Free Republic

<p>Authorities in the city of Auburn have arrested a Mexican citizen following an investigation into course of sexual conduct with a minor.</p><p>According to law enforcement, the victim was under 11 years old, and the suspect, identified as Santiago Hernandez Huerta, was taken into custody on May 30.</p>

Whatever Trump did after the 2016 presidential election, it seems safe to say that it did not retroactively promote his victory.Last January, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg summed up his case against Donald Trump this way: "We allege falsification of business records to the end of keeping information away from the electorate. It's an election interference case." That gloss made no sense, because the records at the center of the case—11 invoices, 11 checks, and 12 ledger entries that allegedly were aimed at disguising a hush-money reimbursement as payment for legal services—were produced after the 2016 presidential election. At that...

Noted attorney Alan Dershowitz said on Thursday that he doubts a New York appellate court will overturn former President Donald Trump’s conviction in his Manhattan trial. …he believes appellate judges will be reluctant to overturn the jury’s decision because they might be biased against the former president. I don’t think it would be reversed by the appellate division,” Dershowitz continued. “These are judges who are terrified of being perceived of as helping Trump in any way. Don’t know whether or not the New York Court of Appeals in Albany will have the ability to not consider the impact it will...

Donald Trump was in “very high spirits” at a dinner with top supporters shortly after he was convicted on all counts in his New York City hush money trial, Gristedes CEO and Trump camp insider John Catsimatidis said. “It was a wonderful dinner,” Catsimatidis told 77 WABC’s Rita Cosby of the “triple A-list” gathering on Thursday evening. The intimate roundtable was attended by about “15 people, plus staff,” including Trump’s son Eric, the grocery billionaire explained. Trump, 77, “was in very high spirits” despite being fresh off his historic felony conviction, Catsimatidis recalled. “Everybody in that room believes that if...

Randi Weingarten's American Federation of Teachers defends pro-Hamas campus occupations as 'peacefully demonstrating' The American Federation of Teachers led by Randi Weingarten claimed that anti-Israel protesters on college campuses were simply "peacefully demonstrating." The American Federation of Teachers led by Randi Weingarten claimed that anti-Israel protesters on college campuses were simply “peacefully demonstrating.” The Tuesday statement from the AFT came in response to a hearing last week from the House Education and the Workforce Committee where leaders of Northwestern University, Rutgers University, and the University of California, Los Angeles, were grilled regarding their response to campus anti-Israel encampments. ”AFT members...

“Independent voters in New York who traditionally vote for Democrats, according to exit polling, have flipped to lean toward Trump by a margin of 10 points, 43% to 33%,” Kimball said in a statement. A Republican presidential candidate hasn’t won New York in the general election since 1984, when President Ronald Reagan beat former Vice President Walter Mondale by an 8-point margin. In 2016, Trump lost the Empire State to Hillary Clinton by a 22.5-point margin, and in 2020, Biden defeated the former president by 23.2 points in New York.

President Biden is leading former President Trump in New York — but only by single digits in the largely blue state, according to a poll released Thursday. An Emerson College Polling/The Hill/PIX11 survey found Biden leading Trump 48 percent to 41 percent, with 12 percent undecided. When undecided voters are factored in, the incumbent’s lead stretches to 10 points, 55 percent to 45 percent. Biden also holds a single-digit lead over Trump when independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and several other long-shot candidates — Jill Stein and Cornel West — are factored in the survey: Biden is at 44 percent,...

Verdict in.

If the five-woman, seven-man jury doesn't find Donald Trump guilty of the alleged bookkeeping mistakes, it will be a miracle. This is because the 55-page final jury instructions that attorneys saw only moments before the judge read them in court on Wednesday is a "directed verdict" to Trump's guilt. That's it. That's why an uncharacteristically somber Trump announced that even "Mother Teresa couldn't beat these charges." See his comments below. The "fix is in," as one notable former U.S. attorney decreed. "This is most corrupt judicial proceeding in the history of the United States," former District of Columbia U.S. Attorney...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of “CNN NewsNight,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) said that Hamas can’t be eliminated and the idea they’re built on can’t be killed off and “We need a free Palestine so Hamas then ceases to need to exist.” Bowman began by saying, “We condemn the attacks of October 7, but we also condemn everything that has happened since October 7.” Later, he added, “I know Benjamin Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir, and others, they want to wipe out the Palestinians. They want them to either leave or they will kill them. I know that’s what they want. And it’s horrible and...

