Free Republic

Paramount Global and CBS agreed on Tuesday to pay President Donald Trump a sum that could reach north of $30 million to settle the president’s election interference lawsuit against the network. Trump will receive $16 million upfront. This will cover legal fees, costs of the case, and contributions to his library or charitable causes, to be determined at Trump’s discretion. There is an expectation that there will be another allocation in the mid-eight figures set aside for advertisements, public service announcements, or other similar transmissions, in support of conservative causes by the network, Fox News Digital has learned. Sources close...

Environmental groups Friday filed a federal lawsuit seeking to halt construction and operation of a detention center for undocumented immigrants that has been dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” saying it threatens ecologically sensitive areas and species in the surrounding Everglades and Big Cypress National Preserve. The lawsuit, filed by the group Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, alleges that federal and state agencies have violated laws that, in part, require evaluating potential environmental impacts before such a project can move forward. “The hasty transformation of the site into a mass detention facility, which includes the installation of housing...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear on Tuesday over a state rule that allows illegal immigrations to qualify for in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities. The lawsuit alleges that Kentucky improperly categorizes individuals in the country without legal status as state residents, thereby making them eligible for reduced in-state tuition rates, while U.S. citizens from other states must pay higher tuition. The move coincides with the Trump administration’s heightened scrutiny of jurisdictions that do not comply with federal immigration laws. “This unequal treatment of Americans is squarely prohibited and preempted...

Cain and Abel, meet David and Daniel. Ex-New York Gov. David Paterson is accusing his brother of cheating him out of his inheritance — by allegedly tricking their elderly mother into giving him over $7 million before her death. A bombshell lawsuit filed by the former governor claims his younger brother Daniel Paterson, 67, duped mom Portia into transferring the massive sum from her estate to his account through “undue influence, coercion and excessive persuasion.” The sneaky move allowed Daniel and his attorney wife Eloise to bypass a long-standing will ordering the brothers to split their mom’s estate 50-50 —...

On April 24, 2024, Gary R. Sanchez filed a lawsuit against Attorney General Rob Bonta, representing the State of California. The suit alleges California banned firearms suppressors in violation of the Second Amendment. Sanchez acted as his own attorney in the case. The district judge granted AG Bonta’s motion to dismiss the case, finding suppressors were not covered by the Second Amendment, because they were “only” accessories, not “arms”.Sanchez appealed the case to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on September 6, 2024. The Ninth Circuit has historically been one of the circuits most openly defying Supreme Court...

On Thursday, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the government of Mexico may not continue its lawsuit seeking to hold firearms manufacturers and a firearms distributor civilly accountable for their role in causing cartel-driven gun violence in Mexico. Having taken the case at an unusually early stage in the litigation, and so working from an undeveloped factual record, all nine justices agreed that Mexico’s current complaint does not even satisfactorily allege that the defendants have aided and abetted U.S. dealers who illegally sell guns to traffickers who then get them to the cartels in Mexico. What’s worse, Justices Clarence Thomas...

The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Mexican government's lawsuit against major U.S. gun manufacturers, delivering a win for the firearms industry in a test of a federal law that shields them from civil suits. The high court unanimously rejected Mexico's arguments that its effort to hold firearms makers accountable for the violence wreaked by drug cartels armed with their products should proceed because it satisfied an exception to the liability shield provided through the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, or PLCAA. In the case known as Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos, Mexico had...

The suit alleges a coordinated effort to block medical care for those exposed to toxic chemicals. Also named are Vanguard, Mercy Health, and Quest Diagnostics, with the CDC accused of instructing healthcare providers not to test for dioxins or other hazardous substances. Plaintiffs claim this led to widespread misdiagnoses, delayed treatment, and that a letter was circulated telling providers to dismiss patient health concerns. ...

Zachary Young successfully sued CNN earlier this year. Zachary Young’s high-stakes defamation lawsuit against the Associated Press continues to inch along in Bay County, Florida, as the U.S. Navy veteran seeks to clear his name. Young successfully sued CNN for defamation earlier this year after saying the network smeared him by implying he illegally profited from helping people flee Afghanistan on the "black market" during the Biden administration's disastrous 2021 military withdrawal. When covering the trial in January, Associated Press media reporter David Bauder wrote that "Young’s business helped smuggle people out of Afghanistan." Young’s legal team has said that...

The Marubo Tribe of Brazil’s Amazon has filed a defamation lawsuit in Los Angeles against The New York Times, alleging its coverage of the tribe’s first internet access portrayed them as tech-addicted and obsessed with pornography, according to the New York Post. The suit, seeking hundreds of millions in damages, also names TMZ and Yahoo for amplifying and sensationalizing the story. The article “portrayed the Marubo people as a community unable to handle basic exposure to the internet, highlighting allegations that their youth had become consumed by pornography.”

