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A federal judge on Friday declined to force the recusal of a fellow Joe Biden-appointed colleague in Hunter Biden’s “hacking” lawsuit against a former policy analyst in the Trump White House, writing that the effort failed just like the former president failed to remove a Clinton appointee from the never successful Trump v. Clinton RICO case. U.S. District Judge Hernan Vera was the target of Garrett Ziegler’s recusal motion, which reasoned that Vera’s status as a 2023 appointee of President Joe Biden appointee, coupled with a donation to the president’s 2020 election campaign and the political “subject matter of the...

A Florida man accused of facilitating an illegal health care scheme has been spared additional prison time, ending the Justice Department's attempt to reprosecute him after his sentence was commuted by former President Donald Trump. Philip Esformes on Thursday pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and was sentenced to time served, with prosecutors agreeing to dismiss the remaining five counts. It's a quiet conclusion to a controversial prosecution that saw the federal government resuscitate the criminal case against him not long after he'd spent four and a half years behind bars and was released...

A federal court on Monday upheld a new Florida law that prevents biological males from competing in female sports, ruling that the state has a legitimate interest in “protecting and promoting athletic opportunities for girls.” The law was signed in 2021 by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the wake of a series of controversies around the country involving transgender-identifying males defeating biological girls in sports. In Connecticut, for example, two high school athletes who are biologically male but who identify as female won a total of 15 state track championships in the female division. It was dubbed the Fairness in...

Trump’s lawyers on Wednesday afternoon attended a hearing in Fort Pierce, Florida on whether Judge Cannon will agree to postpone the classified documents trial currently scheduled for May 2024.On Tuesday, Trump and his attorneys visited a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) to view classified material related to Jack Smith’s case ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, according to a leak to ABC News.Judge Aileen Cannon last month paused litigation in Jack Smith’s classified documents case as she decides whether to grant Trump’s motion to extend deadlines related to classified material.

A federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Florida lawyer who claimed Trump should be banned from the 2024 ballot for inciting an insurrection. The legal theory is based on Section 3 of the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment which states public officials who have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the US may be disqualified from public office. Trump has not been charged with engaging in insurrection or rebellion against the United States. Judge Robin Rosenberg a US District Judge for the Southern District of Florida ruled the attorney, Lawrence Caplan, lacked standing to bring the lawsuit....

The suit claims that the images of the sandwich on the store's menus are misleading and amount to a breach of contract. AFlorida judge this week rejected a bid from Burger King to dismiss a class action lawsuit against the fast food chain that has alleged the franchise repeatedly exaggerated the size and beef content of its signature Whoppers. The suit claims that the images of the sandwich on the store's menus are misleading and amount to a breach of contract. It also claims that deceptive advertising, which allegedly began in 2017, has made the Whoppers appear "approximately 35% larger...

On Friday night, a judge dismissed former President Donald Trump's lawsuit against CNN in which the current 2024 front-runner for the Republican nomination claimed CNN’s coverage of his election lies equated him to Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. Judge Raag Singhal, a Trump-appointed judge, ruled that CNN referring to Trump’s claims about the election being stolen as “The Big Lie” did not meet the criteria for defamation despite Trump’s belief to the contrary. "There is no question that the statements made by CNN meet the publication requirement for defamation under Florida law," Singhal wrote. "The next question is whether the...

A Florida federal judge...sanctioned former President Donald Trump and his lead attorney Alina Habba nearly $1 million in Trump's racketeering lawsuit against Hillary Clinton for what the judge called a "pattern of misuse of the courts." In a scathing order, U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks said Trump and Habba... are jointly liable for $937,989.39 in attorney fees and costs of the 31 defendants... which claimed that Clinton conspired with the Democratic National Committee and others to "weave a false narrative" that Trump colluded with Russians..." Judge Middlebrooks said the lawsuit "should never have been filed" and was brought simply...

A federal judge on Thursday imposed nearly $1 million in sanctions on former President Donald Trump and his lawyer for filing a since-dismissed ‘frivolous’ lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and many others, which had claimed they tried to rig the 2016 presidential election in her favor by smearing Trump.“We are confronted with a lawsuit that should never have been filed, which was completely frivolous, both factually and legally, and which was brought in bad faith for an improper purpose,” wrote Judge John Middlebrooks in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in his order sanctioning Trump.The judge in his...

Norwegian Cruise Line must pay $110 million in damages for use of a port that Cuba's government confiscated in 1960, a U.S. judge ruled on Friday, a milestone for Cuban Americans seeking compensation for Cold War-era asset seizures. The decision by U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami follows her March ruling that the use of the Havana Cruise Port Terminal constituted trafficking in confiscated property owned by the plaintiff, Delaware-registered Havana Docks Corp. "Judgment is entered in favor of Plaintiff Havana Docks Corporation and against Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Ltd," reads the decision. "Plaintiff is awarded $109,848,747.87 in damages,"...

