Free Republic

After he was charged in June with mishandling national security papers, former president Donald Trump asked to be allowed to discuss classified evidence in the case right where he allegedly kept the documents: Mar-a-Lago, his Florida home and private club. On Wednesday, the federal judge overseeing the case appears to have told him no. U.S. District Court Judge Aileen M. Cannon issued a 16-page protective order granting prosecutors’ request for a set of rules about how classified information and documents should be handled in the case — rules that stick to the general practice of federal courts. Government lawyers had...

On Friday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) reacted to concerns among Democrats about a second term for President Joe Biden by stating that “objectively, President Biden is doing a really good job. The economy is strong. Unemployment has stayed low, even as we’ve reduced inflation. He’s helped build the coalition to defend Ukraine against Russia.” And, therefore, “it’s hard to see an argument that Joe Biden isn’t on top of what he’s doing as President.”

Tuesday on FNC’s “Hannity,” ESPN host Stephen A. Smith had a critical take on President Joe Biden and his re-election bid. Smith called it a “disgrace” that Democrats were “begging” what would be an 82-year-old Biden to run in 2024. “Well, listen, here’s the truth, here’s the truth, OK?” he said. “When I talk about Biden, what I said was in the class — and to clarify my statement because I saw how you led with it or whatever, I’m no fan of Trump and because of how he conducts himself. I’ve told you that. I don’t even get into...

A member of President Joe Biden’s counsel’s office met with a top member of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team nine weeks before he indicted former President Donald Trump in the classified document case, White House visitor logs show. The meeting between Caroline Saba, deputy chief of staff for the White House counsel’s office, and Jay Bratt, a top aide to special counsel Jack Smith, raises questions about whether the White House politically influenced or interfered in the DOJ’s case against Trump, Joe Biden’s political rival. The 10:00 a.m. meeting on March 31, 2023, between Saba and Bratt included an FBI...

The White House counsel’s office met with a top aide to Special Counsel Jack Smith just weeks before he brought charges against former President Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents — raising serious concerns about coordinated legal efforts aimed at President Biden’s likely opponent in 2024. Jay Bratt, who joined the special counsel team in November 2022, shortly after it was formed, took a meeting in the White House on March 31, 2023, with Caroline Saba, deputy chief of staff for the White House counsel’s office, White House visitor logs show.

Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that special counsel Jack Smith had “almost a slam dunk” case against former President Donald Trump with the classified documents charges. Anchor Kasie Hunt said, “So, let’s talk now about the presidential race. We are 72 hours from the first Republican presidential debate. It’s going to be missing the front-runner, Donald Trump, the former president. He is facing federal charges over his efforts to overturn the election. And you did vote to convict him in his impeachment trial after January 6, you said, quote, because he is guilty....

Sometime in the next three weeks, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is expected to ask a grand jury to indict multiple people for trying to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election result. July 31 is the first of 10 days between now and August 18 that Willis has instructed most of her staff to work remotely, citing safety precautions.That window comes as U.S. Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith is preparing to bring criminal charges stemming from his federal investigation into the Jan, 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Willis says the two investigations have not coordinated.“I don’t know...

Justice Shrugged: The Persecution of Donald Trump COMMENTARY By Frank MieleAugust 14, 2023 Justice Shrugged: The Persecution of Donald TrumpAP Here’s what I dream of Donald Trump saying when he stands trial on bogus charges proffered by his political opponents: “I do not recognize this court’s right to try me … I do not recognize my action as a crime.” Those are the fighting words of industrialist Hank Rearden when he was put on trial for ignoring an unjust law in Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged.” Although the circumstances of the cases differ, Rearden is a perfect avatar of Donald...

The federal judge overseeing the election conspiracy case against Donald Trump has agreed with his defense on a looser version of a protective order for evidence in the case Chutkan rejected prosecutors’ broader protective order proposal that sought to prevent the public airing of all evidence they hand over to Trump’s defense as they prepare for trial. She instead seemed poised to impose a more limited protective order that would bar the public release only of materials deemed “sensitive,” such as grand jury materials.

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...

Former President Donald Trump's attorneys opposed special counsel Jack Smith's proposal for a protective order in the case related to the 2020 election, according to a court document filed Monday. Trump's attorneys argued Smith's protective order, which prosecutors typically use to dictate how discovery is handled in a case, was "overbroad" and accused the Department of Justice of seeking to "restrict First Amendment rights" with it. Protecting certain discovery "does not require a blanket gag order over all documents produced by the government," Trump's defense team wrote. His lawyers added, "Rather, the Court can, and should, limit its protective order...

