Free Republic

In a major but likely controversial victory for free speech, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturned the conviction of a retired Air Force colonel for using a racial epithet at the shoe store on the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia. Jules A. Bartow, who is white, was arrested after a bizarre and disgraceful exchange with an employee, including the use of the “n word” with the African American woman. The highly offensive and repugnant language of Bartow was denounced by the court, but the unanimous panel still reversed T.S. Ellis III, Senior District Judge of...

Former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates testified in federal court Thursday against Obama White House counsel Gregory Craig about the ex-counsel's Ukraine-related work for Paul Manafort, Politico reported. Gates was a top lieutenant to Manafort, a former Trump campaign chairman, for approximately 10 years. During that time, Manafort supervised a 2012 review conducted by Craig of the abuse-of-power trial of ex-Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, according to Politico. While the review was presented as an independent probe of the trial, it was commissioned by Manafort's primary client, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, and bankrolled by Victor Pinchuk, a steel oligarch and...

Lots of whispers circulating in and around Washington D.C. regarding a Trump White House that is set to unleash an investigative push back against all those false accusors that have been peddling the dangerous and divisive Trump-Russia hoax for the last two years. Word is members of both the Clinton and Obama gang are bracing for impact. DEVELOPING…

Papadopoulos Wants Congress To Inspect Cash He Was Given During FBI CIA ‘Sting Operation’ George Papadopoulos wants to give Congress $10,000 in cash. But the offer, which Papadopoulos extended this week, is not a campaign contribution or a bribery attempt. Instead, the former Trump campaign aide wants lawmakers to inspect a stack of $100 bills he was given during a peculiar meeting he had in a hotel room in Israel in July 2017, just days before he was arrested by the FBI. “I’m actually trying to bring that money back somehow so that Congress can investigate it because I am...

A top lawyer working with the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign contacted the FBI’s general counsel in late 2016 and provided documents for the Russia probe as federal investigators prepared a surveillance warrant for Trump campaign aide Carter Page, sources close to a congressional investigation told Fox News, citing new testimony. The FBI official who was contacted, James Baker, revealed the exchange to congressional investigators during a closed-door deposition Wednesday. He said Perkins Coie lawyer Michael Sussmann initiated contact with him and provided documents as well as computer storage devices on Russian hacking. The sources said Baker described the...

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia - Federal prosecutors moved Friday to dismiss espionage-related charges against two former pro-Israel lobbyists accused of disclosing classified U.S. defense information, ending a tortuous inside-the-Beltway legal battle rife with national security intrigue. Critics of the prosecution of Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee accused the federal government of trying to criminalize the sort of back-channel discussions between government officials, lobbyists and reporters that are commonplace in Washington. AIPAC is an influential pro-Israel lobbying group. The indictment had alleged that Rosen and Weissman conspired to obtain and then disclose to journalists and the...

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said he's "far more concerned" with the FBI's actions linked to the "Steele dossier" on President Trump -- and less worried about the fraud trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort as the jury deliberates. Gaetz told Sandra Smith that as a legislator, he has unanswered questions about FBI official Bruce Ohr and his wife, Nellie Ohr, who worked at research firm Fusion GPS -- which produced the anti-Trump dossier "The campaign is not implicated, President Trump is not implicated" in Manafort's case, Gaetz said.

U.S. Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, warned President Donald Trump on Tuesday over a possible pardon for his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. “Any attempt by the President to pardon Mr. Manafort or interfere in the investigation into his campaign would be a gross abuse of power and require immediate action by Congress,” Warner said in a statement.

ury in Paul Manafort financial fraud trial says it's reached a verdict on 8 counts, but remains undecided on 10 others. The jury in the financial fraud trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort suggested to the judge Tuesday that it was stuck on at least one count in the case. Jurors asked U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III on their fourth day of deliberations how they should fill out the verdict form if they were unable to reach consensus on a single count, though they did not suggest what charge was at issue. The jury of six men...

After three days of deliberations, the jury still had not reached a verdict on Monday evening, marking day 15 of the tax evasion and bank fraud case against Paul Manafort. The jurors will reconvene Tuesday morning at 9:30 AM ET.

