Free Republic

... Mrs. Pelosi took the impeachment reins away from Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler and handed them to Mr. Schiff, who has been running secret hearings as Chairman of the Intelligence Committee. Witnesses testify behind closed doors, and Democrats selectively leak the testimony or evidence to the pro-impeachment press in ways that are often distorted or incomplete. Republicans then offer a competing narrative, and the public is left to wonder what’s true. All of this is supposedly in service to the serious purpose of removing a President elected by 63 million Americans. Mr. Schiff was challenged on his secrecy on Sunday...

On Sunday’s broadcast of ABC’s “This Week,” Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said “all transcripts” from the House’s impeachment inquiry will be made public. Jon Karl asked, “Congressman, why is this all happening behind closed doors? Why the secrecy? This is not a classified deposition. Why not do it out in the open?” Himes said, “First of all, all transcripts will be scrubbed for classified information and made available for the American public to see. There’s two reasons why these depositions are happening behind closed doors. One reason is when you’re talking to ambassadors...

House Democrats are considering masking the identity of a partisan CIA officer behind a so-called “whistleblower” complaint regarding President Donald Trump’s telephone call with Ukraine from Republicans on Capitol Hill, according to a report. The Washington Post, citing three officials familiar with the matter, said Monday that Democrats are concerned Republicans will leak the so-called “whistleblower’s” identify upon testimony before House and Senate investigators. Democrats overseeing the logistics of the testimony for the House impeachment inquiry are discussing a location away from the Capitol as well as a staff-only session that would prevent lawmakers from attending and asking questions. Aides...

House Democrats are looking to prevent the whistleblower from being identified by holding the person's testimony at a remote location and potentially changing their appearance and voice. Democrats are going to great lengths to hide the whistleblower's identity out of fear the Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee could leak their identity, according to The Washington Post, which cited three people familiar with the discussions. Democrats are considering holding testimony outside the Capitol as well as a staff-only session that would bar lawmakers from questioning the whistleblower, according to the Post. Democrats are also weighing options to distort the whistleblower's...

(WASHINGTON) — The House Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to authorize subpoenas for 12 people mentioned in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, including President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The panel also voted to authorize subpoenas for documents and testimony related to Trump’s handling of immigration, including on the separation of migrant families at the southern border. The resolution authorizes an investigation into whether there have been any discussions of Trump offering pardons to Homeland Security officials who work on immigration issues. Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler of New York will make the final decision about...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) threw his support behind Stephen Crowder on Thursday, calling YouTube decision's to no longer permit the conservative commentator, who has been accused of online harassment, to profit from his videos "ridiculous." "YouTube is not the Star Chamber — stop playing God & silencing those voices you disagree with. This will not end well," wrote Cruz to his 3.3 million followers. In a subsequent tweet, Cruz broached provocative comments made by TBS's Samantha Bee and actor Jim Carrey as examples of what he says is a double standard. "This is nuts. YouTube needs to explain why @scrowder...

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin sat before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday to face a group of Democrats who want President Trump's tax returns. The House Ways and Means Committee recently issued a subpoena for six years of returns, which the administration rejected. Mnuchin's letter to the Democrats concluded that their request "lacks a legitimate legislative purpose." A federal judge upheld the subpoena, but it was perhaps no surprise considering he was appointed by President Obama. Additionally, the chief counsel's office drafted an IRS memo noting that chairmen of congressional committees don't need "a legitimate legislative purpose" for requesting...

While investigating the 2015 robbery of a grocery store in Trenton, a police detective showed a witness a group of photos that included one of suspect Donnell Perry. The witness did not pick Perry out of the grouping, known as a photo array, and which usually include similar-looking mugshots . But in a second photo array, the witness identified Perry because of the tattoos on his face. It was the only photo in that array of a person with tattoos on his face. And the witness testified at a later hearing, which would determine if the identification could be used...

(CNN) - Baltimore's deputy state's attorney, who is prosecuting the six police officers for the in-custody death of Freddie Gray, once represented the victim in an unrelated 2012 criminal case, court documents show Thursday. The connection is made in a new filing by the defense attorneys for the officers charged in Gray's death, who raise the issue to argue that Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby's office should recuse itself from the case, citing a conflict of interest. The documents include a letter dated September 11, 2012, from the Office of the Public Defender addressed to Jan Bledsoe, informing her that...

