Free Republic

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka filed a lawsuit against the US Attorney for New Jersey on Tuesday over his arrest last month while protesting outside an ICE detention facility in his city. Baraka accused interim head attorney Alina Habba, who is also a personal lawyer of President Trump, of “malicious prosecution” and violating his Fourth Amendment rights following the May 9 arrest. “Defandant Habba issued the defamatory statement and authorized the false arrest of Mayor Baraka despite clear evidence that Mayor Baraka had not committed the petty offense of ‘defiant trespass,’” the lawsuit stated.

A U.S. judge in New Mexico on Thursday dismissed trespassing charges against dozens of migrants caught in a new military zone on the U.S.-Mexico border, marking a setback for Trump administration efforts to raise penalties for illegal crossings. Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Gregory Wormuth began filing the dismissals late on Wednesday, ruling migrants did not know they were entering the New Mexico military zone and therefore could not be charged, according to court documents. Assistant Federal Public Defender Amanda Skinner said Wormuth dismissed the charges against all migrants who made initial court appearances on Thursday. The migrants still face charges...

I picked a J6 case at random to review because I wanted to see how bad it was. And let me tell you the random one I picked did not disappoint. This defendant went into the capital and walked down the corridor. He was not accused of violence. He did not break anything. He did not hurt anybody. He was sentenced by a jury to 19 months in prison he was overcharged by the prosecutor to the point where it should be called malicious prosecution, and a judge rubber stamped every single thing the prosecutor asked for. The most egregious...

The disappearance of Abdul Aziz Khan was featured on Netflix's 'Unsolved Mysteries.'A young boy who was reported missing in Georgia several years ago has been found safe roughly 1,400 miles away. On Wednesday, the Douglas County Sheriff's Office in Colorado announced deputies recently found Abdul Aziz Khan after responding to a no trespassing call. Aziz, then 7 years old, was allegedly abducted by his noncustodial mother Rabia Khalid on Nov. 27, 2017 in Atlanta. His disappearance was featured on various programs, including Netflix's 'Unsolved Mysteries.' According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, a felony warrant for...

States that have permissive policies on squatting—a growing phenomenon in the United States—need to make the practice a criminal offense, the writers of a new report from Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) say.Squatting is occupying an unoccupied or abandoned area of land or a building without having legal permission to use it. Although squatters don’t pay rent and sometimes damage the properties they take over, evicting them can be difficult and costly.Most states are reluctant to allow criminal prosecution of squatters as trespassers and prefer treating incidents as landlord and tenant disputes. Police who wish to avoid potentially violent confrontations often...

A Chinese national was arrested after multiple attempts to breach the security of Mar-a-Lago, the private club and residence of former President Donald Trump.The suspect, Zijie Li, 38, of El Monte, California, claimed to possess documents implicating the Chinese government in a recent assassination attempt on Trump.WPTV reported that Li first attempted to enter Mar-a-Lago on July 19, around 8 p.m., driving a Toyota Prius. Secret Service agents stopped him at the main gate. Li alleged he had critical information connecting China to an assassination attempt on the former president and insisted on handing over the documents. However, the Secret...

The Supreme Court’s decision on Friday in Fischer v. U.S. struck down one of the most common charges against January 6 defendants. “Obstruction of an official proceeding” had been used in hundreds of cases, and those convictions are now invalid. But the biggest impact of the decision may occur elsewhere. For years, calling January 6 an “insurrection” has been a litmus test for press, pundits and politicians. Members of Congress such as Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) claimed a conspiracy of “armed and organized insurrectionists.” The claim is legally absurd but politically advantageous. It now seems like the insurrection increasingly looks more...

On January 30, 2023, Arizona rancher George Alan Kelly, 75, was arrested and charged with the murder of Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea. Cuen-Buitimea was crossing the border from his hometown of Nogales, Mexico, with a group of seven other illegal immigrants donning camouflage attire and rifles. One of the illegal immigrants said the squad of armed men crossed the border into the United States to look for work but scattered after seeing Border Patrol agents. Shortly thereafter, Kelly became aware of the group. He was making lunch when he heard a single gunshot and then noticed five of the men crossing through...

A local New York ABC News affiliate reported on the threat squatters are posing to residents and offered tips on how they can protect their homes from unwelcome guests, including putting up "No trespassing" signs. ABC 7 Eyewitness News investigative reporters Dan Krauth and Nina Pineda detailed the threat that squatters can pose under New York law, where a person can claim squatters' rights if they have lived in a home for more than 30 days. Efforts to change this law have gained serious traction in recent days after video of New York City property owner Adele Andeloro getting arrested...

@julie_kelly2 I just got off the phone with a relative of Gregory Yetman, the target of an FBI manhunt following an armed raid related to charges for January 6. Will have much more on what happened shortly. In the meantime... I am SICK of hearing the ways in which this regime is destroying the lives of decent Americans who love this country so the pettiest man ever to be president, Joe Biden, can retaliate against his detractors. I am sick of hearing the pain in people's voices when their loved one is described as a "terrorist," especially people who have...

