Free Republic

A man who raped and strangled a 10-year-old Kansas girl in 1999 was executed this week, becoming the fifth federal inmate put to death this year. Keith Nelson received a lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, after a higher court tossed out a previous ruling that the government was required to obtain a prescription for phentobarbital, the drug used to kill him. Questions about whether the drug caused pain prior to death had been a focus of appeals for Nelson, 45. He was the second inmate to be executed this week after the Trump administration resumed...

A federal judge found the federal government should not be forced to stop construction on the border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border in California despite claims human remains were bulldozed over. U.S. District Judge Anthony Battaglia, a Barack Obama appointee... hearing Thursday in a challenge brought by the La Posta Band of Diegueno Mission Indians. The tribe claims President Donald Trump and the federal government have failed to meet tribal consultation requirements regarding border wall construction, which cuts through Kumeyaay land in San Diego... The tribe and the federal government are at odds over whether the type of notices, given...

Kolfage, a Purple Heart veteran who lost an arm and two legs in Iraq in 2004, was arrested at his home in Florida and is accused of being the main beneficiary of the scam, allegedly pocketing a staggering $350,000 of donor money while he and his wife flaunted their extravagant lifestyles on social media. Newly resurfaced footage of the pair taken on June 24, 2019 shows the two men openly laughing and joking about peddling money from the border wall scheme, more than a year before the feds swooped in. In the video, part of We Build The Wall's 'Wall-A-Thon'...

"Google was one of the three largest bundlers of contributions to President Obama. The year after the America Invents Act was passed, Google contributions were almost $1 million. Google spent $18 million on lobbyists. What did Google get for its money? A new, weaker patent system that allows challenges to patents outside of court, without a jury, without presumption of validity, using a low standard of proof. Google and friends killed the presumption that makes patents valuable. The expectations of patent owners that their rights would be enforceable against infringers.... "As the U.S. weakens its patent system, other countries are...

FBI Attorney Admits Altering Email Used for FISA Application During "Crossfire Hurricane" Investigation Former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith, 38, pleaded guilty today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to a false statement offense stemming from his altering of an email in connection with the submission of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (“FISA”) application, announced John H. Durham, Special Attorney to the Attorney General. Pursuant to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), the guilty plea proceeding occurred via videoconference before U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg. According to court documents and statements made...

A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld a decision to throw out felony conspiracy and weapons charges against Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy, two of his sons and another man. Before U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro’s January 2018 dismissal, which the government appealed, she found that the federal government improperly withheld evidence. Prosecutors had willfully withheld video surveillance, maps and FBI interview information in violation of due process required by the U.S. Constitution, the judge found. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed. “We can find no grounds for concluding that the district court abused its...

Maybe Judge Luttig was right all along. I had the misgivings you’d expect back in late May, when I disagreed with J. Michael Luttig, the stellar scholar and former federal appeals court judge, regarding how the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals should handle the Flynn case. At the time, that court’s three-judge panel had not yet heard oral argument on Michael Flynn’s mandamus petition — i.e., Flynn’s request that the panel find that federal district judge Emmet Sullivan was acting lawlessly. Sullivan had not only failed to grant the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the criminal case against Flynn; he...

(Reuters) - A U.S. judge late on Monday ordered all local boards of election in New York state to count “thousands” of absentee ballots received the day after a congressional primary held last June 23 but previously disqualified because of postmark problems. According to the ruling by Judge Analisa Torres of Federal District Court in Manhattan, the absentee ballots are to be counted “without regard to whether such ballots are postmarked by June 23.” Carolyn Maloney, the Democratic Party incumbent, got 40.29% of votes previously counted, while challenger Suraj Patel received 38.43%. The ruling also ordered ballots received on June...

A federal judge has ordered the New York Elections Board to count more than one thousand disqualified absentee ballots in the primary race between House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and challenger Suraj Patel. It appears that the limited ruling will not be enough to impact the outcome of the race. The New York Times estimates the ruling will affect 1,200 ballots. Maloney leads Patel by about 3,700 votes. Maloney declared victory in a statement and called on Patel to concede. “Weeks ago I called for all of these ballots to be counted," Maloney said. “Although the...

The Dakota Access Pipeline is the major means used to transport oil produced in the Bakken region of North Dakota to an existing pipeline in Illinois which can take the oil to Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. Earlier this month a judge ordered the Dakota Access Pipeline to cease operating so that a new environmental review, which could take a year or more, could be conducted. Fortunately, the U.S. Court of Appears for the District of Columbia has issued a stay of that ruling, at least while the appeals court reviews it.

