Free Republic

Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker will return the witness stand today for the second day of Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial over covering up “hush money” payments to a porn star. Pecker will resume testimony where he is expected to detail the inner workings of a scheme he, Trump and his “fixer” lawyer Michael Cohen devised to buy up and bury bad news during the 2016 presidential election. Trump is on trial for allegedly fudging business records to conceal a $130,000 payoff to Stormy Daniels made before the 2016 presidential election. The 72-year-old ex-CEO of the Enquirer’s parent company,...

“Look, we have a majority of one, OK? It’s not like he can go and do whatever he wants to do,” Trump, 77, told radio host John Fredericks on Real America’s Voice Monday night. “I think he’s a very good person. You know, he stood very strongly with me on NATO,” added Trump, referring to a campaign rally in which he urged member states to pay more for their common defense — or he would let Russia “do whatever the hell they want.” “I think he’s trying very hard,” the 45th president concluded.Johnson (R-La.) bucked the majority of his conference...

Alec Baldwin’s scuffle with a loudmouthed anti-Israel agitator at a New York City coffee shop spilled out onto the sidewalk, new photos obtained by The Post show. An irate Baldwin, 66, was seen struggling with the woman out the front door and down the stoop of Maman, an upscale cafe on University Place in Greenwich Village, after she had accosted him inside on Monday and demanded he declare “Free Palestine” as she filmed him. Footage of the encounter, first posted online by the woman herself, cut off after Baldwin took a swipe at her phone — and new photos appear...

The New York judge overseeing former President Trump’s hush money trial said Monday that Trump cannot attend arguments on presidential immunity at the Supreme Court next week. ... The decision to not allow Trump to be in Washington, D.C., on April 25, when the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on a presidential immunity claim Trump is making in his federal criminal case, came just before the New York trial adjourned Monday. “Arguing before the Supreme Court is a big deal, and I can certainly appreciate why your client would want to be there, but a trial in...

Shares of Trump Media plunged more than 17% in the pre-trading hours after the company filed to issue millions of additional shares of stock. ... Shares of Trump Media plunged more than 11% on Monday after the company filed to issue millions of additional shares of stock. Trump Media’s dramatic slide came as Donald Trump headed to a Manhattan court to begin jury selection for his criminal trial on hush money-related charges. Trump is the majority stakeholder in the company. Trump Media, which created the Truth Social app and trades under the stock ticker DJT on the Nasdaq, fell nearly...

Former President Donald Trump lost three major legal challenges in the past week, including his efforts to dismiss a racketeering case on First Amendment grounds. Here is a look at the rulings in three separate cases this week in Georgia, Florida, and New York. New York judge denies Trump’s attempt to delay hush money trialNew York Judge Juan Merchan denied the former president’s attempt to delay his criminal hush money trial on Wednesday, after Trump claimed he was protected under presidential immunity. Merchan said that Trump had plenty of opportunity before March to claim presidential immunity in the case. Trump...

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vowed Friday to appoint a special counsel to review cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot against rival Donald Trump and his supporters if Kennedy wins the Oval Office — arguing one can oppose the former president but still be “disturbed by the weaponization of government against him.”“As President, I will appoint a special counsel — an individual respected by all sides — to investigate whether prosecutorial discretion was abused for political ends in this case, and I will right any wrongs that we discover. Without the impartial rule of law,...

US District Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday denied a motion filed by former President Donald Trump seeking to dismiss the criminal charges against him in his classified documents case. Trump, 77, had argued that under the Presidential Records Act of 1978 he had the authority to designate sensitive documents as his personal property after leaving the White House. Cannon ruled that “the Presidential Records Act does not provide a pre-trial basis to dismiss” the 40 charges against the former president. She further noted that prosecutors “make no reference to the Presidential Records Act” in the indictment against Trump and did...

Former President Donald Trump vowed to create a “Christian Visibility Day” following President Biden’s declaration of “Transgender Day of Visibility,” which happened to land on Easter Sunday this year. “And what the hell was Biden thinking when he declared Easter Sunday to be Trans Visibility Day?” Trump asked his supporters during a campaign rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Tuesday. “Such total disrespect to Christians.” The presumptive Republican nominee for president promised that Nov. 5 would be “Christian Visibility Day” if he is elected. “And on Nov. 5, it is going to be called something else. You know, it’s going...

What's with the hatred of Michele Bachmann at Free Republic lately? I've seen some psychotic paranoid drivel about her secretly working for Mitt Romney, but apparently there's more to it than that. Please help me out here, folks.

PARIS -- "We are all Americans," France's Le Monde newspaper proclaimed on Sept. 12, 2001, speaking for millions worldwide in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the United States. Five years later, the respected daily carried a very different message Monday: Its lead editorial was titled "Bush's Mistakes." The paper's assessment five years ago reflected a collective shock and sympathy felt in France and many nations that has given way to a much more complex view of the United States since then, particularly after the war in Iraq. In its issue Monday, Le Monde called the war in Afghanistan...

From Murdoch Fund-Raiser to Zuckerman Huddle, Senator Clinton Has a Massive Money Apparatus, Ritzy Staff, Dispenses Lucre—Apparently Aimed at ’08: ‘Bill’s Re-election Was 9, This is 10’ As a pack of New York officials sweated through their shirts at an outdoor rally on Monday, Hillary Clinton stood onstage and chatted amiably with Mort Zuckerman, the media mogul who owns the Daily News. A few hours earlier, behind closed doors, she held an audience with Mr. Zuckerman’s tabloid nemesis on the third floor of News Corp. headquarters, where New York Post owner Rupert Murdoch was hosting a fund-raiser for her Senate...

President Bush said Friday he would use his power to veto spending bills if Congress does not cut the federal budget as he has asked. In over five years in office, Bush has never vetoed any bill. But he said that restraining spending was crucial to cutting the deficit in half by 2009 as he has promised. "If necessary, I will enforce spending restraint through the exercise of the veto," the president said. Bush's brief statement from the White House's Diplomatic Reception Room came a day after feuds among rival Republican factions led House GOP leaders to pull a $2.8...