The more time we have to look through Judge Juan Merchan's byzantine jury instructions in Donald Trump's "hush money" trial in Manhattan, the worse they look. The vague nature of the instructions has even led to disputes among legal analysts who have struggled to make sense of the case from the beginning. At Townhall, our colleague Matt Vespa has a good rundown of one of the most glaring problems with the instructions. The judge gave the jurors the unheard-of option of picking any one of three crimes that were "concealed" by the entry of "false business records" and said that...

A maniac tried to mow down Orthodox students and a rabbi outside a Brooklyn Jewish school Wednesday while allegedly yelling “I’m gonna kill all the Jews” in a shocking antisemitic attack, sources told The Post. Video footage supplied by the Flatbush Shomrim Safety Patrol shows the crazed driver revving his engine and mounting the curb as he swerved toward Orthodox Jews milling around a Yeshiva in Canarsie at about 11:25 a.m. Police and sources identified the alleged attacker as 58-year-old Asghar Ali, a Pakistani immigrant livery cab driver with a history of mental illness. The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force...

'I've Seen It Done': Alan Dershowitz Speculates That Merchan Is Prepared To Swap 'One Juror' Who 'Won't Give In'

Sen. John Fetterman told Yeshiva University graduates Wednesday that he was “profoundly disappointed” in Harvard University’s inability to address antisemitism on campus before removing the ceremonial crimson academic hood representing his alma mater. The Pennsylvania Democrat expressed his disapproval with the Ivy League school during his commencement address for the private Orthodox Jewish university, which bestowed him with its “Hero of Israel” award, the institution’s highest honor. “I have been profoundly disappointed [in] Harvard’s inability to stand up for the Jewish community after Oct. 7,” Fetterman, 54, told the new grads at Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens. “Personally, I do...

It’s true that Trump has been charged with a non-crime and that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump has been severely undermined by his own witnesses. In fact, several Democrat experts have said Trump could be acquitted because of how bad some of the prosecution’s witnesses have been for the case. But between the partisan jury and Biden donor Judge Juan Merchan’s jury instructions, it seems likely that Trump will be found guilty. So the question is: what happens if the jury returns a guilty verdict? According to conservative radio host Mark Levin, in the event of a...

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley has been following the trial of Donald Trump in Manhattan closely. Yesterday Turley pretty much considered the prosecution's closing arguments to be a dumpster fire and also has been far from impressed by Judge Juan Merchan's handling of the trial: ...The fraud instruction alone is so generalized that it would seem to encompass any claim that the defendant sought to influence the election through his actions. Merchan has done little to tailor standard instructions for this novel and frankly troubling case...— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 28, 2024This morning Judge Merchan is delivering instructions...

Closing arguments in the trial of former President Donald Trump in New York City, where he is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, have concluded and Judge Juan Merchan has given the jury their instructions. The instructions were given verbally and jurors won't receive printed copies, although they can ask questions. According to legal experts, Merchan's standards for a conviction are abnormal and do not require jurors to reach a unanimous decision on the charges. Further, jurors don't have to determine what crime was committed. "Judge Merchan has ruled that the jury does not have to agree...

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg attempted to justify the progress on electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, prompting a laugh from CBS’s “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brenna. After $7.5 billion of taxpayers’ money being plowed into the initiative, just a “handful” of charging stations have been built. The interview took a comedic turn when Brennan pointed out the discrepancy between the investment made back in 2021 and the reality of the results. Just seven or eight charging stations have been built despite billions being spent, according to the Federal Highway Administration, “Why isn’t that happening more quickly?” asked Brennan. Buttigieg responded...

In November, fringe political candidate Skiboky Stora allegedly told a couple in lower Manhattan to ‘die, Jews, die’ when they saw him tearing down posters of Israeli hostages Skiboky Stora speaks to Fox 5 New York after being charged in court with hate crimes, May 29, 2024. (Screenshot via Fox 5 New York) A man who was arrested in March on charges of randomly hitting a woman walking down a street in New York City has been indicted on hate crime charges for that assault and several others, prosecutors said Tuesday. Skiboky Stora, 40, of Brooklyn, is charged with assaulting,...

From the show: "...he called Trump supporters gangsters yeah I'mma play this I'mm play that clip in a minute he called us gangsters he said Trump and Trump supporters are gangsters when the Democrats are the ones running around here like gangsters..."