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A federal judge refused Friday to block the destruction of classified documents as part of the building cleanout at the U.S. Agency for International Development, finding that records slated for shredding or burning are old or no longer needed. The documents don’t appear to be related to the ongoing court battles over the near-dismantling of USAID by the Trump administration, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols found as he refused to grant a temporary restraining order. The cases come as the Trump administration dismantles USAID, cutting off most federal money and terminating 83% of the programs abroad. All but a few...

A federal judge said Friday he intends to temporarily block the Trump administration’s plan to place thousands of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees on leave at midnight. Unions representing government employees sued to stop the shutdown of agency operations and restart the flow of foreign aid frozen by President Trump, who has accused the agency of fraud and corruption to justify its imminent shuttering. Judge Carl Nichols, appointed by Trump during his first term, said he would issue a formal order later Friday but that a “limited, very limited” order temporarily pausing the plan would be handed down....

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from placing thousands of employees at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on paid leave Friday, halting plans to cut its workforce down to just a few hundred. Washington, DC, US District Judge Carl Nichols imposed a “very limited” restraining order on the administration, Politico reported, sparing at least 2,200 USAID employees from being put on paid leave at midnight. Administration officials had reportedly moved to gut the agency’s more than 10,000-person workforce by the end of the week down to just 290 or so staff members. Just 500 employees at USAID...

On Oct. 5th, 2021, the day before my plea hearing, a reporter from @CNN named @MarshallCohen (seen below) Image contacted the prosecutor in my case stating that he had evidence that I was planning to plead guilty the next day in court, but that I didn't really believe I was guilty. Cohen then asked the DOJ if they might like to rethink offering me a plea deal. I was arrested and jailed on January 25th, 2021, after an FBI raid on my apartment over 8 minutes that I stood outside of the Capitol building shooting video. It's astounding that I...

A federal appeals court Monday rejected restrictions that Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican lawmakers placed on addressing race-related issues in workplace training — part of a controversial 2022 law that DeSantis dubbed the “Stop WOKE Act. The workplace-training part of the law listed eight race-related concepts and said that a required training program or other activity that “espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels such individual (an employee) to believe any of the following concepts As an example of the concepts, the law targeted compelling employees to believe that an “individual, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or...

Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa. Has been ordered to give federal prosecutors more than 1,600 text messages, emails, and other communications related to the investigation of Donald Trump’s alleged alleged attempt to alter the results of the 2020 election. On Tuesday, Politico reported that Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled most of Perry’s messages could not be withheld from prosecutors due to protections afforded to members of Congress. Boasberg concluded that the 1,659 communications were not subject to the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause. The clause prohibits prosecutors and courts from looking into official congressional business. The court documents allege...

Back in March, The Heritage Foundation requested documents from the DOJ using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) regarding the government’s investigation of Hunter Biden. Unsurprisingly, the DOJ refused. Then, on June 20th, after several years of government investigations, Hunter Biden was charged with multiple, watered-down offenses. The charges were so weak they created a presumption of corruption at the DOJ. *** Six days later, the Heritage Foundation filed a FOIA lawsuit in Washington, D.C. (good luck getting a fair shake there) and requested the court force the DOJ to disclose critical records about the Hunter Biden investigation which would...

WASHINGTON — At least four members of the far-right Proud Boys organization were found guilty Thursday of seditious conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Enrique Tarrio, Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean and Zachary Rehl each faced nine counts, and were found guilty on the rare charge of seditious conspiracy under a Civil War-era statute. They were also found guilty of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. The jury has only reached a partial verdict, U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly said Thursday, and the verdicts on other charges are still being read.

Americans will hold accountable those responsible for the accelerating degradation of the U.S. justice system as the government's J6 narrative collapses and their wrongdoing becomes apparent. The FBI agent squirmed on the hot seat. Confronted with messages the Justice Department attempted to conceal, Nicole Miller, one of the lead FBI investigators assigned to the Proud Boys case, was on the verge of admitting that the FBI monitored privileged communications between one defendant and his attorney in 2021. “It appears so,” Miller responded when asked by defense attorney Nicholas Smith on March 8 to confirm she and another agent discussed the...

A federal judge in Minnesota has rejected Mike Lindell’s challenge to the FBI search and seizure of his phone in a 2020 election-related criminal probe.Judge Eric Tostrud said Lindell, CEO of My Pillow and a prominent backer of former President Donald Trump’s false voter fraud claims, had not shown that the search was unconstitutional, and said he could not have his phone returned or get more access to details from the search.“The Government has demonstrated a compelling interest in preventing the premature disclosure of search-warrant materials during its ongoing federal criminal investigation. Multiple factors here justify keeping the search warrant...

Notable Trump-supporting attorney Sidney Powell lost a key court battle on Wednesday when a federal judge in Washington, D.C., dismissed her suit against Dominion Voting Systems. The ruling opens the door for Dominion to continue pursuing its $1.3 billion defamation suit against Powell. In his three-page ruling, Judge Carl Nichols granted Dominion’s request to dismiss the case, noting that Powell failed to show that Dominion’s actions “constituted an abuse of justice.” An excerpt from the ruling reads: “Powell’s complaint fails to link her abuse-of-process claim to any act that Dominion has taken other than filing and pursuing its lawsuit. She...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Maryland man affiliated with the far-right Proud Boys extremist group was sentenced on Monday to more than four years in prison for storming the U.S. Capitol, where he encountered Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer as his armed security detail led the New York Democrat to safety. Joshua Pruitt, 40, was one of the few Capitol rioters to come face-to-face with a member of Congress during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by a mob of Donald Trump supporters, according to federal prosecutors. “One look at Pruitt, and the leader of Senator Schumer’s security detail immediately saw the...

Trump White House aide’s bid to delay case due to Jan. 6 panel hearings is denied. A federal judge on Monday eviscerated nearly all of Steve Bannon’s defenses against a charge that he criminally defied a subpoena from the Jan. 6 select committee, leaving the longtime Donald Trump ally with few options to fight the contempt of Congress case against him. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols also denied Bannon’s bid to postpone for three months the jury trial set to open next Monday, rejecting defense arguments that such a delay was warranted due to intense media coverage around the ongoing...

Yesterday, a federal district court judge dismissed MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's counterclaims against election machine manufacturers U.S. Dominion and Smartmatic. The counterclaims were filed in the companies' defamation suit against Lindell, who had accused the firms of stealing the 2020 election with rigged election machines. In addition, Judge Nichols imposed sanctions on Lindell, given the "groundless" and "frivolous" nature of his claims. Last fall, Judge Nichols had also denied Lindell's attempt to dismiss the defamation claims. After he was sued for defamation, Lindell filed a series of counterclaims against Dominion and Smartmatic, including abuse of process, RICO, and violations of...

The Supreme Court is giving the Navy a freer hand determining what job assignments it gives to 35 sailors who sued after refusing on religious grounds to comply with an order to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The high court in a brief order Friday sided with the Biden administration and said that while the lawsuit plays out, the Navy may consider the sailors’ vaccination status in making deployment, assignment and other operational decisions. The group that sued includes mostly Navy SEALs. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that there was a “simple overarching reason” that he agreed with the court’s decision. The...

Judge rules against Proud Boys using First Amendment defense in Jan. 6 case A federal judge emphatically rejected the claim by four members of the white nationalist Proud Boys that they were only exercising their First Amendment rights by attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly said on Tuesday that the extremists are facing felony charges because they allegedly led a violent effort to overturn the presidential election not for speaking out against supposed election fraud as they claimed. “Defendants are not, as they argue, charged with anything like burning flags, wearing black armbands, or participating...