Free Republic

Former Trump advisor Peter Navarro was on Thursday sentenced to four months in prison for refusing to comply with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Navarro was convicted in September on two counts of contempt of Congress — one for failing to produce documents related to the probe and another for skipping his deposition. Prosecutors argued Thursday that Navarro showed “utter disregard” for the House committee’s probe and “utter contempt for the rule of law.” They asked the judge to impose a six-month prison term.

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....

When cops stopped Antonio Sing-Ledezma's car following a shooting outside El Paso, Texas, in March and asked him if he had anything illegal on him, he didn't mention the handgun with the scratched-off serial number hidden in the vehicle. Sing-Ledezma, who did admit to having some marijuana and a glass pipe in his jacket pocket, told the officers that he had just been shot. When they asked him who pulled the trigger, however, he became uncooperative. A subsequent search of his vehicle turned up the weapon. A Mexican citizen wanted for murder in his home country who'd previously been deported...

Remember Seth Rich, the DNC staffer who perished under highly questionable circumstances several years ago, whom many have speculated may have been the Wikileaks source for the DNC email hack of 2016? Hillary Clinton and the DNC sure would prefer that we don’t.Via Newsweek, Nov. 29, 2023 (emphasis added):A judge has ordered the FBI to turn over the laptop of murdered Democrat staffer Seth Rich.Texas Judge Amos L. Mazzant ordered "a timeline for the disclosure of information on Seth Rich's personal laptop, Seth Rich's work laptop, the DVD and tape drive within 14 days following issuance of this Memorandum of...

A federal judge in Nevada dismissed a ballot eligibility challenge against former President Trump on Tuesday, ruling the challenge does not have proper standing. Federal Judge Gloria Navarro determined that the man who brought the challenge, long-shot GOP presidential candidate John Anthony Castro, didn’t have authentic standing to bring the suit because he filed to run for president in order to manufacture legal standing. “In rejecting his political competitor standing argument, courts have found that Castro improperly manufactured his standing merely to file this lawsuit,” Navarro wrote.

Washington — A federal judge in Georgia on Thursday approved a congressional map redrawn by the state's GOP-led legislature after its original voting lines were found to be crafted in violation of federal voting rights law. U.S. District Judge Steve Jones said in a 15-page order that the General Assembly "fully complied" with his October order that required the creation of a majority-Black congressional district in the western part of metro Atlanta. His acceptance of the new map, which maintains Republicans' 9-5 edge for its congressional delegation, sets up the new bounds to be used in the 2024 election. Jones...

A right-wing group specializing in hidden-camera investigations will not be able to use the First Amendment to stop the federal government from accessing documents and communications related to the group’s apparent acquisition of a stolen diary belonging to President Joe Biden’s daughter.As Law&Crime previously reported, the FBI executed a search warrant in 2021 at the property of Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe, as well as from Project Veritas staffers Spencer Meads and Eric Cochran. The search warrants were granted in connection with the theft and sale of the personal journal belonging to Ashley Biden, the president’s daughter. Two people, Aimee...

A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled against Nirvana and revived a child pornography lawsuit filed by the man who appeared as a nude baby on the cover of the band’s 1991 album Nevermind.Spencer Elden, now in his 30s, claimed the photo – one of the most iconic album covers in rock history – violated federal child pornography laws by displaying a sexualized image of a minor. But a lower ruled last year that he had waited far too long to bring his lawsuit. In a decision overturning that ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled...

Unlike in Colorado, a case brought in federal court to keep former Republican president Donald Trump off of the primary and general election ballots in West Virginia was dismissed. In a memorandum opinion and order released Thursday evening, U.S. District Judge Irene C. Berger granted motions made by attorneys for Trump, Secretary of State Mac Warner and the West Virginia Republican Party to dismiss a lawsuit brought in September by Texas resident and write-in presidential candidate John Anthony Castro. Berger also ordered that Castro’s case be dismissed without prejudice, which would allow Castro to possibly file the case again during...

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...

