Free Republic

The conviction of former President Donald Trump in Manhattan of 34 felonies produced citywide celebrations. ... The celebrants would be wise to think twice before mounting this trophy kill on the political wall. The Trump trial is a target-rich environment for an appeal, with multiple layers of reversible error, in my view. I am less convinced by suggestions that the case could be challenged on the inability of Trump receiving a fair trial in a district that voted roughly 90 percent against him. The problem was not the jury, but the prosecutors and the judge. Some of the most compelling...

The chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government announced Friday that he is calling on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and prosecutor Matthew Colangelo to testify next month about “the unprecedented political prosecution of President Trump.” “This hearing will examine actions by state and local prosecutors to engage politically motivated prosecutions of federal officials, in particular the political prosecution of President Donald Trump by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote in letters to Bragg and Colangelo. The move comes one day after Bragg secured a conviction of Trump on 34 counts...

(AFP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived Saturday at a Singapore security forum, as he seeks to rally support for Kyiv while a Russian offensive gains ground. AFP reporters saw Zelensky enter the lobby of the luxury hotel hosting the Shangri-La Dialogue, which is attended by defence ministers from around the world. Zelensky will speak at the security forum on Sunday, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, which organised the three-day event.

Licensed gun owner Donald Trump will have to turn over all of his firearms in the coming weeks now that he has been found guilty of felonies in the Manhattan “hush money” case. Under New York state and federal law, convicted felons are banned from possessing any type of firearm, and the former president must have his weapons legally passed off to another person or surrendered to authorities by his July 11 sentencing, criminal defense attorney Peter Tilem said. “There is no grace period,” Tilem told The Post. “You are federally prohibited once you are convicted.”…

Prominent business executives have warned that more New York enterprises and their leaders may fall victim to "no rule of law" in the wake of Donald Trump’s guilty verdict. "If they can do this to a business person like Donald Trump, they could do it to anybody in New York and a lot of businesses. A lot of people are concerned that there is no rule of law," billionaire CEO John Catsimatidis said Friday on "Mornings with Maria." ... Cardone recently pulled his business out of the Empire State and cautioned that Trump’s legal troubles — including a previous $355...

Slovak PM Robert Fico’s independent stance earned him the wrath of NATO and the EU. Did a Western-directed plot to remove his troublesome government from office trigger his assassination attempt? On May 15, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was almost murdered in broad daylight. While shaking hands with supporters during a public appearance, a gunman shot him twice in the abdomen and once in the shoulder. The attack left him fighting for his life while authorities raced for clues, and many observers at home and abroad puzzled about the would-be assassin’s motives and whether foreign actors were in some way...

Russia pummeled Ukraine's energy infrastructure with a large-scale drone and missile attack Saturday, injuring at least 19 people, local officials said. The strikes were part of a series of sustained attacks by Russia against Ukraine's power grid, which has been ongoing since March. Ukraine's largest private energy firm, DTEK said that two of its power plants had been seriously damaged in what it said was the sixth attack on the company's plants in two and a half months.

Just when you think the media’s smear campaign against conservative Supreme Court justices can’t get any more despicable, they find a way to prove you wrong. On Wednesday, Rolling Stone magazine’s Andrew Perez published a hit piece against Justice Amy Coney Barrett that amounts to nothing more than a dud for Democrats’ war on SCOTUS. The “scandal,” according to the outlet, is that Barrett’s husband is representing Fox Corporation — Fox News’ parent company — in an ongoing defamation case involving one of its local stations. “The defamation case was filed by Lavell Redmond, an Illinois man who was convicted...

Juan Manuel Merchan is a Colombian-born American judge and former prosecutor. Most curious, he is NOT a formal judge, he is ONLY an acting justice of the New York State Supreme Court in New York County. How did a former prosecutor who is NOT a formal judge get assigned this case? This is not just a possible rigged proceeding, but this is UNCONSTITUTIONAL insofar as the alleged crime is a federal crime when there is no subject matter jurisdiction by this ACTING JUDGE in a state court to preside over a federal crime. Now this ACTING Judge will be sentencing...

A handful of Senate Republicans on Friday vowed to block major Democratic legislation and White House nominees for top positions in retaliation of a guilty verdict against former President Donald Trump on Thursday. Trump was found guilty of 34 felony charges related to falsifying his business records in order to hide a hush money payment to former porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump has maintained his innocence, and vowed to appeal the ruling in a speech Friday. The group of eight Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, accused the White House of making "a mockery of the rule...

