Free Republic

It’s day two of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings. Democrats are still annoying. The protesters are still unhinged. And everyone on the Left cannot seem to grasp what is reality: Brett Kavanaugh is going to be confirmed. Conservatives will have a 5-4 majority on the Court. You’ve lost. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) performed a great show, wanting to release confidential documents relating to racial profiling during Kavanaugh’s time in the Bush administration. He said he was willing to be expelled for releasing this document, which by the way, was already cleared for release by the committee and the Bush team....

A federal jury today convicted former Newark Mayor Sharpe James of fraud for conspiring to rig the sale of nine city lots to his mistress, who quickly resold them for hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit. Ending a five-week trial, the jury returned its verdict in a courtroom just a block from the City Hall office that James occupied for two decades. Less than an hour into its sixth day of deliberations, the jury found James guilty on all 13 counts in the indictment. James' co-defendant and former girlfriend, Tamika Riley, was also found guilty on all counts. Both...

NEWARK, N.J. - The fate of a former Newark mayor and his ex-mistress on charges of corruption in the sale of city-owned land went to a federal jury Wednesday after five weeks of testimony. Prosecutors alleged that Sharpe James abused his office and betrayed his constituents by arranging for the sale of nine city-owned properties at a discounted rate of $46,000 to former girlfriend Tamika Riley from 2001 to 2005. Riley, 39, who admits to having an affair with the 72-year-old James, quickly sold the properties for $665,000 without starting required rehabilitation work on most of them, prosecutors said. The...

NEWARK, N.J. - Newark Mayor Sharpe James betrayed his city by using his influence to help his one-time mistress rake in more than half a million dollars through shady real-estate deals, a prosecutor said in closing arguments Monday. James is accused of arranging for the sale of nine city-owned properties at a discounted rate of $46,000 to Tamika Riley from 2001 to 2005. Riley quickly sold them for $665,000 without ever starting required rehabilitation work on most of them, prosecutors said. The 41 witnesses heard during the five-week trial did not include James, 72, or Riley, 39, a publicist who...

Former Newark Mayor Sharpe James billed the city for pornographic movies and body lotions while staying at a Miami hotel, prosecutors allege, according to documents recently filed in federal court. The disclosures shed new light on how the government may be planning to prove its case against James, who was indicted on corruption charges last July after 20 years as mayor of the state's largest city. The government also alleges that James: - Chose which developers could buy property in Newark, rewarded those who gave him tickets to sporting events and "swapped" city land with a developer who steered property...

Sharpe James The defense team of former Newark Mayor Sharpe James is bracing for testimony about marital infidelity to become part of his high-profile corruption case, according to court papers. Confronting an issue that was only hinted at in a federal indictment this summer, James' lawyers are attempting to filter out potential jurors who may be prejudiced by evidence of philandering on his part.

Former Newark Mayor Sharpe James Indicted POSTED: 9:50 pm EDT July 11, 2007 UPDATED: 1:35 pm EDT July 12, 2007 NEWARK, N.J. -- A federal grand jury indicted former Newark Mayor Sharpe James Thursday on corruption charges. James, 71, was charged with using city-issued credit cards to spend extravagantly on himself, eight women and others during vacations and trips to locations such as Puerto Rico, Martha's Vineyard, the Dominican Republic, and Rio de Janeiro, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie and state Attorney General Anne Milgram announced. In the 33-count indictment, James is also charged with fraud for allegedly facilitating and...

NEWARK, N.J. - Former Newark Mayor Sharpe James was indicted Thursday on corruption charges involving land sales and allegations that he spent extravagantly on himself and several women using city-issued credit cards. The federal grand jury's 33-count indictment charges James with fraud for allegedly facilitating and approving the cut-rate sales of city-owned land to a female companion. It also charges James, 71, with using the city-issued credit cards on himself and eight women during trips to destinations including Rio de Janeiro, Puerto Rico and Martha's Vineyard, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie and state Attorney General Anne Milgram announced. "The allegations...

Federal officials investigating former Newark Mayor Sharpe James last week served a subpoena on City Hall, asking for the hard drives of computers used by James' executive assistants. There's just one problem: City officials don't know where they are. When Mayor Cory Booker and his staff took office on July 1, all of the dozen or so computers in the mayoral suite of offices were gone and new machines were being installed, according to Booker spokeswoman Desiree Peterkin Bell. Who removed them or where they ended up is unclear, said Peterkin Bell, adding that a desktop computer in the city's...

Will New Jersey get a Lieutenant Governor? By STEVE KORNACKI PoliticsNJ.com November 16 - If the state Assembly gets its way, Garden State voters will have the option next fall of approving a constitutional amendment that would create an office of lieutenant governor and make its occupant next in line to the governorship. Opinion polls show the public overwhelmingly favoring the concept, so now that the amendment has won the necessary supermajority approval in the lower house the only obstacle blocking New Jersey from becoming the 43rd state with a lieutenant governor seems to be the state Senate, which has...

Report: Newark, N.J. Police Suspected of Shakedowns ............ Associated Press NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- State and city authorities are investigating whether a half-dozen Newark police officers shook down drug dealers and prostitutes, selling confiscated drugs and guns, according to a newspaper report. The findings are to be presented to a state grand jury, officials told The Star-Ledger of Newark in Tuesday's editions. About eight officers have received letters from the state Division of Criminal Justice telling them they are targets or are possible witnesses, said Jack McEntee, president of Newark Lodge 12 of the Fraternal Order of Police, the city's...

<p>January 9, 2003 -- The go-go dancer who's being sought in the Newark House of Horrors child-abuse case refused to return the youngsters to their mother because she wanted the welfare money, relatives charged yesterday.</p> <p>"She was getting money to take care of the kids," Lynella Gaddie said of Sherry Murphy, the exotic dancer entrusted with taking care of three boys by their mother, Melinda Williams.</p>

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- The woman who was supposed to be taking care of the three brothers in the Newark torture and abuse case was captured early Thursday in a city apartment. Sherry Murphy was sleeping when police found her around 2 a.m., Lt. Derek Glenn said. She had been sought since the body of a 7-year-old boy was found in a storage bin on Sunday, a day after his two brothers were found starving in a locked room. Murphy, who was wanted on child endangerment charges, had been caring for the boys since their mother, Melinda Williams, was jailed...

<p>TRENTON -- Joseph Santiago used his power as superintendent of state police to order the confiscation of all potentially damaging state police investigative records on himself and his top staff, according to a New Jersey state police source.</p> <p>Santiago, a former Newark police director, ordered originals -- and all copies -- of the state police investigative files hand delivered to him by Sept. 24, the source, who asked not to be identified, said.</p>

<p>With 10 days before the Newark mayoral election, a new WABC-TV Eyewitness News/SurveyUSA poll shows that Mayor Sharpe James and challenger Cory Booker are still even but the electorate is becoming more divided along racial lines.</p> <p>"We are seeing a polarization in the electorate. Whites and Hispanics are moving toward Booker. African-Americans are consolidating their support for James," said Jay Leve, editor of Verona-based SurveyUSA.</p>