild. But soon, if Democrats in Congress have their way, they will add one more: David Ferriero.Who is David Ferriero, you ask? He is 10th Archivist...

With the conclusion of the first year of the Biden administration, White House chief of staff Ron Klain sought to end on a high, or at least higher, note by retweeting a column saying that 2021 was not "all bad." It was like bragging that a bad first date told you that the evening could have been worse. However, what really stood out in the column by Albert Hunt was the key rationale: the first year was "scandal free." ... ...Consider just three of the Voldemort scandals of 2020, or those scandals which must not be named by the media:

Chief Justice John Roberts used his year-end report on New Year’s Eve to denounce the threats being made against the Court and its members by Democratic politicians and groups, including threats to pack the Court to force an immediate liberal majority. Roberts referred to such threats as efforts to exercise “inappropriate political influence” on the Court in contravention of our constitutional values and traditions. We have been discussing the ramped up threats from Democratic leaders that the Court will either vote with the liberal justices on key issues or face “consequences,” including court packing. Recently, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.),...

Well, the Ghislaine Maxwell trial is over and it ended pretty much how we figured it would. She was found guilty on 5 of the 6 counts, and all the elites who raped underage girls got off scot-free. I thought independent journalist Mike Cernovich put it best: “Ghislaine Maxwell case is a mop up operation. Maybe something will sneak out but this was handled professionally by the regime.” ... He’s right. It was a mop-up operation, designed to make sure the high and mighty elites didn’t go down for their crimes. Can you imagine the blackmail files Jeffrey Epstein had...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom thrilled many this weekend by saying that his administration will model a new law on the Texas abortion ban, letting private citizens sue anyone who makes or sells assault weapons or ghost guns. It won't work. Legally, that is. It will be hugely successful politically, but not without costs to the state and potential litigants. Newsom denounced the Supreme Court in Women's Health v. Jackson for refusing to enjoin the Texas law that allows people to sue anyone who "aids or abets" an abortion performed after about six weeks. That led to widespread calls for the...

George Washington University law professor and Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley said Monday that the FBI's investigation into the alleged theft of a diary belonging to President Biden's daughter's raises "legitimate concern" over the first family's connection to the bureau. The FBI on Sunday raided the home of Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe as part of a federal investigation into the "stolen" diary of President Biden's daughter, Ashley Biden. The New York Times reported the raid took place early Saturday morning just days after the homes of two Project Veritas associates were also the subject of search warrants. "Why would...

We have been following a slew of defamation lawsuits by political figures over the last few years. (See, e.g., here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here). For torts scholars, it has been a bonanza of interesting issues touching on every element of defamation law. There is now an important ruling out of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit that could have enormous implications not just for the media but anyone who retweets stories or claims. The appellate panel ruled unanimously for Rep. Devin Nunes against journalist Ryan Lizza...

Numerous aspects of what unfolded during the Capitol riot have been hotly debated in the months since it happened, but few have been as contentious and emotional as the debate over the officer-involved shooting death of Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt. The 35-year-old Air Force veteran was shot and killed by Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd on January 6th after she tried to climb through a glass-paneled door after parts of it had been shattered by another rioter, identified as Zachary Jordan Alam. Babbitt, who reportedly had been standing next to Alam, was shot. In April, the Biden Department of Justice...

At the time, some of us familiar with the rules governing police use of force raised concerns over the shooting. Those concerns were heightened by the DOJ’s bizarre review and report, which stated the governing standards but then seemed to brush them aside to clear Byrd.The DOJ report did not read like any post-shooting review I have read as a criminal defense attorney or law professor. The DOJ statement notably does not say that the shooting was clearly justified. Instead, it stressed that “prosecutors would have to prove not only that the officer used force that was constitutionally unreasonable, but...

We have been discussing the movement in journalism to discard out-dated notions of objectivity and define journalism as a form of advocacy. Now, Lauren Wolfe, the recently fired freelance editor for the New York Times, has not only gone public to defend her pro-Biden tweet but published a piece titled “I’m a Biased Journalist and I’m Okay With That.” It is a full-throated endorsement of the new journalistic model of open bias and advocacy. Indeed, Wolfe may have only been undone by her expressly declaring bias as opposed to reflecting bias in her writings. Wolfe was fired by the Times...

I have previously criticized Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., for his almost unrivaled advocacy of censorship and speech controls. Blumenthal previously threatened social media companies not to “backslide” in censoring opposing views. Now, Blumenthal is taking up the cudgel of court packing with not so subtle threats to conservative justices that, if they do not vote with their liberal colleagues, the Court may be fundamentally altered. He is not alone in such reckless and coercive rhetoric. Blumenthal told The Hill: “It will inevitably fuel and drive an effort to expand the Supreme Court if this activist majority betrays fundamental constitutional principles....

President Biden has spoken out often, eloquently and passionately against the “ugly poison” of discrimination and racism in our government. So a ruling by a federal district court in Texas this week was particularly jarring: Judge Reed O’Connor found that the Biden administration engaged in systemic gender and race discrimination to implement COVID-19 relief for American restaurants. Café owner Philip Greer had claimed in a lawsuit against the Small Business Administration (SBA) that, while white, he needs the same rescue as minority restaurateurs under the newly enacted American Rescue Plan Act. Greer’s Ranch Café reportedly lost over $100,000 during the...

There is an extraordinary column in the Washington Post from Glenn Kessler on a key figure in past coverage on the removal of Confederate statues. The Post ran a widely cited article on how Robert E. Lee’s own descendant wanted the general’s statues to be removed. The problem is that no one at the Post appears to have actually checked to see if Rev. Robert W. Lee was an actual descendant. It now appears that he is not, according to Kessler.

In 1964, Stanley Kubrick released a dark comedy classic titled “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.” The title captured the absurdity of getting people to embrace the concept of weapons of mass destruction. The movie came to mind recently with the public campaign of Facebook calling for people to change her attitudes about the Internet and rethink issues like “content modification” – the new Orwellian term for censorship. The commercials show people like “Joshan” who says that he was born in 1996 and grew up with the internet.” Joshan mocks how much computers...

I previously wrote that the key to conviction in the Derek Chauvin trial (and avoiding a cascading failure in all four cases) is the autopsy findings and the role of drugs (including fentanyl) in the body of George Floyd. Prosecutors are now asking the jury to effectively dismiss the findings of the only official autopsy in the case and insist, contrary to those findings, that Floyd died from asphyxia, or, lack of oxygen. Some new disclosures may make that claim more difficult for the prosecution. Last week, special prosecutor Jerry Blackwell admitted to jurors that Hennepin County Chief Medical Examiner...

Undercover journalist group Project Veritas scored a major win last week in the New York Supreme Court concerning the group’s defamation lawsuit against the newspaper. The decision said the James O’Keefe-founded Project Veritas has sufficient evidence that the Times might have been motivated by “actual malice” and acted with “reckless disregard” in serval posts hitting the group’s work. Jonathan Turley reported Sunday: While it has received little coverage in the mainstream media, the conservative group Project Veritas won a major victory against the New York Times this week in a defamation case with potentially wide reach. In a 16-page decision,...

Sunday on Fox News Channel’s “America’s News HQ,” George Washington University Law School Professor Jonathan Turley sounded off on the question of whether or not former President Donald Trump could be criminally charged for inciting the riot at the U.S. Capitol in January. The Senate voted Saturday to acquit Trump of inciting an insurrection.