Free Republic

The dispute over the Department of Justice's move to dismiss criminal charges against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn will get a rehearing by the entire District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, the latest twist in the long-running legal drama that stemmed from the FBI's investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016. The order was issued Thursday by the court. Called an "en banc" hearing, all 11 judges on the appeals court will sit in on a rehash of arguments that were made before a three-judge panel in June, which led to a...

The Department of Justice on Friday provided Michael Flynn’s lawyers with a memo which shows that FBI officials did not believe Flynn lied in his Jan. 24, 2017 White House interview with FBI agents and also determined that he was “not acting as an agent of Russia.” Another document released by the DOJ was a Jan. 4, 2017 FBI memo which recommended closing a counterintelligence investigation into whether Flynn was acting as an agent of Russia. The memo said that investigators did not have evidence that Flynn was working with Russia. Strzok, the then-deputy chief of FBI counterintelligence, intervened at...

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, through his counsel Beth Wilkinson, has asked for U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to rehear his case against the immediate dismissal of the Michael Flynn prosecution. The Thursday petition for rehearing comes after a three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit granted Flynn’s petition for writ a mandamus on June 24, directing Sullivan to dismiss the case. “The panel majority granted the extraordinary writ of mandamus to prevent the district court from receiving adversarial briefing and argument on a pending motion. The opinion is couched as a fact-bound ruling based on...

The judge in Michael Flynn’s criminal case asked a federal appeals court Thursday to reconsider its ruling last month ordering him to dismiss the prosecution of the former national security advisor to President Donald Trump. Judge Emmet Sullivan’s lawyer asked for a so-called en banc review of the decision of the appeals court, which would involve all active judges on the court to re-hear the case.

The prosecution of Michael Flynn was rocked last Friday by the disclosure of new exculpatory information, leading to speculation that the exoneration of President Trump’s first national security adviser could be imminent. That would be an amazing reversal, since Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to FBI agents and, later, declined a federal judge’s invitation to withdraw that plea — reaffirming his admission of guilt. (Flynn has since sought to vacate the plea; the court has not yet ruled.) The Department of Justice’s letter to Sidney Powell, Flynn’s current lawyer who has persisted for months to pry exculpatory evidence...

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s attempts to speed up deportations for people with bogus asylum claims, ruling Wednesday that the president and his team had gone beyond what Congress intended. Judge Emmet G. Sullivan — who a day earlier had excoriated former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn — ordered the government to allow migrants with iffy claims to be given a full chance to make their case for asylum. And he ordered the U.S. to un-deport plaintiffs in the case who were already ousted under the new policy, saying they deserve to be brought back and allowed...

The FBI works for, and falls under the authority of, the Federal Department of Justice, Eric Holder. Which brings in a strange series of questions regarding the stoppage of questioning by the FBI of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Megyn Kelly outlines the initial issue: Initially the feds proclaimed Tsarnaev would fall under the “public safety exception to miranda” which would have given them 48 hours to question him prior to the delivery of Miranda protection. The feds didn’t even need to charge him with anything right away – but they did. In addition, something, obviously unexpected by the FBI interrogators, was changed....

"....Many conservatives have warned that there are already signs of Sharia seeping into America's ideals. Last November a federal judge blocked a voter-approved ban on Sharia law in Oklahoma. Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange ruled that restricting the use of Sharia law was unfair to Muslims.Also in March, Florida Circuit Court Judge Richard Nielsen said he would use Islamic law to decide a case between several men and the mosque where they worked...."

NEW YORK -- Civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart was sentenced to 28 months in prison in federal court in Manhattan Monday. She was convicted of providing support to terrorists by helping a jailed Egyptian sheik communicate with his followers on the outside. Before sentencing, her lawyer told the judge that any prison sentence for Stewart would be a death sentence because of her serious health problems. Stewart pleaded with the judge to allow her to live out the rest of her life "productively, lovingly, righteously.'' Assistant US Attorney Andrew Dember rejected defense suggestions that Stewart's conduct was judged differently after9-11. "This case...

U.S. JUDGE SETS PRECEDENT FOR UNITED NATIONS SOVEREIGNTY OVER AMERICA MNA—A U.S. District Court judge ruled in favor of the United Nations over the U.S. Congress this week, setting precedent that, at least in federal courts, the U.N. is sovereign. At issue are documents and audiotapes submitted under Congressional subpoena by former U.N. Oil for Food investigator Robert Parton. The information reportedly demonstrates proof positive that U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan’s stories are conflicting regarding the world’s largest bribery scandal. U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina in Washington issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) after the United Nations filed a petition...