The Dakota Access Pipeline, an oil route from North Dakota to Illinois that has inspired intense protests and legal battles, must shut down pending an environmental review and be emptied of oil by Aug. 5, a district court ruled on Monday. It essentially vacates a federal permit that had allowed the pipeline to operate while the United States Army Corps of Engineers, which had granted the permits for the pipeline, conducted an extensive environmental impact review. The decision, which could be subject to appeal, is a victory for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other Native American and environmental groups...

The man who tackled Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul in 2017 in anger over Paul piling yard waste near their shared property line will serve another 14 months behind bars or on home detention. A federal judge initially sentenced Rene Boucher to 30 days in jail for the attack, along with 100 hours of community service and a $10,000 fine. Prosecutors argued that sentence was unreasonably light given Paul’s injuries, which included six broken ribs. Prosecutors won the right to try to get a longer sentence for Boucher. U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Leitman imposed the additional punishment in a...

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton reacted today to a federal court decision , which Judicial Watch may appeal, upholding the secrecy of controversial subpoenas for phone records issued by Adam Schiff, Chairman of the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence relating to the impeachment of President Trump. “Adam Schiff secretly subpoenaed, without court authorization, the phone records of Rudy Giuliani and then published the phone records of innocent Americans, including President Trump’s lawyers, a member of Congress, and a journalist. And now a federal court ruled today that Schiff, or any member of Congress can’t be...

A federal judge on Friday criticized the Trump administration for a confusing and sluggish response to the Supreme Court’s decision last month invalidating the administration’s attempt to rescind the Obama-era program protecting so-called Dreamers. During a telephone hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Paul Grimm said he was troubled that the Department of Homeland Security’s website has yet to be updated to account for the high court’s ruling on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, better known as DACA.

<p>SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A U.S. judge in Spokane has firmly rejected a water park's challenge to Gov. Jay Inslee's emergency powers as the state responds to the coronavirus pandemic.</p> <p>Slidewaters LLC, a water park in Chelan, sued the governor and the Department of Labor Industries last month, saying that Inslee abused his power in declaring the emergency and that the state's restrictions were likely to prevent it from opening for the summer.</p>

Portland, Oregon - A federal judge specifically blocked U.S. agents from arresting or using physical force against journalists and legal observers at the ongoing Portland, Oregon, protests that have sparked confrontations between local officials and President Trump over the limits of federal power. U.S. Judge Michael Simon made his ruling late Thursday, a day after Portland's mayor was tear-gassed by federal agents as he made an appearance outside a federal courthouse during raucous demonstrations. Protesters have gathered in Oregon's largest city for nearly two months straight since George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis. **SNIP** Judge Simon had previously ruled that...

The men’s rights lawyer who killed the son of a New Jersey federal judge also likely fatally shot a fellow attorney in California about a week prior, the FBI said Wednesday. The FBI’s Newark field office announced Roy Den Hollander’s link to the California slaying of Marc Angelucci in tweet Wednesday afternoon. “As the FBI continues the investigation into the attack at the home of US District Court Judge Esther Salas, we are now engaged with the San Bernardino CA Sheriff’s Office and have evidence linking the murder of Marc Angelucci to FBI Newark subject Roy Den Hollander,” the office...

Financial Advisor in Wealth Management Section of Global Investment Bank Used Stolen Victim Funds to Pay His Own Lifestyle Expenses, Including Country Club Membership Fees Greenbelt, Maryland – Michael Barry Carter, age 47, of Potomac Falls, Virginia, pleaded guilty today to federal charges of wire fraud and investment adviser fraud, in connection with a scheme to steal more than $6 million.  The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur and Special Agent in Charge Jennifer C. Boone of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office.“For over 12 years, Michael Carter...

Former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was sentenced Monday to 6 1/2 years in prison in the corruption case that drove him from power as a judge said she hoped to “send a message to Albany.” U.S. District Judge Valerie E. Caproni sentenced Silver, 76, for the third time, acknowledging that a man who was once one of the three most powerful state officials came closer than ever before to properly expressing remorse. But she said it remained unclear as to whether “he really gets it,” and she shaved only six months off the seven-year prison sentence she announced in 2018,...

The person suspected of shooting the husband and son of US District Court of New Jersey Esther Salas on Sunday at her North Brunswick home has died of what is believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to two law enforcement sources. Daniel Anderl, a 20-year-old student at Catholic University, was killed in the shooting, and Mark Anderl, the judge's husband and a defense attorney, was injured, according to Chief Judge Freda Wolfson. Salas was unharmed, Wolfson said. Mark Anderl is in stable condition and "seems to be OK," said Carlos Salas, the judge's brother. Both the US Marshals...