Free Republic

U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon on Friday granted James Cromitie, 58, compassionate release from prison, six months after the three other members of the "Newburgh Four" were freed. The group was arrested in 2009 on charges of conspiracy to bomb Jewish buildings in New York and shoot down National Guard planes. The group was convicted in 2011 and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. Last July, Judge McMahon ordered the other three conspirators released on the grounds that they had been manipulated into the plot by the FBI...

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...

In 2018, Joseph Srour applied for a license to possess rifles and shotguns at his home in New York City. He was denied. In 2019, he applied for a license to possess handguns in his home. He was denied. The denials involved the application of the issuing authorities’ subjective judgment on Srour’s moral character and the subjective judgment of the issuing authorities’ determination of “good cause.” Joseph Srour appealed the decision. After the Bruen decision by the Supreme Court, he amended his appeal to a direct (facial) challenge of the constitutionality of New York City law. The Case is known...

A federal judge refused on Tuesday to certify the ongoing lawsuit alleging President Donald Trump defrauded individuals in his promotion of a multi-level marketing venture as a class action. Filed in 2018, the complaint focused on ACN, which sold telecommunications products, and two other companies. The plaintiffs are represented by Roberta Kaplan, the same attorney who represented E. Jean Carroll in her successful sexual battery and defamation suit against Mr. Trump. U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield ruled that putative class members lacked certain common elements in bringing the case. "Here there is no common evidence showing that putative class...

U.S. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan says that former President Donald J. Trump may be said to have “raped” E. Jean Carroll, even though a jury specifically declined to find that he had done so in his recent civil trial in New York. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post reported the judge’s finding — approvingly, calling it a “clarification”: [Kaplan] says that what the jury found Trump did was in fact rape, as commonly understood. The filing from Judge Lewis A. Kaplan came as Trump’s attorneys have sought a new trial and have argued that the jury’s $5 million verdict against...

A Manhattan federal judge blasted Donald Trump’s “entirely inappropriate” posts on Truth Social Wednesday — as witness testimony began in E. Jean Carroll’s civil rape case against the former president. Trump, 76, took to his social media platform about an hour before the second day of the trial began, claiming Carroll’s case was “a made up SCAM” and accusing her lawyers of being “political operatives.” He also called for the dress the former advice columnist wore on the day of the alleged rape to be brought into the trial — something that Carroll sought to do early on in the...

A polished Carroll, 79, showed up to the federal courthouse flanked by lawyers and wearing a cream-colored coat, sunglasses and carrying a maroon briefcase as her supporters chanted “We believe E. Jean Carroll.” Trump, 76, was not present.A jury of six men and three women had been chosen by early afternoon — but not before a pool of 48 prospects were grilled by the judge, including about their political leanings. The potential jurors were asked a multitude of questions, such as whether they had any affiliation with groups including QAnon, the Ku Klux Klan, the Proud Boys and other far-right...

It was on Guo’s yacht that Bannon, the former chief White House strategist for Donald Trump, was arrested in a criminal fraud case in 2020.Guo Wengui, a Chinese billionaire and associate of Steve Bannon, was denied bail on Thursday after being charged in a $1 billion fraud case in March. U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres rejected Guo’s proposed bail package, saying he must remain behind bars pending trial because there is “no condition or set of conditions” that would ensure his return to court or the safety of the community, according to the court order. Torres said Guo “has means...

A federal judge who will oversee Donald Trump’s sexual assault civil trial in Manhattan says the former president is free to skip attending the trial — but that he cannot claim he did so to avoid “burdens” on the city that his presence in court might cause. US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan set the ground rules in an order Thursday in response to a request by Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina that jurors be instructed that Trump didn’t attend in order to avoid “logistical burdens.” In proposed jury instructions submitted Wednesday, Tacopina requested that the judge tell panelists: “While...

A federal judge rejected an effort by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to block a Congressional subpoena of a former prosecutor for that office who had worked on an investigation into former President Donald Trump. Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil ruled that she has no standing to block the subpoena, writing that the House Judiciary Committee has claimed to have legitimate legislative purposes for its inquiry. The committee and its Republican chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan, have aggressively confronted Bragg in the weeks since Trump was indicted in Manhattan. The Judiciary Committee says it is conducting its investigation in support of possible...

