Free Republic

A Democratic official in New Jersey and several reputed mobsters have been charged for their alleged roles in a major illegal gambling ring in the state, Democratic New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin announced Friday. Democratic Prospect Park Councilman Anand Shah, aged 42, is alleged to have illegally run poker games and a sportsbook tied to suspected members of the Lucchese crime family, one of the five major mafia families of New York, Platkin’s office announced Friday. The alleged mobbed-up gambling scheme operated out of restaurants and homes across the state and generated approximately $3 million in illicit cash. Today...

The New Jersey attorney general is facing impeachment, in part, for allegedly targeting pregnancy resource centers for investigation because of their pro-life stance and for demanding the names of their staff and donors in the process. Republicans in the New Jersey Assembly filed articles of impeachment against Attorney General Matthew Platkin on Thursday. They accused him of targeting “certain organizations based upon the political beliefs of the organization, specifically pro-life pregnancy centers.” The resolution refers to Platkin targeting First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, which has five locations in the state. Platkin demanded documents and information from First Choice last year,...

First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, a group of pregnancy resource centers in New Jersey, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider its case about the state asking it to disclose information about its donors. In November 2023, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin demanded that First Choice turn over many documents, including information it provides to clients, statements about abortion pill reversal, documents about personnel and outside organizations with which it works, and donor information. Platkin has openly expressed his hostility toward pregnancy centers. “He issued a consumer alert—drafted with the help of Planned Parenthood—complaining that such centers do...

Attorneys general from 18 states sued President Trump on Tuesday to block an executive order that refuses to recognize the U.S.-born children of unauthorized immigrants as citizens, the opening salvo in what promises to be a long legal battle over the Trump administration’s immigration policies.D.C.The complaint, filed in Federal District Court in Massachusetts was joined by the cities of San Francisco and Washington, D.C.The states view Mr. Trump’s attempt to limit birthright citizenship as “extraordinary and extreme,” said New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin, who led the legal effort along with the attorneys general from California and Massachusetts. “Presidents...

A big-time New Jersey Democrat kingmaker was indicted on racketeering charges. George Norcross, who for decades was the Democrat boss and kingmaker in New Jersey politics, his brother Philip Norcross, and a few other defendants were charged in a 13-count indictment in a case pursued by the state’s attorney general Matthew Platkin. According to a 111-page indictment unsealed on Monday, Norcross lead a “criminal enterprise” in South New Jersey. “The entities that benefitted, including Cooper Health and [the insurance firm Conner Strong & Buckelew CSB] then occupied the properties they obtained interests in and sold the tax credits they obtained...

If the Democratic attorney general of The Garden State wants to shut down your business or scare away your donors, the federal courts cannot help you. That's the warning issued by a network of pro-life pregnancy centers fighting an allegedly harassing subpoena from New Jersey AG Matthew Platkin, who seeks a wide range of documents going back 10 years, after a federal court ruled Jan. 12 it didn't have jurisdiction to hear their constitutional challenge. First Choice Women's Resource Centers filed an emergency motion for an injunction pending appeal Tuesday to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, accusing U.S....

Two Democrats in New Jersey are facing new state election fraud charges from 2020 and 2021 related to mail-in ballots and voter registrations. State Attorney General Matthew Platkin’s office announced the prosecutions last week involving races that occurred in two different cities. One case has been ongoing for more than three years. According to the attorney general’s office, Paterson City Council President Alex Mendez (D) is facing additional charges in a 2020 election fraud case, after having previously been charged in June 2020 and February 2021. [snip] According to Platkin’s office, Mendez’s campaign allegedly collected ballots that were not sealed...

A federal judge in New Jersey on Tuesday iced a new law celebrated by liberals that would allow the state to shut down, and likely bankrupt, the firearms industry if a single gun were misused in a crime. U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi, a Biden appointee, said that he agreed with the gun industry that the New Jersey law was likely unconstitutional and granted the National Shooting Sports Foundation a preliminary injunction. The judge, in a 20-page opinion, said that the New Jersey law signed last summer by Gov. Phil Murphy ignored a larger federal law that protects the...