Senior officials at the voting software company Smartmatic ordered the deletion and doctoring of evidence relevant to its ongoing defamation case against Fox News, a court filing made on Wednesday alleges. In its new memorandum filed with the New York Supreme Court, Fox News claimed that multiple Smartmatic officials — including its CEO — are complicit in the spoliation of records pertaining to the ongoing legal saga between the two companies. As The Federalist’s Beth Brelje previously reported, “Smartmatic seeks $2.7 billion from Fox in a years-long defamation case in which it accuses Fox of reporting without evidence that the...

Shari Redstone-controlled Paramount is poised to settle a closely watched legal battle with President Trump over alleged deceptive editing of a controversial “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris – but warring factions within the company have delayed the move, On The Money has learned. The media giant is said to be willing to spend up to $50 million to end the $20 billion lawsuit brought by Trump, thus lifting a legal black cloud that is that is hampering Redstone’s plans to sell Paramount, and its CBS News subsidiary at the center of the lawsuit, to independent studio Skydance in a...

Defending Education is taking parental rights to court, suing the state of Colorado over its outrageous and arguably unconstitutional new groomer law. You might remember the recently passed Colorado legislation to fund castration of “trans” kids with taxpayer dollars and in spite of parents' wishes, to mandate pro-trans policies in schools, to criminalize “deadnaming,” and to take supposed “misgendering” into account in custody cases. Defending Education, an organization that stands for parents and against woke indoctrination in schools, is suing the Democrat-run state over the extremely harmful legislation. Colorado Parent Advocacy Network, Protect Kids Colorado, Do No Harm, and Dr....

Pressure is mounting on Paramount Global from both the inside and outside as it considers settling a high-stakes lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump. Lawyers for Trump and Paramount entered mediation last week, signaling the company’s potential willingness to resolve the whopping $20 billion suit filed by Trump accusing CBS News of election interference over its handling of the “60 Minutes” interview last year with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. That interview, which was part of a primetime election special that also featured her Democratic running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, earned an Emmy nomination last week for Outstanding Edited Interview....

'They need to agree to serious long term changes'.. Robby Starbuck is standing firm in his lawsuit against Meta after its chatbot defamed him for almost a year, saying the time for apologies is over. "It’s too late to solve this with an apology. It’s been nearly a year. People doxxed my kids," Starbuck told ... The anti-DEI crusader alleged that Meta’s AI chatbot gave users false and defamatory statements about him, wrongly claiming he is a White supremacist who was arrested as part of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, in a lawsuit filed in Delaware Superior Court Tuesday. Starbuck...

Hunter Biden abruptly dropped his lawsuit Wednesday against two Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers who alleged a wide-ranging cover-up in the Department of Justice to stonewall the tax fraud investigation into him. The Biden scion had slapped a lawsuit against the two whistleblowers in 2023, alleging that they “targeted and sought to embarrass Mr. Biden via public statements to the media in which they and their representatives disclosed confidential information about a private citizen’s tax matters.” Without detailing a specific reason why, the scandal-scarred 55-year-old voluntarily moved to dismiss his lawsuit against Gary Shapley, who was an IRS supervisory special agent...

A “stunned Anderson Cooper watched as 60 Minutes boss sobbed through a shocking resignation meeting,” according to the Daily Mail. “Anderson Cooper looked on as his 60 Minutes boss cried while resigning amid corporate pressure brought by Donald Trump’s recent lawsuit,” the report adds. Yep, just when you think this story cannot get any more delicious, we discover that the serial liar who destroyed the reputation of 60 Minutes like no one since Dan Rather, is a literal crybaby. Bill Owens, who took charge of 60 Minutes in 2019, and who has been with CBS for 37 years, announced his...

“60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens abruptly quit on Tuesday, citing a loss of journalistic independence as CBS’ parent company, Paramount Global, looks to settle a lawsuit from President Trump. “Over the past months, it has become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for ‘60 Minutes,’ right for the audience,” Owens wrote in a memo to staff that was obtained by The Post. He added: “So, having defended this show — and what we stand for — from every angle,...

Attorneys general representing 23 states have joined forces in opposition to Chicago and Illinois “sanctuary” laws that prohibit local law enforcement officers from helping with the enforcement of federal immigration statutes. In an amicus brief filed in support of the federal government’s lawsuit against the city and state, the group argues that Illinois and Chicago are causing harm to their states by obstructing the enforcement of immigration law. “The national immigration crisis has rendered ‘every state … a border state,’” Ohio Solicitor General T. Elliot Gaiser wrote in a letter signed by 22 colleagues, including attorneys general from Indiana, Missouri,...

Four American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) affiliates filed a lawsuit on April 18 asking a federal court to reinstate the legal status of international students who have had their visas revoked. Multiple ACLU affiliates and the law firm Shaheen & Gordon filed a federal class action lawsuit representing more than 100 foreign students in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico who they say had their F-1 student immigration status “unlawfully and abruptly terminated with no specified reason as to why.”The students include several at Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design, who had their student...