Free Republic

Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is a master of prevarication and deflection. He holds an M.S. in BS and a Ph.D. in vacuous excuses. He’s a professor emeritus of duplicity and deception. As a prodigious suck-up, he’s the Eddie Haskell of lawyers. We can expect Rosenstein’s skill set to be on full display Wednesday when he finally and belatedly appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee as its first witness in an investigation into the origins and evolution of the fallacious Trump-Russia collusion probe. During his ignominious tenure at the Justice Department, Rosenstein was at the center of the Russia...

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is planning to take back the gavel of the influential Judiciary Committee if Republicans keep control of the Senate after the 2020 election. Grassley chaired the Judiciary Committee for four years, from 2015 to 2019, but handed over the top spot to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in January so that he could take over the Finance Committee. But under Senate GOP rules, Grassley hits his term limit for the finance panel at the end of 2020. He's informed Graham that he intends to use his seniority to become chairman of the Judiciary Committee starting in 2021....

One of President Trump's nominees for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals broke down in tears during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, as he disputed suggestions that he would not be fair to members of the LGBTQ community. Lawrence VanDyke was the subject of a scathing letter from the American Bar Association, sent to committee leadership Tuesday night, which alleged that people they interviewed expressed this concern, and that VanDyke himself "would not say affirmatively that he would be fair to any litigant before him, notably members of the LGBTQ community." But conservatives have adamantly defended the nominee. And...

Full title: Senators Follow Up With DOJ: What Happened to Our Criminal Referrals for People Who Lied About Kavanaugh? Last year then Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley referred a number of individuals to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution after they lied to congressional investigators about Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Two of those individuals were Julie Swetnick and disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti. "While the Committee was in the middle of its extensive investigation of the late-breaking sexual-assault allegations made by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford against Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Avenatti publicized his client’s allegations of...

For some reason, Democrats love to ask President Trump's judicial nominees about their religious backgrounds. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) was worried that U.S. district judge Peter Phipps, nominated to serve on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, would be no exception. So, he launched a preemptive strike at Wednesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing and asked Phipps about his membership in the Knights of Columbus (KoC), a Catholic fraternal organization, and whether it has anything to do with his nomination. After all, Democrats have obsessed over the group in recent years. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) admitted to being puzzled such line...

Democratic senators on Wednesday defended their decision to ask President Trump’s Catholic judicial nominees about their beliefs, saying it’s fair to ask whether they can separate their religious faiths from their jobs as judges. “It is never inappropriate for a member of this committee to ask whether a nominee for a lifetime position for the federal judiciary can rule fairly whatever their personal affiliations might be,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Hawaii Democrat who’s frequently questioned nominees’ religious backgrounds. The issue came to the fore Wednesday as the Senate Judiciary Committee held a confirmation hearing on Peter Joseph Phipps, a...

In the most fiery exchange so far during Attorney General William P. Barr’s Senate Judiciary testimony, Sen. Lindsey Graham interrupted questioning to accuse Sen. Mazie Hirono of “slandering” the Justice Department’s top official. “You have slandered this man from top to to bottom,” Mr. Graham said. “You want more of this line of questioning, you are not going to get it. The moment came while Ms. Hirono, Hawaii Democrat, was grilling Mr. Barr with questions about allegations that President Trump sought to thwart special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. But she also called Mr. Barr a liar and accused him...

Testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday morning, Attorney General Bill Barr stated that President Trump was falsely accused of colluding with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential election. "If the President is being falsely accused, which the evidence now suggests the accusations against him were false and he knew they were false, and he felt that this investigation was unfair, propelled by his political opponents and was hampering his ability to government. That is not a corrupt motive for replacing an independent counsel," Barr said. The remarks came during questioning from Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein....

The Senate Judiciary Committee cleared two nominees Thursday for seats on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ignoring objections from California’s two Democratic senators who complained they didn’t get a say in who President Trump picked. Daniel P. Collins and Kenneth Kiyul Lee were both approved on party-line 12-10 votes. Democrats said the two men were too conservative to earn seats on the West Coast’s most important court, but their complaints were even broader, accusing Republicans of further upending the “blue slip” tradition that, at some points in the past, has allowed home-state senators to veto judicial nominees. “We...

Full title: Head of the Knights of Columbus Calls Democratic Senators' Scrutiny of Catholic Teaching 'A Problem to All People of Faith' Washington, D.C. - Carl Anderson, the head of the Knights of Columbus, spoke with Townhall Friday during the March for Life about the scrutiny that judicial nominee Brian C. Buescher faced over his membership in the Catholic charitable organization. In written questions submitted in December, Sens. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) expressed concern over the group’s support of defining marriage as being between a man and a woman and the group's opposition to abortion. These positions...

The Senate Judiciary Committee has opened a probe into former Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s efforts to shape the FBI’s investigation into 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the committee’s chairman announced Friday.