Free Republic

The prosecutor at the center of former President Donald Trump’s so-called "hush money" trial in New York received a total of $12,000 from the Democratic National Committee for consulting work in 2018, records show. According to the data collected by the Federal Election Commission, the DNC gave Matthew Colangelo two $6,000 payments in January 2018 for “political consulting.” At the time of the payments, Colangelo was working in the office of then-New York Attorney General Eric Scheiderman as a deputy, according to Fox News. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the current case against Trump, also worked in that...

It was a bad week for Alvin Bragg and his case against Donald Trump. There's no other way to put it. For starters, Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the case, may have made a critical error that could reverse the Trump verdict upon appeal by allowing prosecutors to make certain arguments. "Last week, during an appearance on 'Fox & Friends,' GWU law professor Jonathan Turley told Fox News that Merchan made a mistake by allowing Bragg's prosecutorial team, which former Biden administration official Michael Colangelo is leading, to say unequivocally that Trump was involved in federal election law violations."...

A disbarred, serial perjurer walks into a courtroom and asks to take an oath . . . No, seriously, this is not a joke. Michael Cohen will soon appear in a Manhattan courtroom in what is sure to be one of the most bizarre moments in legal history. Cohen nearly comprises the prosecution’s entire case against former President Donald Trump under a criminal theory that still has many of us baffled. It is not clear what crime Trump was supposedly trying to conceal by making “hush-money” payments to former porn actress Stormy Daniels. What is clear is that none of...

We were expecting this moment, and it came on Friday, the eleventh day of the Hush Trump trial in New York City. It was the moment when Donald Trump's attorney looked at the judge and invoked the name of destroyed, defiant, and disgusting movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, the poster boy of the #MeToo movement. It was, in baseball parlance, a brushback pitch by the Team Trump. Only last week, Weinstein's 2020 conviction on rape charges was overturned by a New York appeals court because the prosecution had piled on unaffiliated "evidence," resulting in an unfair trial. It was a reversible...

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., posted a video on Thursday of a former prosecutor who investigated former President Trump pleading the fifth under questioning about his actions.The video was recorded during a closed session of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government in May 2023, according to a congressional source.Mark Pomerantz, former special assistant to the New York County District Attorney, can be seen in the video declining to answer several questions, such as, "Did you knowingly break any laws when investigating President Trump?" and "Did you misuse any federal funds when investigating President Trump?"His counsel appeared to...

Former President Donald Trump was back in New York City Thursday for his criminal trial, and it's been a pretty good day for him. During Thursday's proceedings, Keith Davidson, the lawyer representing adult film actress Stormy Daniels, gave revealing testimony that completely undermines Bragg's charges against Trump. For starters, Davidson argued that the $130,000 payment to Daniels should not be construed as "hush money" but rather as a legitimate "consideration" payment. Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Johsua Steinglass pressed Davidson on the witness stand about Daniels’ statement in January 2018, which Davidson prepared for his client, that denied any relationship with...

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's case against Donald Trump had already hit a few snags, but now, Judge Merchan may have made a critical error that could reverse the Trump verdict upon appeal by allowing prosecutors to make certain arguments, according to GWU University law professor Jonathan Turley. During an appearance on “Fox & Friends,” Turley suggested that New York Judge Juan Merchan made a mistake by allowing Bragg's prosecutorial team, which is being led by former Biden administration official Michael Colangelo, to say unequivocally that Trump was involved in federal election law violations. “I got to tell you, I...

Jack Poso 🇺🇸 @JackPosobiec BREAKING: Trump found in contempt of court for 9 gag order violations

Albert Einstein allegedly said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” But without validation, he was just a super-smart guy making an educated guess about scientific repeatability and human mental stability. Fortunately, his postulation is moving from “theoretical” to “proven,” via testing provided by the Democrat party. The Dems came up with a surefire battle plan to prevent Donald Trump from returning to the Oval Office. Just prosecute him for something — it didn’t matter what. The Donald would become “damaged goods,” and voter outrage would prevent a return of mean tweets to...

District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Donald Trump was always weak if not meritless. But that didn’t stop him from pursuing a felony case for a low-level misdemeanor that normally would have resulted in a fine that was also past the statute of limitations. Be that as it may, Bragg’s weak case has taken some real hits on Friday, as the testimony of David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, has been devastating for the prosecution. In fact, according to George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, Bragg’s case is now “collapsing on its own weight." "They have...

David Pecker, a key witness in the Manhattan trial, testified that he agreed to execute "catch and kill" deals expressly in service of helping Trump's 2016 presidential campaign --- a plot that prosecutors have labeled a conspiracy to illegally influence the election. In his third day [04/25/2024] of testimony, Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid, offered jurors a vivid recounting of two such arrangements: one with Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who claimed she had a yearlong relationship with Trump, and the other with Stormy Daniels, a porn star who alleged a sexual encounter with Trump,...