A federal narcotics agent accused of blowing through a stop sign and hitting and killing a bicyclist while on a surveillance mission in Salem has successfully moved the criminal case from state to federal court. In federal court, he can assert immunity from prosecution on the criminal charge of negligent homicide, a defense not available to him in state court. Lawyers for the state objected to removing the case from Marion County Circuit Court. They argued that the agent’s alleged “grossly negligent actions” were not a necessary part of his federal law enforcement work. U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane...

The 7-month prison sentence of Douglass Mackey has been stayed per a federal judge. He was convicted in March for circulating a satirical meme that encouraged Hillary Clinton voters to cast their votes via text in the lead up to the 2016 election. The Motion Order reads: "granting motion for release pending appeal, at docket entry 16 Mackey's surrender date is stated. The District Court is ordered to determine the appropriate terms of release, without prejudice to the government's making a future request for detention, on behalf of Appellant Douglass Mackey, It is further ordered that this appeal is expedited....

Lawsuits against Donald Trump brought by Capitol Police officers and Democratic lawmakers over the U.S. Capitol riot, can move forward, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Trump’s request to dismiss the civil lawsuits that accuse him of inciting the violent mob on Jan. 6, 2021. But the court said it’s ruling was not the final word on whether presidential immunity shields the Republican from liability in the case and said the judges express “no view on the ultimate merits of the claims” against the former president. Trump had...

A federal judge has ordered the government and law enforcement to disclose to the court information about suspected DNC leaker Seth Rich’s murder. The release is to include Rich’s laptops, DVD, and the tape drive associated with the case. Te𝕏asLindsay™ @TexasLindsay_ Breaking: FBI ordered to turn over evidence regarding former DNC employee Seth Rich who was allegedly linked to leaking disparaging DNC emails to WikiLeaks prior to his untimely and controversial demise. Before this order, information that has been provided about the case through Freedom of Information Act requests has been heavily redacted and offered little with which independent investigators...

ATLANTA – Georgia Democrats scored minimal gains in the General Assembly in last year’s elections – and even lost one congressional seat – despite population growth during the last decade among Blacks, who tend to vote for Democrats. But Democratic prospects likely will look a lot better after lawmakers gather under the Gold Dome for a special session starting Wednesday and redraw the state’s legislative and congressional lines on the orders of a federal judge appointed by then-President Barack Obama. “(Republican incumbents are) either going to end up in districts highly likely to elect a Democrat or in a district...

A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled in favor of a gun rights group, saying Maryland's preliminary handgun-licensure requirement is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled in favor of Maryland Shall Issue, which challenged the law, The Daily Record reported. The decision is a victory for gun rights advocates in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen.

Jimmie Gardner, a youth motivational speaker and the brother-in-law of twice-failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, has been arrested on charges of human trafficking. Gardner, 57, was taken into custody by Tampa Police after a 16-year-old victim reported that she had been coerced into sexual acts and physically assaulted by Gardner at the Renaissance Hotel at International Plaza. The Tampa Police Department detailed the arrest in a recent press release, stating that the incident occurred in the early hours of November 17, 2023. According to the victim’s account, Gardner invited her to his hotel room and offered her money for...

A federal appeals court has set a mid-January deadline for the Louisiana state legislature to draw up a new congressional map, which comes in a long-running legal dispute that included a lower court ruling that found the current map likely unfairly diluted the power of black voters. A three-judge panel in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals issued its order on Nov. 10, requiring the state legislature to pass a new map by Jan. 15, 2024. The appeals court's order notes that, if the state legislature fails to adopt a new map by the deadline, then the lower court should...

In the Progressive utopia championed by Woodrow Wilson and his successors, government will iron out the imperfections in human affairs through the use of regulatory agencies run by non-political experts. Such people, being experts and completely non-political, would pose no reason for concern about abuse of power, because of course they would never seek go outside their proper regulatory portfolio to use their authority to stamp out the freedoms and speech of their political opponents on important topics of the day. In the real world government regulators since the creation of their agencies have inevitably used their powers to disadvantage...

Democrat-appointed judge ordered Republican legislature to create one new black-majority congressional district and seven such districts for state elections. Judge Jones said if the legislature fails to act, he would carry out the map-drawing process himself.