A federal judge on Wednesday shot down Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s attempt to block a former prosecutor in his office from testifying before the House Judiciary Committee about the criminal case against Donald Trump. The committee and its chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), had subpoenaed ex-assistant district attorney Mark Pomerantz to give testimony about the DA’s investigation into Trump, 76, that culminated in the former president’s indictment in March. Bragg filed suit against Jordan and the Judiciary Committee, claiming the subpoena was an overreach by the GOP-led House and an attempt to influence a state criminal proceeding.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s urgent request to enter a restraining order against Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) was rejected on April 11, the same day it was filed. U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, a Trump appointee, turned down Bragg’s emergency request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against Jordan. “The Court declines to enter the proposed Temporary Restraining Order and Order to Show Cause,” Vyskocil said, noting that she had not yet received several documents that were referenced in Bragg’s filings. She ordered Jordan and other defendants in the case to respond to the lawsuit and scheduled...

A federal judge has sided with four publishers who sued an online archive over its unauthorized scanning of millions of copyrighted works and offering them for free to the public... (snip) In June 2020, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House sued in response to the Archive's National Emergency Library, a broad expansion of its ebook lending service begun in the early weeks of the pandemic, when many physical libraries and bookstores had shut down.

Many in the virtual currency industry have been confused and bedeviled by the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) gradual and ill-explained encroachment on their world, with frequent claims from SEC Chair Gary Gensler that most cryptocurrencies should be properly seen legally as "securities" that ought to be regulated by his agency. That would potentially make lots of legit businesses suddenly illegal dealers in "unregistered securities." In a decision last week in an ongoing bankruptcy case of Voyager Digital Holdings, U.S. bankruptcy Judge Michael E. Wiles in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York laid into SEC...

An excerpt from a notorious “Access Hollywood” tape in which former President Donald Trump seems to brag about sexually assaulting women will be allowed into evidence at his upcoming trial in the alleged rape of writer E. Jean Carroll. US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan said Trump’s statements on the 2005 recording — in which he described moving on a woman “like a b–ch” — could lead a jury to infer that Trump has assaulted or attempted to assault women in the past. “In this case, a jury reasonably could find, even from the Access Hollywood tape alone, that...

A federal judge issued an injunction blocking enforcement of New York’s “Hateful Conduct Law” seeking to regulate “hate speech” on social media platforms, ruling that the law is a violation of the First Amendment, which prevents the U.S. government from regulating the speech of its citizens.

A federal judge on Friday rejected Trump’s motion to dismiss the civil sexual assault suit filed by E. Jean Carroll. In 2019, E. Jean Carroll alleged Donald Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990’s. E. Jean Carroll is a mentally unwell woman who previously told CNN she fantasizes about rape. Trump has denied the allegations and called E. Jean Carroll a “whack job” who’s “not my type.” Carroll filed the lawsuit in November after New York passed the Adult Survivors Act which allows adults to sue over sexual assaults that occurred decades ago. US District...

A bankruptcy judge ruled that digital coins deposited in Celsius Network LLC’s interest-bearing accounts belong to the firm, ruling against thousands of customers and deciding a key legal issue in crypto-related insolvencies.

In a court filing, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried asked to redact the names of the co-signers to his $250 million bail. The filing said the U.S. government has not taken a position on the request and that it's being done to protect the privacy and safety of the sureties. The filing said the two remaining sureties have yet to sign their individual bonds, the amounts of which have not yet been determined, but plan to do so by the Thursday deadline. "In recent weeks, Mr. Bankman-Fried's parents have become the target of intense media scrutiny, harassment, and threats. Among...

PETALING JAYA: The United States will charge a Malaysian man, with a “Datuk Seri” title, with conspiracy to engage in wildlife trafficking and money laundering. In a statement, the US Attorney for the southern district of New York said Teo Boon Ching, 57, was extradited from Thailand yesterday after he was arrested in June for his second wildlife trafficking offence.US attorney Damian William said Teo was a leader of a transnational criminal enterprise which trafficked rhinoceros horns and enriched poachers who killed endangered animals.Teo, who is said to have businesses in Malaysia and Thailand, had allegedly trafficked and smuggled rhinoceros...