Free Republic

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan sent a final warning letter Friday to the lawyer of Michael Nellis, the CEO of a political consulting firm that employs the daughter of New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who is overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial. The Daily Caller first obtained a copy of the letter, which comes after Jordan sent a subpoena to Nellis in late August, after he failed to comply with the committee and their inquiries regarding any potential cooperation between Nellis’s firm and those trying to prosecute Trump. The judge’s daughter, Loren Merchan, is...

A panel of New York appeals court judges appeared skeptical about the gargantuan $454 million civil fraud judgment Donald Trump was dealt after he was found liable for business fraud — with one jurist calling it “troubling.” The former president is attempting to reverse or reduce the judgment of $354 million — plus an additional $100 million in interest — after a judge sided with New York Attorney General Letitia James, who argued in a lawsuit Trump inflated his net worth by billions to get better loan and insurance terms. Trump’s lawyers, who have called Judge Arthur Engoron’s February ruling...

A retired upstate New York county judge and former prosecutor allegedly shot himself to death Tuesday morning as FBI agents moved in to arrest him on corruption charges, according to reports. Stewart Rosenwasser, who has been embroiled in a sordid federal bribery scandal, allegedly opened fire on the agents as they approached his Orange County home before his death by apparent suicide shortly after 9:30 am, the Albany Times-Union reported Tuesday. Sources told The Post that an indictment naming Rosenwasser was handed down this week. The FBI said in a statement that the agency is reviewing the incident at the...

A Kentucky sheriff has turned himself in for allegedly shooting a judge dead inside his chambers on Thursday after asking staff if he could speak with him. Lechter County Sheriff Mickey Stines, 43, surrendered himself to police following the shooting death of District Court Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, at the County Courthouse at around 3pm, The Mountain Eagle reports. The sheriff allegedly walked into the judge's outer office, told court employees and others gathered there he needed to speak to Mullins alone. He and Mullins then entered the judge's inner office, closed the door and those outside heard gunshots, according...

A Kentucky sheriff has been arrested after fatally shooting a judge in his chambers, police say. District Judge Kevin Mullins died at the scene after being shot multiple times in the Letcher County Courthouse, Kentucky State Police said. Letcher County Sheriff Shawn Stines, 43, has been charged with one count of first-degree murder. The shooting happened on Thursday after an argument inside the court, police said, but they have not yet revealed a motive. Officials said Mullins, 54, was shot multiple times at around 14:00 local time on Thursday at the court in Whitesburg, Kentucky, a small rural town about...

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) filed another ethics complaint against Judge Juan Merchan on Friday, accusing the acting Manhattan Supreme Court justice of a conflict of interest due to his daughter’s recent work for the Kamala Harris campaign. Stefanik asked the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct to launch “a fresh inquiry” into a $468 payment from the Harris camp to Loren Merchan’s digital political consulting and marketing firm, Authentic Campaigns. The transaction took place July 30, days after the suspension of President Biden’s re-election effort, and was “one of the very first things that Harris did upon taking over...

VIDEOIs the Brazilian Censorship Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who took down X (always to be known as Twitter) in Brazil and who threatened to arrest anyone using that platform, the Spawn of Satan? When you watch him in action he definitely gives off strong Demonic vibes as you can see.

A U.S. District Judge ruled Friday that Illinois’ ban prohibiting concealed carry for self-defense on public transportation violates the Second Amendment. The judge, Ian D. Johnston, issued his opinion in Schoenthal v. Raoul. The plaintiffs in the case, Benjamin Schoenthal, Mark Wroblewski, Joseph Vesel, and Douglas Winston, all claimed the ban violated the Second Amendment. Schoenthal, Wrogblewski, Vesel, and Winston’s case was supported by the Second Amendment Foundation and the Firearms Policy Coalition. Judge Johnston noted: In Illinois, openly carrying firearms is unlawful. Under the Firearm Concealed Carry Act, an individual with a concealed-carry license may generally carry a concealed...

Just hours before a law banning foreign nationals from contributing to ballot issue campaigns was set to take effect, a federal judge blocked part of it because it violates their First Amendment rights. Judge Michael Watson has ruled that the state can’t enforce the law against foreign nationals – including lawful permanent residents, also known as green card holders – who donate to ballot issue campaigns. Read the ruling here. Watson wrote that the political spending of lawful permanent residents "does not carry a risk of undue foreign influence", and noted that LPRs can serve in the military. "It would...

He got served. The incensed Detroit judge who slapped handcuffs on a 15-year-old girl and threatened to throw her in prison after she nodded off during a field trip to his courtroom has been suspended and will undergo training, officials said. Judge Kenneth King’s docket was temporarily suspended by the chief judge of the 36th District Court in Detroit after he was filmed berating the teenager who visited the court on a legal education trip with nonprofit group Greening of Detroit, The Detroit News reported. King will undergo training to “address the underlying issues that contributed to this incident” after...