Earlier this year, the Texas Legislature passed a law outlawing what is known as the “pick-a-pal system” for grand jury selection. Unlike the trial juries we are all familiar with, in which the jury is picked randomly with attorneys questioning possible jurors for bias or prejudice, many grand juries had been picked by judges by offering friends or associates in the justice system the license of nominating prospective jurors or even serving as grand jurors themselves. Research has shown that probation department employees, police officers, bail bondsmen and even court bailiffs decided who served on the grand jury. The problem?...

A Waco police detective was selected Wednesday to preside over a new McLennan County grand jury that could be the panel that considers the Twin Peaks shootings.

A confession: Many years ago, I was an ultra-left liberal, a Marxist, in fact. As a newly minted attorney at law in New York, I joined the ACLU and volunteered serve as one of their lawyers. About six weeks later, they asked me to represent an American Nazi accused of inciting to riot. I refused. They were mightily put off, horrified in fact. They remonstrated. “But he has a right to counsel.” I said, “Maybe so, but he doesn’t have a right to me. I’m protected by the Thirteenth Amendment.” (The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary...

BILLINGS, Mont. — A former high school teacher has been released from a Montana prison after completing a 30-day sentence for rape handed down by a judge who is under fire for both the sentence and his remarks about the 14-year-old victim. Fifty-four-year-old Stacey Rambold left the Montana State Prison on Thursday after completing his term for the 2007 rape of Cherice Moralez. Prosecutors are appealing District Judge G. Todd Baugh’s sentence, and a complaint has been filed by advocates seeking Baugh’s removal. Rambold is on probation and must register as a sex offender.

The Obama administration secretly won permission from a surveillance court in 2011 to reverse restrictions on the National Security Agency’s use of intercepted phone calls and e-mails, permitting the agency to search deliberately for Americans’ communications in its massive databases, according to interviews with government officials and recently declassified material. In addition, the court extended the length of time that the NSA is allowed to retain intercepted U.S. communications from five years to six years — and more under special circumstances, according to the documents, which include a recently released 2011 opinion by U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, then...

The 11-member Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as the FISA court, was once mostly focused on approving case-by-case wiretapping orders. But since major changes in legislation and greater judicial oversight of intelligence operations were instituted six years ago, it has quietly become ALMOST A PARALLEL SUPREME COURT, serving as the ultimate arbiter on surveillance issues and delivering opinions that will most likely shape intelligence practices for years to come, the officials said.

Lords and Commons of England, consider what Nation it is whereof ye are, and whereof ye are the governours: a Nation not slow and dull, but of a quick, ingenious, and piercing spirit, acute to invent, suttle and sinewy to discours, not beneath the reach of any point the highest that human capacity can soar to.* * *Those words were penned by John Milton in 1644, when he wrote, in “Areopagitica,” his plea for unlicensed printing. Where is the Mighty Milton now that England’s monarch, Elizabeth II, is getting set to establish by royal charter a new body, cooked up...

For five years, the case against Tom DeLay for money laundering through his Texans for a Republican Majority PAC has been seemingly trapped in the Texas courts facing pre-trial appeals. On November 1, it finally made it to trial and today the verdict is in: guilty on both money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The slightly-less-than-humble DeLay lost his majority leadership in Congress after the indictment came down, but he has maintained his claims that this case was politically motivated throughout the entire process right up to defense attorney Dick DeGuerin's closing arguments. The jury clearly didn't buy...

....The parallels with today are clear, and so are the lessons. Then, as in recent years, some were willing, in the name of security, to trade away the people's rights as if they were written in sand, not stone. For much of this decade, we have read about and witnessed such abuses as the scandal at Abu Ghraib, the disclosure of torture memos and the revelations about the warrantless surveillance of Americans. So what is to be done about the abuses of the Bush years? Some say do nothing, and a few Senators even tried to make Attorney General Eric...

The Barack Obama campaign is asking Missouri law enforcement to target anyone who lies or runs a misleading TV ad during the presidential campaign.

(PRESS RELEASE BEGINS) Branchflower Establishes Tip Line for Monegan InvestigationSpecial Counsel Asks Public to Call in With Information(ANCHORAGE) – Today Steve Branchflower, Special Counsel to the Legislative Council, Alaska State Legislature, activated a tip line for Alaskans with information that could help the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the firing of former Alaska Department of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.The tip line number is 907-264-6617 Callers will hear a brief recorded greeting from Mr. Branchflower with an invitation to leave information. Mr. Branchflower served the State of Alaska for more than 20 years as an Assistant District Attorney prosecuting violent...