A majority of U.S. adults do not know that Paul Manafort is not on trial for “collusion with Russia,” a new poll by The Economist/YouGov Poll reveals. […] Democrats were the most likely (29%) to erroneously think that Manafort is on trial for collusion with Russia, compared to 17% of Independents and 13% of Republicans. In all, 20% of survey respondents cited “collusion.” Another 41% of those surveyed said they were “not sure” what charges Manafort is facing. When those who weren’t sure are added in, 63% of Democrats, 66% of Independents, and 61% of all respondents did not know...

RUSH: This Manafort trial, people are looking at this as a way to discredit Mueller, and the other side of it is hoping for a conviction of Manafort to justify Mueller and what he’s doing. And so this case is really not even about poor ol’ Paul Manafort. It’s about Mueller and his foolhardy, stupid, waste-of-time investigation. Well, anyway, the jurors in the Manafort trial yesterday sent the judge four questions. And one of the questions, the question that caught the attention of the Drive-By Media, which are the representatives of the American left or the Democrat Party. The jurors...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — The Latest on the Paul Manafort trial (all times local): 11:45 a.m. The jury in the financial fraud trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort wants to know what to do if it cannot reach a consensus for a single count in the case. Jurors posed the question to U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III on their fourth day of deliberations. They also said they would need a new verdict form.

The jury in the criminal trial against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on Tuesday sent a note to the judge asking what they should do if they can't come to a consensus on a single count. The note suggests that the jury is having difficulty coming to a conclusion on at least one of the 18 counts facing Manafort, though it does not mean they have not come to conclusions on other counts. Federal District Judge T.S. Ellis III reconvened the court shortly before 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, saying that the jury had sent the note. The jurors asked what...

Judge T. S. Ellis III said he would call the jury into the courtroom to reply to its question. The jury’s note to Judge Ellis asked: “If we cannot reach a consensus on a single count, how should we fill out the verdict sheet?” It went on to ask what the issue would “mean for the final verdict?”

I don't care much for Paul Manafort. Like his Democratic Party doppelgänger Tony Podesta he is the kind of pond scum that makes what we call The Swamp The Swamp. Indeed, the two men have worked together in the past, having a natural affinity for exploiting the public interest for maximum profit. I was going to call this column The Trial of Tony Podesta to point out the ridiculous disparity that one is on trial but not the other. Judge Ellis couldn't have been more right. This is selective prosecution to get at the president. The charges are outrageously broad...

The case that Bob Mueller has brought against Paul Manafort has nothing to do with Donald Trump or the 2016 election. It is irrelevant to any significant political issue. But Democrats worry that Mueller’s prosecution of Manafort for years-ago tax evasion may fail, thereby making a laughingstock of the special counsel investigation in which they have invested so much. What happens when Democrats are afraid they may lose a political battle? Things get nasty. Politico reports on the latest, shocking developments in the Manafort trial: Paul Manafort’s trial will stretch into a fourth week, as jurors headed home Friday without...

BREAKING: Judge in Manafort trial says he's received threats, won't reveal jurors' names over fears for their safety

Shortened title. Full title: Judge Ellis Declines Motion by CNN, WaPo to Release Names of Manafort Jurors – Reveals ‘I HAVE BEEN THREATENED’ CNN, Wapo and Buzzfeed are demanding the names and addresses of the Manafort jurors be released to the public. On Friday, Judge Ellis, a Reagan appointee, revealed he has received threats, however; he did not provide details.

A coalition of news outlets, including CNN, The New York Times, BuzzFeed and The Washington Post, want the federal judge presiding over the Paul Manafort trial to unseal the names and addresses of the jurors deliberating on the case. The judge, T.S. Ellis III, agreed to hear arguments about the disclosure during a hearing scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday. “A thirsty press is essential to a free county,” Ellis said in court when addressing the media companies’ motion. He also urged the news outlets, which are being represented by the firm Ballard Spahr, to appeal his decision should he rule...