Former President Donald Trump Monday lashed out at special counsel Jack Smith and U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan even as the judge prepares to consider a gag order in advance of his trial for trying to overturn the 2020 election. Deriding Chutkan as “the judge of (Smith’s) dreams,” Trump called for a new jurist to be appointed to oversee his historic trial even though his defense team has not yet made any such motion in court. “Deranged Jack Smith is going before his number one draft pick, the Judge of his “dreams” (WHO MUST BE RECUSED!), in an attempt...

U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Florida, Aileen Cannon, issued an order Monday pressing the Department of Justice (DOJ) about its conduct in former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case. Cannon ordered DOJ special counsel Jack Smith to unseal two filings and give a legal explanation as to why a Washington, D.C. grand jury is investigating matters related to the classified documents case. “The Special Counsel states in conclusory terms that the supplement should be sealed from public view ‘to comport with grand jury secrecy,’ but the motion for leave and the supplement plainly fail to satisfy the...

Bill Barr enjoys talking about the weaponized DOJ as if the DOJ was not weaponized. Bill Barr is a very dangerous figure in the government weaponization process, and he had a lot of people fooled for a long time. Fortunately, he didn’t fool me and many of you remember exactly why.Additionally, during my 2020 trip to DC, it was specific suspicions about Bill Barr that necessitated going directly into the system. Through research and eventually a stroke of luck, I was able to trace the people Attorney General Barr assigned to review the Trump-Russia collusion nonsense. I found the people...

A federal judge issued a ruling ordering Donald Trump to respond to a protective order filed by the Justice Department that would block the former president from sharing details of evidence from his Jan. 6 criminal case proceedings. In a court order filed Saturday afternoon, Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled Trump's legal team must respond to the special counsel's motion by Monday at 5 p.m. The order comes after the DOJ issued a court filing at about 10 p.m. on Friday, calling attention to a message Trump posted on his Truth Social account that prosecutors say raises concerns the former president...

Jack Smith isn’t a stupid man. A number of definitions apply to Smith, but stupid isn’t one of them. A zealot? A vainglorious, demagogic political hack who is doing the bidding of another political hack? Yes, to both. But Jack Smith isn’t dumb. Smith was the head of the public corruption unit at DOJ when, in 2014, he brought public corruption charges against sitting Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell. McDonnell was charged with 14 counts. Those counts included honest services wire fraud, obtaining property under “color of official right,” and extortion under “color of official right.” Like most DOJ attorneys with...

Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz said that Special Counsel Jack Smith could himself be indicted if the indictment of former President Donald Trump is thrown out. Smith secured a four-count indictment of Trump relating to his efforts to contest the results of the 2020 election after he previously secured a 37-count indictment against Trump in June based on an investigation into allegations surrounding classified documents, which was supplemented with a superseding indictment issued Thursday that included charges against Carlos De Oliveira, a maintenance worker at Mar-a-Lago, the Florida estate owned by former President Trump. Trump faces arraignment on the charges...

Biden's DOJ has indicted Donald Trump for the third time, but this one is different. Jack Smith has brought an indictment against Donald Trump that criminalizes free speech. The counts: Conspiracy to defraud the United StatesConspiracy to obstruct an official proceedingObstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceedingConspiracy against rights. Professor Jonathan Turley described it this way: George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said Smith issued “the first criminal indictment of alleged disinformation.” “If you take a red pen to all of the material presumptively protected by the First Amendment, you can reduce much of the indictment to...

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan of Washington, D.C., the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s case in the district, previously worked at a law firm that once employed Hunter Biden and worked closely with Ukrainian energy firm Burisma. Chutkan spent 12 years working for Boies, Schiller, & Flexner LLP (BSF) where she specialized in white collar litigation and antitrust defense, before she was nominated to her current position by former President Obama, her official bio states.

U.S. District Judge is set to oversee former President Trump's case involving his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The big picture: Chutkan has previously dealt with Trump, denying his 2021 motion to halt records from being turned over to the Jan. 6 committee, writing, "Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not president." Snip Former President Obama appointed Chutkan to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2014.