Free Republic

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., led 28 other Republicans in a scathing rebuke of Attorney General Merrick Garland and the New York "show trial" against former President Trump. "The conviction of President Trump in Manhattan is nothing short of the evisceration of the American judicial process," the lawmaker wrote in a Wednesday letter. "In their zeal to imprison Donald Trump, Democrat prosecutors successfully dissolved the constitutional protections afforded to defendants and the barriers that protect every American from the abuses of arbitrary rule." "Even if we disregard Judge Juan Merchan’s financial contributions to Democratic candidates and causes, the prosecutors were permitted...

WASHINGTON — Like every other Kentucky Republican on Capitol Hill, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., criticized the New York criminal case that ended in a guilty verdict for former President Donald Trump. Paul posted on social media, “This verdict will tragically undermine Americans’ confidence in impartial justice. A sad day for America.” Yet unlike Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and most of the commonwealth’s Republican congressmen, Paul said he has not yet decided whether to endorse Trump. “I think that it’s important that if he wants to get my vote and my support and wants me to be more active...

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) is warning isolationists within his party on the 80th anniversary of D-Day not to forget the hard-won lessons of World War II and not to fall prey to “the delusion that regional conflicts have no consequences” for the United States. McConnell marked the anniversary of the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France with a New York Times op-ed that lauded the “immense sacrifice” of American troops who stormed the Omaha and Utah beaches and scaled the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc to capture German gun emplacements. And he used the occasion to remind his fellow...

Free and Equal is sponsoring a presidential debate on Friday, July 12, in Las Vegas, at Caesars Forum. The event is simultaneous with Freedomfest. Oliver Chase, Jill Stein, and Randall Terry are confirmed. Invitations have also been extended to Cornel West, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. The debate moderators will be Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie, and Free & Equal founder Christina Tobin. Massie is a Republican who has served in Congress since 2012.

Even those who dislike the former President see a case of legal and political malpractice.How dare Mitt Romney. And Sens. Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell. The anti-Trump press corps is dismayed that Republicans of all stripes, even those who aren’t fond of Donald Trump, have criticized the Manhattan prosecution and guilty verdict. The media coverage after the verdict has followed the usual Trump-era pattern. Democrats pursue some anti-Trump operation—impeachment, a Russia collusion probe, a prosecution. The press then descends as one to chide Republicans, with the unsubtle implication that they must be unethical sellouts if they oppose what Democrats are...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) questioned former President Trump's commitment to slashing government spending in a heated exchange with top Trump ally Russell Vought during a recent closed-door meeting, Axios has learned. Why it matters: Paul is among a dwindling number of Republicans who've refused to publicly back the former president as the party's 2024 nominee. And those in Trump's orbit are getting antsy. "There's a growing sentiment in Trumpworld that Rand can't be trusted, and it's a great disappointment," Trump ally and consultant Alex Bruesewitz told Axios. Driving the news: Paul grilled Vought on May 22 over the Trump administration's...

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said he would “not attend” a speech given by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Republican and Democrat lawmakers invited Netanyahu to speak before a “Joint Meeting of Congress.” Sanders issued a press release on Saturday describing Netanyahu as a “war criminal” and stating that he “should not be invited to address a joint meeting of Congress.” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) wrote a letter addressed to Netanyahu on Friday, inviting him to speak before a “Joint...

Republican lawmakers are facing an internal battle over defense spending as prominent Republicans including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Sen. Roger Wicker (Miss.), the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, are pushing for big increases while conservatives are raising alarms over the debt. The battle within the GOP over how much to increase defense spending to deter threats from Russia, China and Iran will burst into public next month when the Senate is set to debate the annual National Defense Authorization Act. McConnell and Wicker are laying the groundwork for that debate by calling for major...

Earl's 1,300 arrests (mostly alcohol-related offenses) are only documented back to 1992, when the Division of Community Corrections of Lexington Fayette Urban County Government began booking digitally. His lesser known criminal history dates back to the 1970s, which some speculate brings his cumulative total to over 1,500 arrests and over 6,000 days in jail. The first of over 1,300 arrests came in July of 1970 for carrying a concealed weapon at 20-years-old.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., contends there are grounds to prosecute Dr. Anthony Fauci, the face of the COVID-19 pandemic in America, based on congressional testimony from a top aide to the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “The most important knowledge that we learned is that [Dr.] David Morens, 20-year assistant to Fauci, was purposely evading FOIA, which is the law. More than that, he was also destroying evidence,” Paul told The Daily Signal, referring to the Freedom of Information Act and Morens’ testimony Wednesday before a House select subcommittee. “He was taking emails and...

Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul is eyeing a new witness in hopes of taking down Dr. Anthony Fauci. On Thursday, Paul appeared on Fox Business Network's Mornings with Maria to discuss new reports on Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and his ex-senior adviser, Dr. David Morens, following an investigation by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. "David Morens is basically Anthony Fauci's fixer. He's been there with him for two decades. You could think of him as sort of Michael Cohen ... Anthony Fauci's Michael Cohen," Paul said, alluding...

(RNS) — Diocesan hermits by nature don’t get much attention. A small subset of religious persons, hermits mostly spend their lives engaged in quiet prayer. Brother Christian Matson, a Catholic diocesan hermit in Kentucky, has spent years doing just that. His monk’s habit might catch his neighbor’s eye, but he is known in the town where he lives primarily through his work with the local theater. But recently Matson decided that his faith compels him to make a little more noise than usual. “This Sunday, Pentecost 2024, I’m planning to come out publicly as transgender,” Matson told Religion News Service...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) sent a letter to the Department of Justice, urging them to open a formal investigation into Dr. David Morens for the alleged “improper concealment and intentional destruction of records.” Morens, a former top aide to Dr. Anthony Fauci and current Senior Advisor to the Director at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is accused of engaging in corrupt behavior to skirt the rules on various issues, the least of which involved investigations from the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. It is believed that Morens engaged in a cover-up and destroyed vital records and communications related...

Other contenders for the role include Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the former whip Sen. Rick Scott of Florida announced Wednesday that he is jumping into the race to succeed Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell after he leaves the post later this year.

Three Republican incumbents in the Kentucky General Assembly were knocked off in the primary election Tuesday, including a Lexington moderate who was backed by nearly $300,000 of ads from political action committees. Lexington State Rep. Killian Timoney was defeated by a wide margin in his bid for a third term by Thomas Jefferson, who beat the incumbent by 44 percentage points. Timoney was one of the candidates backed by the Commonwealth Conservatives Coalition, a federal super PAC that bought roughly $1 million of ads to back nine candidates from the establishment wing of the party. The PAC spent more than...

A national group plans to spend big on television ads aimed at a Kentucky congressman because of his perceived anti-Israel views. The United Democracy Project will spend about $300,000 to buy ads on Fox affiliates criticizing Republican Rep. Thomas Massie’s voting record on measures supporting Israel, said project spokesperson Patrick Dorton. "We are not playing in the primary, but we are trying to shine a light on the radical anti-Israel record of Tom Massie," Dorton said. "We want every voter in the state of Kentucky to know about his anti-Israel actions." “Republicans are trying to help Israel, but one Republican...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The city of Louisville agreed to pay four people a total of $650,000 for being wrongfully arrested by a former Louisville police detective to settle a lawsuit that has been pending since 2010. Former Louisville Metro Police Detective Crystal Marlowe arrested more than a dozen people over a two-year period who could not have committed the crimes either because they were already in jail at the time or because of other evidence that supported their innocence. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit were Vaughn Carter, Robert Mitchem, Dale Todd and Rodshaud White. Carter, for example, claimed he...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – A 71-year-old man who was yanked out his home while wearing a bathrobe, thrown to the pavement face first and then handcuffed by police has received $250,000 to settle a lawsuit claiming Louisville and Jeffersontown officers used excessive force. The lawsuit filed on behalf of Frank Serapiglia in March 2020 was dismissed this March after being settled, with Louisville Metro Police liable for $245,000 and the Jeffersontown Police Department paying the other $5,000. “This settlement reflects the substantial pain and suffering inflicted on Mr. Serapiglia as a result of the excessive force of the LMPD officers...

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) blasted conservative commentator Tucker Carlson on Tuesday for playing a leading role in demonizing the idea of sending military aid to Ukraine, saying the former Fox News host wound up “where he should have been all along” when he gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a megaphone during a fawning interview earlier this year. “I think the demonization of Ukraine began by Tucker Carlson, who in my opinion ended up where he should have been all along, which was interviewing Vladimir Putin,” McConnell said, referring to Carlson’s two-hour interview with Putin in February, which drew...

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul formed a noisy alliance with Rep. Thomas Massie this week that scrambled Congress’ plans to renew the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act without additional privacy protections for Americans and threatened the six-month tenure of the Republican speaker of the House. The libertarian duo scored a substantive victory in the House on Wednesday when the chamber passed legislation that would force federal agencies to obtain a court order to buy the online data of U.S. citizens from service providers. Massie, a Northern Kentucky Republican, was joined by Rep. James Comer in supporting the “Fourth Amendment is Not For...