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — A 78-year-old DeLeon Springs man is in jail without bond, accused of shooting and killing his neighbor during a dispute over trees. Edward Druzolowski is charged with second-degree murder in the death of 42-year-old Brian Ford. 911 calls released Monday reveal it was the suspect's wife who called for help. The Volusia County Sheriff's Office also released body cam video showing Druzolowski's arrest. “My husband had it in his hand. He meant to scare him, and he hit him. He was on our property,” she said. The victim’s mother tells a harrowing story. Her son was...

There have been a lot of stories in the news lately around squatters moving into vacant homes and refusing to leave. These stories show, time and again, that the police refuse to take action and instead say it’s a civil matter. So why aren’t these “trespassers” arrested? Is trespassing still against the law? Per ipropertymanagement, a squatter in California, “is someone who takes up residence in an abandoned, unoccupied or foreclosed building or area of land...without lawful permission…Despite this, it’s common and legal to squat in the United States.” Unlike trespassing, per the law, “While trespassing is a criminal offense,...

By any standard, the treatment of January 6 defendants has been a disgrace to the Department of Justice, the DC federal bench, and the Constitution. Scores of people have been held in inhumane conditions in the DC Gulag, denied their constitutional right to speedy trial, and denied access to exculpatory evidence. The blanket media coverage excoriating them as “violent insurrectionists” has prevented these constitutional outrages from becoming a national scandal. But there is a chance, a small chance, that the release of CCTV Capitol video by Speaker McCarthy may change the national consensus (other than in conservative media) that there...

DUNDEE, Fla. (WFLA) – A 24-year-old man has been arrested after he was allegedly seen “peeping through the windows” at a motel, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. On Tuesday, a PCSO deputy was dispatched to the Economy Motor Lodge in Dundee around 5:49 p.m. after a “suspicious person” was reported at the motel. According to officials, a motel employee reported seeing a man walking around the hotel “peeping into room windows.” After arriving at the scene, the PCSO deputy was able to identify the suspicious person as 24-year-old Donte Clinton. When Clinton spoke with the deputy, he confirmed...

A Florida realtor was stunned to find a nude couple romping in the pool of a property she was preparing to show a client, police said. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office reported the startled agent pulled up to the empty home in Davenport on Dec. 5 and saw a mysterious car in the driveway around 9:45 a.m. Knowing that no one was authorized to be on the property, the suspicious broker called 911. Responding deputies found a naked and unafraid couple cavorting in the home’s pool. The uninhibited intruders told officers that they had specifically come to the property to...

A married couple from Largo who admitted entering the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot was sentenced to jail time Friday. Marilyn Fassell, 59, a nursing assistant who gained notoriety through a selfie she took while smoking a cigarette inside the building, was sentenced to 30 days and three years probation. Her husband Thomas Fassell, 68, a retired postal worker and Air Force veteran, was sentenced to seven days and two years probation. “There are lawful means available in a democracy to challenge actions you disagree with which don’t include a violent insurrection,” U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly...

Deemed a “great person” by the prosecutor, judge and defense attorney, a Florida man who had himself filmed walking on the thermals of Yellowstone’s Grand Prismatic spring was ordered Wednesday to pay $2,000 in fines and community service payments. Matt Manzari, who has 16 screws and three plates in his face and scars on his body from an electric-shock accident he narrowly survived in his youth, was grateful to the judge for not sentencing him to jail. “I really appreciate your leniency and understanding. It means more than you will ever know to me and my family,” he told Stephanie...

Sorry but something strange is afoot with Jan 6. We know you know. It’s really strange that Nancy Pelosi just HAPPENED to be all mic’d up with a camera crew following her around on January 6th. Not to mention when you watch it, especially her grandson, it sort of feels like the whole thing was scripted. And what the Hell was Ray Epps doing on top of that tower? Is that Ray Epps?! With a Trump flag? And WHO was he on the phone with? So many questions! Watch: "Oh my god, how did that guy get up there?" January...

New footage from January 6, 2021, shows a candid moment where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi threatened to physically strike then-President Trump, should he have joined those protesting at the Capitol. In the video, which was publicly shared Thursday, Pelosi admits the actions could have resulted in her going to prison — a consequence she said she would "be happy" to accept. "I hope he comes, I’m going to punch him out," Pelosi tells her Chief of Staff Terri McCullough, who discourages her boss from making the comments. "I’ve been waiting for this, for trespassing on the Capitol grounds. I’m going...

A Florida man has been arrested after driving through someone’s yard, losing his bumper, then being caught with Fentanyl. According to investigators, shortly before 12:30 a.m. on Monday, deputies stopped a vehicle missing a rear bumper. Prior to the traffic stop, dispatchers received a call in San Mateo that a vehicle drove through their yard and one occupant of the vehicle had jumped out. A rear bumper fell off when the car left the yard onto Kyte Road. The driver of the vehicle, Michael Givens, 27, of Palatka had a suspended license. Deputies conducted a search of the vehicle and...