<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>

The ‘iDIVERSE’ program bars white and Asian researchers from applying.. The University of California, Los Angeles, medical school was hit last week with whistleblower allegations that its admissions office has for years discriminated on the basis of race, in violation of California law, by holding black and Latino applicants to lower standards than their white and Asian counterparts. The allegations triggered an email message from the dean of the medical school, Steven Dubinett, who denied the claims and said that students and faculty "are held to the highest standards of academic excellence." He subsequently told an obscure Los Angeles Times...

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Samoan police have charged a prominent playwright with the murder of retired UH professor Caroline Sinavaiana-Gabbard, former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard’s aunt. Police say Samoan playwright Papalii Sia Figiel, 57, was charged with the murder at her home. She was initially arrested on manslaughter charges, but police upgraded the charge after finding “incriminating” evidence, including a small knife and hammer. A motive is still under investigation. Media outlets report the two women were colleagues and friends, and that Gabbard was Figiel’s mentor.

EXCLUSIVE: House Majority Whip Tom Emmer is demanding that the Justice Department "take immediate action" to prosecute ex-Trump attorney Michael Cohen for making false statements and admitting to stealing during the unprecedented criminal trial of former President Trump. Fox News Digital exclusively obtained a letter Emmer, R-Minn., sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland Wednesday, urging the DOJ "take immediate action" on the multiple criminal referrals from congressional committees related to alleged lies Cohen has told Congress. Emmer also demanded information on top Manhattan prosecutor Matthew Colangelo, who worked as a senior Justice Department official in the Biden administration . ...and...

A former college professor has been sentenced to five years and three months in prison over a string of arson fires in Northern California in 2021 as fire crews were battling the second-largest fire in the state’s history. Gary Stephen Maynard, 49, of San Jose, pleaded guilty in February to three arson counts in connection to fires in the Shasta National Forest and near the Dixie Fire in the Lassen National Forest. The Dixie Fire burned over 1,500 square miles after igniting on July 13 and destroyed over 1,000 homes. Maynard was accused of setting fires behind firefighters battling the...

Alex Soros, the son of left-wing activist and billionaire George Soros, suggested Democrats mention that former President Donald Trump is a “convicted felon at every opportunity” they get. Soros wrote in a post on X that “repetition is the key to a successful message” and that Democrats want American citizens to “wrestle” with having to vote for a “convicted felon” in the upcoming 2024 presidential election.

The judge donated money — a tiny amount, $35, but in plain violation of a rule prohibiting New York judges from making political donations of any kind — to a pro-Biden, anti-Trump political operation, including funds that the judge earmarked for “resisting the Republican Party and Donald Trump’s radical right-wing legacy.” -snip Most importantly, the DA’s charges against Trump push the outer boundaries of the law and due process. That’s not on the jury. That’s on the prosecutors who chose to bring the case and the judge who let it play out as it did. -snip But when you impose...

During an arraignment hearing on Friday, the illegal immigrant from Venezuela who is suspected of brutally murdering Augusta University nursing student Laken Riley entered a not guilty plea. NEW: Laken Riley's mother breaks down in court as illegal immigrant Jose Ibarra pleads not guilty during arraignment. Riley's mother Allyson Phillips was seen sobbing in the background. The Venezuelan illegal immigrant is accused of inflicting blunt-force trauma to Riley's… — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 31, 2024 Following the murder of Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student who was murdered while out on a run along dirt trails on the University of Georgia...

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced this week that 5.8 million fentanyl-laced pills have been confiscated throughout California since January by the state’s Counterdrug Task Force in collaboration with local and federal law enforcement agencies. As state officials celebrate consistently increasing confiscations of the synthetic opioid, though, experts say that the seizures will likely not affect the illicit drug market significantly. Over the last three years, the number of fentanyl-laced pills confiscated statewide has increased dramatically. In 2021, only 1.5 million pills were seized statewide. That number jumped almost sevenfold to 10.3 million pills seized in 2022, and then more than doubled...

A seething mob of anti-Israel protesters busted inside the Brooklyn Museum Friday, where they set up an encampment, made their way to the roof and draped a banner from the side of the building declaring the war in Gaza “genocide.” The intruders — who were the vanguard of a massive demonstration nearly 1,000 people strong — scaled the building and rappelled down inside of the art museum with climbing equipment, police sources said. Hundreds of others surrounded the museum. A number of protesters on the roof draped a giant banner reading “Free Palestine Divest From Genocide” over the front of...