A woke female judge has been suspended after she accused a prosecutor of going after 'every young black man,' in addition to allegedly changing a jury's verdict and convicting a defendant of a crime that didn't exist. The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled 5-2 to remove 19th Judicial District Judge Eboni Johnson Rose from her elected post on an interim basis - with pay - amid a formal investigation by the Louisiana Judiciary Commission, NOLA.com reports. The Court ruled that she 'presents a substantial threat of serious harm to the public,' and said there 'does not appear to be direct precedent...

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan approved a request Friday from special counsel Jack Smith to delay the next steps in the government’s election interference case against former President Trump. Smith cited deliberations over how to factor in the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling between the government and Trump’s representation. This comes after Chutkan asked both sides to prepare a joint status report, which was originally due Friday. “Although those consultations are well underway, the Government has not finalized its position on the most appropriate schedule for the parties to brief issues related to the decision,” the special counsel’s office said. “The...

Attorneys for Hunter Biden pushed back against a federal judge’s threat to sanction them for making “false statements,” while admitting their motion to dismiss Biden’s criminal charges in California. In a filing Sunday with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Biden’s legal team said they “never tried to mislead” the court after U.S. District Judge Mark Scarcsi wrote Biden’s attorneys falsely claimed U.S. Attorney David Weiss did not bring charges against the president’s son until after he was appointed special counsel. “Defense counsel, perhaps inartfully, intended this use of the word ‘charges’ to refer to the...

A High Court judge in England on Thursday upheld a ban on Christian Joshua Sutcliffe from teaching following his dismissal for refusing to use the preferred pronoun of a schoolgirl identifying as a boy. The indefinite ban in response to Sutcliffe’s appeal means the teacher, fired from Cherwell School in Oxford after the incident in 2017, cannot return to his profession. Sutcliffe had said, “Well done, girls” to a group of students, including a girl who identified as a boy. Sutcliffe, 34, launched legal action against the school and settled out of court but still received a minimum two-year ban...

On June 11, a U.S. district court judge ruled as unconstitutional Florida’s law barring doctors from treating minors with puberty-blockers and cross-sex hormones for gender dysphoria issues. The judge determined that the Florida law interfered with a minor’s right to be treated in accordance with the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH)’s Standards of Care Version 8 (SOC-8). Unfortunately, SOC-8 are neither standards of care nor a consensus of standards of care. Let’s explore why.Distinction Between Standards and GuidelinesMedical standards of care are determined as follows:There are a variety of factors that can evidence the applicable standard of care...

Hunter Biden is using a pair of judicial opinions that were favorable to his father's political rival to argue his conviction on gun charges should be tossed out. In federal court papers filed in Delaware, Hunter Biden’s attorneys asked the judge who oversaw his gun trial to dismiss the case against him because of a federal court ruling in Florida dismissing the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump. In the ruling Monday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed Jack Smith’s criminal case against Trump on the grounds that the appointment of and funding for the special counsel were...

The Senate Judiciary Committee torpedoed the nomination of Sarah Netburn Thursday to sit on the U.S. District Court in New York's Southern District. Netburn, nominated by President Joe Biden and recommended by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, had a record of transferring violent male rapists to women's prisons under the guise of being "transgender." The Senate Judiciary Committee just voted against Sarah Netburn’s nomination to be a district judge for the influential Southern District of New York.This is a MASSIVE victory for women EVERYWHERE.Why?Netburn insisted on housing a biological male serial rapist in a women’s prison, where he committed yet another...

A Tennessee judge on July 4 denied the release of the Covenant School shooter's writings, stating that doing so might present a security risk to the Nashville private school. The ruling came in response to Brewer, et al. vs. Metropolitan Government of Nashville, et al., in which several parties, including the National Police Association and Tennessee Firearms Association, sued the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) for access to records related to the Nov. 27, 2023, school shooting that left six dead, including Mike Hill, 61; Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60; and 9-year-olds Hallie Scruggs, Evelyn Dieckhaus and William Kinney....

The federal judge overseeing former President Trump’s classified documents case granted his request to delay a few deadlines further so prosecutors can evaluate the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling. Trump’s lawyers on Friday asked Judge Aileen Cannon for permission to file more documents to argue that the former president should be immune from prosecution in the case. In their motion this week, Trump’s team proposed a schedule that extends through early September, meaning a ruling wouldn’t come until at least the fall. On Saturday, Cannon, a Trump appointee, said prosecutors and special counsel Jack Smith had until July 18 to respond...

S.A. McCarthy @pipesmoknpapist S.A. McCarthy is a news writer at The Washington Stand. A Montana judge is striking down a state law defining “sex” as either male or female, claiming that the law violates the Montana State Constitution. In an order issued on Tuesday, Montana District Court Judge Shane Vannatta, the first Montana judge to openly identify as homosexual, declared Senate Bill 458 to be facially unconstitutional according to Montana state law. The legislation, passed by the Legislature in 2023 and signed into law by Gov. Greg Gianforte, a Republican, revised state law to declare: In human beings, there are...