Free Republic

Apetition to have Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis disqualified from former President Donald Trump's election interference case has received more than 43,000 signatures. Willis found herself embroiled in a scandal pertaining to a romantic relationship she held with Nathan Wade, an outside attorney brought into her office to help conduct the Trump investigation. It was argued this relationship was improper and should disqualify Willis from continuing to lead the case. She was allowed to remain, but the decision is being appealed. "Now the case is being appealed, and we're taking action," the petition reads. "Our senior legal team –...

even if Trump, 77, fights the verdicts and appeals, he would still have to front a potential $453 million total as an “undertaking,” or security, in the two cases, according to legal experts. Under New York law, Trump — should he fight the verdict as his attorneys have indicated he will — would for instance have to turn over the full amount he owes Carroll for a court to hold in escrow until the appeal was resolved. He’d also have to pay a hefty interest rate if he eventually lost the appeal. Trump could seek a security bond to help...

A third attorney who falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen flipped Tuesday and agreed to cooperate in the criminal case against former President Donald Trump in Georgia — saying she had “deep remorse” for her actions. Jenna Ellis, 38, tearfully said she “failed” to do “due diligence” on claims that the election was stolen through fraud in swing states including Georgia, where President Biden beat Trump by fewer than 12,000 votes — joining former Trump attorneys Sidney Powell and Ken Chesebro in also pleading guilty. *** “I believe in and I value election integrity,” she went on. “If I...

Special Counsel Jack Smith told a federal court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday that prosecutors want to start the trial of former President Donald Trump on January 2, 2024, right before the Iowa caucuses launch the Republican presidential primary. Fox News reported: Special Counsel Jack Smith proposed to begin former President Donald Trump’s trial in January 2024 for the charges he’s facing in relation to the events of Jan. 6, 2021. “The Government proposes that trial begin on January 2, 2024, and estimates that its case in chief will take no longer than four to six weeks,” the filing on...

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is expected to seek more than a dozen indictments when she presents her case regarding efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia before a grand jury next week, sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Willis, a Democrat, has been eyeing conspiracy and racketeering charges, which would allow her to bring a case against multiple defendants. Her wide-ranging criminal probe focuses on efforts to pressure election officials, the plot to put forward fake electors and a voting systems breach in rural Coffee County, Georgia. Trump...

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's case against former President Donald Trump is legally "dubious" and motivated by political ambition, alleges legal expert Hans von Spakovsky. "It's an extremely dubious prosecution, and I say that as a former commissioner on the Federal Election Commission," he told Just The News. Von Spakovsky, the manager of the conservative Heritage Foundation's Election Law Reform Initiative, said Bragg is going after Trump for alleged federal election crimes that are not within his jurisdiction. "No local state prosecutor has the authority to enforce federal campaign finance crimes in the first place," he explained. "There's just nothing...

People on the right are calling Joe Biden’s vicious “MAGA Republicans” speech “unpresidential” and “divisive” when in reality, it was simply desperate. That’s a new theme on the left that has become obvious on a comical level. The national media have spent the last several weeks insisting that after enduring months of record inflation, unaffordable gas and electric bills, plus a completely avoidable war costing taxpayers billions (and counting), the country is now feeling a new sense of affection for Biden. I’m sure. Now they’re hyping up the Democrat line about some “extreme MAGA ideology” (what?) and “authoritarian leaders” who...

The irony is delicious. For the last four years the Dallas Morning News has been on a jihad against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Over their boisterous objections, Texans re-elected Paxton in November. And today it was announced they were slashing their “newsroom” by 40 employees. It seems Texans just don’t want to pay for the leftist garbage produced by the once formidable Morning News. Over the last two decades the content has become more and more shrill, and not just the editorial page. The “news” – like the fact-free tales produced by liberal activist Lauren McGaughy attacking Paxton –...

In August, the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board labeled the case against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton a “political prosecution” citing a sealed grand jury document provided to the editorial board. That document has now been published for the public to view by Direct Action Texas, a North Texas-based political accountability group and its contents are alarming. The document, a motion to dismiss filed by Paxton’s legal team, lays bare a number of violations of Paxton’s due process rights by Special Prosecutors Brian Wice and Kent Schaffer, as well as Chris Older, the original judge on the case. Oldner was...

PHOENIX - A judge, not a jury will decide guilt or innocence in former Sheriff Joe Arpaio's criminal contempt case. The order issued Wednesday by United States District Court Judge Susan Bolton grants the government's request for a trial in front of a judge. Arpaio requested a jury to decide whether he should be convicted of a criminal contempt-of-court charge for disobeying a court order in a racial profiling case.

Just one major telecommunications company refused to participate in a legally dubious NSA surveillance program in 2001. A few years later, its CEO was indicted by federal prosecutors. He was convicted, served four and a half years of his sentence and was released this month. Prosecutors claim Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio was guilty of insider trading, and that his prosecution had nothing to do with his refusal to allow spying on his customers without the permission of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. But to this day, Nacchio insists that his prosecution was retaliation for refusing to break the law on...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers were found not guilty on all charges on Tuesday in the first major criminal trial stemming from the housing and financial meltdown. A jury in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, N.Y., acquitted Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin. Both had worked as hedge fund managers at Bear Stearns, which went bankrupt in March 2008. Federal prosecutors had accused Cioffi and Tannin of falsely inflating the value of their portfolios, even as they knew that the mortgage-backed assets in the funds were at risk of collapse.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby has been found guilty on four of five counts in his perjury and obstruction of justice trial. Libby, 56, faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and a fine of $1 million. Libby was convicted of: obstruction of justice when he intentionally deceived a grand jury investigating the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame; making a false statement by intentionally lying to FBI agents about a conversation with NBC newsman Tim Russert; perjury when he lied in court about his conversation with Russert; a second count of...

It has been more than two years since news first broke that Rush Limbaugh had an addiction to painkillers. That news led to a criminal investigation of Limbaugh by Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer, who in December 2003 leaked to the media that his office had uncovered evidence of 10 felony counts, including "doctor shopping," money laundering and drug trafficking. Despite the sensational allegations, no charges have been brought. Worse, in the latest round between the State Attorney's office and Limbaugh, Assistant State Attorney James Martz made a startling admission in open court on Tuesday as he sought...