A federal appeals court on Thursday halted Judge Aileen Cannon’s special master review in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago documents case. In September, Judge Cannon appointed a special master to review the documents seized at Mar-a-Lago. Biden’s corrupt Justice Department argued that a special master didn’t have a right to filter out the seized documents. The court blasted Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, and said she erred in appointing Raymond Dearie as a special master to review documents seized from Mar-a-Lago. “The law is clear,” the judges wrote. “We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to...

Hillary Clinton’s lawyers on Monday filed a motion demanding Donald Trump pay Clinton’s legal fees after a Bill Clinton judge tossed the RICO lawsuit over the Russian collusion canard. President Trump filed a federal RICO suit in Miami, Florida in March against Hillary Clinton and others over the Russia collusion hoax orchestrated by the Clinton campaign in 2016 to undermine Trump’s candidacy and derail his presidency. Trump asked for treble damages of expenses and losses of more than $24 million. In April President Trump requested the Clinton-appointed judge overseeing his Russiagate case against Hillary Clinton and others be removed from...

In April President Trump requested the Clinton-appointed judge overseeing his Russiagate case against Hillary Clinton and others be removed from the case due to obvious conflicts of interest. President Trump earlier had sued a number of individuals and former officials for their actions related to the Russiagate hoax and attempted coup of his administration. Somehow this case was assigned to Clinton-appointed Judge Donald Middlebrooks and Judge Ryon McCabe. Judge Donald Middlebrooks was appointed by Bill Clinton to the Southern District of Florida in May 1997. President Trump urged the courts to replace the Clinton judge with someone who is not...

A Florida judge filed an order Saturday noting that the court plans to appoint a special master to oversee judicial interactions with plaintiff former President Trump. “The Court hereby provides notice of its preliminary intent to appoint a special master in this case,” wrote District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was nominated by Trump during his time as president. The order fulfills earlier requests by Trump for the court to appoint a special master to review Mar-a-Lago documents before the FBI is able to review them. Trump filed a lawsuit on Monday to block the FBI from reviewing the documents that...

FIRST ON FOX: A federal judge on Saturday announced its "preliminary intent to appoint a special master" to review records seized by the FBI during its unprecedented raid of his Mar-a-Lago home earlier this month, at the request of former President Trump and his legal team, citing the "exceptional circumstances." Trump and his legal team filed a motion Monday evening seeking an independent review of the records seized by the FBI during its raid of Mar-a-Lago earlier this month, saying the decision to search his private residence just months before the 2022 midterm elections "involved political calculations aimed at diminishing...

A federal judge on Friday dismissed five former FBI officials -- including former director James Comey and deputy director Andrew McCabe -- from a lawsuit that former President Donald Trump filed against them and other political opponents related to the Russia investigation. Judge Donald Middlebrooks granted the Justice Department's request to substitute itself as defendants for the former FBI officials, after finding that Trump's lawsuit covered actions that they took while acting within the scope of their government employment. This is a victory for the former FBI officials, who no longer have to battle Trump in the civil litigation, which...

Former President Donald Trump wants to remove the federal judge assigned to his lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee, and others tied to the so-called "Russiagate" controversy. Trump's legal team filed a motion to disqualify U.S. District Court Judge Donald Middlebrooks, who is based in West Palm Beach, Florida, citing how the judge was nominated by former President Bill Clinton in 1997, when his spouse was the first lady. The filing stresses that "there exists a reasonable basis that Judge Middlebrooks’ impartiality will be questioned" and notes the lawsuit is levied, in part, against Hillary Clinton, who ran...

The ship was scheduled to arrive in Miami on Saturday. But a federal judge in Miami issued an arrest warrant for the ship Thursday, a maritime practice where a U.S. Marshal goes aboard a vessel and takes charge of it once it enters U.S. waters. The lawsuit was filed in a Miami federal court by Peninsula Petroleum Far East against the ship under a maritime procedure that allows actions against vessels for unpaid debts. The complaint says Crystal Symphony was chartered or managed by Crystal Cruises and Star Cruises, which are both sued for breach of contract for allegedly owing...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A cruise line is in a state of chaos after unpaid fuel bills caused a Miami judge to issue an arrest warrant for the Crystal Symphony cruise ship. It’s owned by the ultra-luxury cruise line Crystal Cruises. The warrant gives authorities the ability to seize the ship if it enters U.S. waters. As a result, the ship is currently docked in Bimini instead of returning to South Florida. Passengers on the ship have told multiple media outlets that they’ll be shuttled via ferry back to Port Everglades sometime on Sunday. It comes just days after Crystal...

A Florida man pleaded guilty to federal charges of threatening to kill Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Palm Beach Gardens resident Paul Vernon Hoeffer, 60, pleaded guilty to interstate transmission of threats to injure in federal court in Ft. Pierce, the DOJ stated. He faces up to 15 years in federal prison. In March of 2019, Hoeffer called the office of the Speaker, stating that he had come a "long way" to "rattle" her head with bullets and threatened to behead her. The DOJ also stated that he had...