A new documentary being released by the organization behind the American Greatness website, next week on April 17, is exposing the “four corrupt, political motivated” prosecutors now pursuing cases against President Donald Trump. The narrator of “Chasing Trump” explains, “They say they’re upholding the law. But a close examination reveals politics of the very worst kind meant to influence the 2024 election.” He cites, “Four corrupt, politically motivated prosecutors. One target: Donald Trump.” The trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPAMRVt46KA “Can there be any doubt there’s a sentiment of ‘This is get Trump?'” The video documentary is coming just as a trial is starting...

The House Judiciary Committee released a new report on Thursday which accuses Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of pursuing a political prosecution against former President Donald Trump. "[Since] at least 2018, the DANY has weaponized the criminal justice system, scouring every aspect of President Trump’s personal life and business affairs, going back decades, in the hopes of finding some legal basis—however far-fetched, novel, or convoluted—to bring charges against him," the report concluded. "When one legal theory would not pan out, instead of discontinuing its politically motivated investigation, the DANY simply pivoted to a new theory, constantly searching for a crime—any...

An adage learned early in the career of a trial attorney is, “if the law is not on your side, argue the facts, and if the facts are not on your side, argue the law, but if neither the facts nor the law are on your side, make sure you get your fee up front and in cash,” because you are almost certain to lose your case. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is paid by Big Apple taxpayers regardless of whether he wins or loses a case, but he deserves to lose the so-called “hush money” case against former President...

For many of us in the legal community, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against former President Donald Trump borders on the legally obscene: an openly political prosecution based on a theory even legal pundits dismiss. Yet Monday the prosecution seemed to actually make a case for obscenity. It wasn’t the gratuitous introduction of an uncharged alleged tryst with a former Playboy Bunny or expected details on the relationship with an ex-porn star. It was the criminal theory itself that seemed crafted around the obscenity standard that Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously described in 1984’s Jacobellis v. Ohio: “I...

DA Bragg’s case is in serious trouble. The gang behind the prosecution of President Trump made a serious error that should lead President Trump’s team to move to dismiss. [Prosecutors in New York have revealed what the other crime is that Donald Trump was allegedly trying to conceal when he was falsifying business records and they claim it was to unlawfully promote his candidacy. The fatal error is that the NY Statute they cite only applies to elections within the State of New York and not Federal Elections! Trump was running for the federal office of President of the United...

Yesterday, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) had a much covered interaction with CNN’s Manu Raju who asked him about Trump’s criminal trial and whether he was guilty of the underlying criminal conduct. Romney responded “I think everybody has made their own assessment of President Trump’s character, and so far as I know you don’t pay someone $130,000 not to have sex with you.” I have previously defended Romney in his votes on impeachment despite our disagreement on the constitutional standard. I also understand that he was making a more general comment on character.However, his response is precisely what Manhattan District Attorney...

The first witness in Donald Trump's trial for alleged "criminal" bookkeeping errors came with National Enquirer-worthy titillations about what a hot commodity the former president was back in the day. Prosecutors thought they'd burst out of the gate with a little razzle-dazzle and T&A, hoping that jurors would believe the witness had anything to do with the actual charges in the case. This is because — spoiler alert — the prosecutors' actual case is a "confusing" distraction. It's the "Seinfeld" of legal cases. But since a Manhattan jury will likely convict the former president because Orange Man Bad, here's what...

VIDEOThe Biden-directed prosecution of President Donald Trump in the Manhattan trial is so pathetically weak that even the MSNBC Legal Correspondent Lisa Rubin was forced to admit that the prosecution presented NO EVIDENCE of Trump's personal guilt. You just know that if the prosecutors had slam dump evidence of Trump's supposed guilt, they would have presented it at the get-go of this CORRUPT trial. This trial is starting to resemble the EVIDENCE=FREE impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last year when the case completely fell apart in the state senate when the prosecution's witnesses were forced to admit...

Key documents lacking former President Donald Trump’s signature may pose issues for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case, criminal defense attorney Arthur Aidala told CNN on Monday. Trump is confronting 34 felony counts for allegedly falsifying business documents relating to payments to porn star Stormy Daniels for her silence regarding an alleged affair ahead of the 2016 election. Aidala noted that Trump’s signature is present on a check while other key documents were never personally signed by the former president, suggesting the possibility a jury could find “reasonable doubt” over Trump’s involvement when compared to former attorney Michael Cohen, a...