Free Republic

After years of trying — in the words of the judge — “to get the damned rascal in this court,” it was a conviction that many welcomed. But those words were not from Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, and the conviction was not that of former President Donald Trump. Rather they were from US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase, at the end of the 18th century, when America embraced political prosecutions to target critics and opponents. The man on trial then was James T. Callender, a muckraking writer critical of President John Adams. For accusing politicians of corruption, Callender...

Approaching twenty-four hours since President Trump was found guilty of a accounting ledger sheet error and where are our Republicans around the US? Who has spoken, who has been silent?

President Trump has been wounded in his battle to save America. The people who are working to destroy America are waging war against our country and our people. So many public figures and politicians are too week, too cowardly and too corrupt to stand up for America. If our great country is to survive we must realize we are being attacked from within and that we must fight to survive. The fight will be unfair. But we must stand up to the evil people who are trying to destroy ou once great country. Those who fight for America will be...

Psalm 56:4 (King James Version) In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. Lady Justice just got murdered in The Big Apple last night by a Kangaroo Coup.. The only surprising thing about the conviction is how long it took for the jury to find President Trump guilty. It was a no brainer from the beginning they were going to vote guilty of whatever the prosecution put in front of them. After forty years of indoctrination and pushing lawyers into the Communist cult they...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) — who is no fan of former President Donald Trump — criticized the guilty verdict returned Thursday in the business records trial. “These charges never should have been brought in the first place. I expect the conviction to be overturned on appeal,” he posted on X. Critics bashed the short and unpassionate post. Mollie Hemingway, editor-in-chief of the Federalist, responded, “Don’t throw your back out there, buddy. Simmer down!”

The husband of adult film actress Stormy Daniels on Thursday said the guilty verdict in former President Trump’s case is a “big weight off her shoulders.” Asked on CNN for Daniels’s reaction, husband Barrett Blade said she is still “processing” the news and feels a “little vindicated” over the outcome. “This wasn’t her seeking justice for herself. She was standing up for herself early on and saying what was right, but this whole hush money trial has really … it’s not her story,” Blade told CNN’s Erin Burnett.

CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen said Monday on “Newsroom” that former President Donald Trump’s New York defense team hopes one juror will not follow the “evidence and law.” Eisen said, “In terms of the arguments, battle will be joined around three issues. One: Can the jury believe the critical testimony of Michael Cohen, as it’s corroborated and supported by a mountain of evidence? In a sense, the prosecution’s entire work across 20 days of trial was to corroborate Cohen. Two: Can the jury find that Donald Trump, beyond a reasonable doubt, intentionally made that hush money payment to Stormy Daniels,...

Nicaraguan prosecutors charged three U.S. citizens and 11 Nicaraguans with money laundering. | Mountain Gateway Ministries/ADF InternationalThe Nicaraguan judiciary has convicted 11 Nicaraguan pastors linked to the U.S.-based Mountain Gateway ministry on charges of money laundering. The case, which has caused great controversy in the Central American country and throughout the region, also implicates three U.S. citizens who have not yet been arrested, according to the prosecutor's office.The charges relate to an alleged money laundering network that operated through wire transfers from the U.S. to Nicaragua. The charges came just weeks after the ministry held a series of massive evangelistic...

The Supreme Court let stand former Hunter Biden business associate Devon Archer’s criminal conviction Monday, rejecting for a second time Archer’s bid to avoid prison. In 2018, a federal jury convicted Archer and several others on charges of defrauding a Native American tribe by fraudulently issuing and selling more than $60 million of tribal bonds. In a brief order without explanation, as is typical, the Supreme Court declined to take up Archer’s appeal. The president’s son is not implicated in the case, but Archer has become a key figure in House Republicans’ investigation into Biden’s business dealings. Archer last summer...

Below is a longer version of my column in the New York Post on the leaking of the interviews of former counsel to Donald Trump.The interviews could magnify the difficulties for both Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Special Counsel Jack Smith in their respective prosecutions. These cases still represent a serious threat to Trump, but these prosecutors must first overcome a glaring potential contradiction. That does not mean that Christie and the other candidates will not get a “Spring Break” with a conviction, but it could prove more challenging even with highly favorable jury pools.Here is the column:This...

During an interview airing on CBS Evening News, Florida’s Governor was blunt about former President Donald Trump’s chances — or lack thereof — of winning the presidency if convicted in any of his upcoming trials. “I think the chance of getting elected President after being convicted of a felony is as close to zero as you can get,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis. “I didn’t think even before all this, that the former President should have run again. I mean, I think that there’s too many voters (for whom) he’s a deal breaker for them,” DeSantis told Norah O’Donnell. The comments...

John Bolton, during a recent appearance on CNN, argued that Republicans should not back former President Donald Trump in 2024, as he could be a “convicted felon” by the 2024 Republican primary convention, and it would look bad for the Republican Party. Bolton, who is anti-Trump but served as Trump’s national security adviser, said he would ask Republican voters, “Do you really want to vote for Donald Trump even if you don’t mind voting for a convicted felon for President?”

The decision by the Department of Justice to charge Hunter Biden for two mere misdemeanors for massive tax evasion linked to the foreign payoffs he took, and put him in a "diversion program" with dismissal likely for lying about his drug use and possible drug distribution activies on his gun ownership application drives home to most Americans that we have a two-tier justice system. It's not just in striking contrast to the cascade of charges being leveled at President Trump on questionable matters as he seeks to re-run for office. It's that any one of us, faced with the same...

If former president Donald Trump’s case ever makes it to court, federal prosecutors will use his own words against him — spoken on national TV to Fox News host Bret Baier on Monday. I’m not a lawyer. I don’t even play one on internet video. So when it comes to stories like this one, there are a few people I turn to for sharp analysis and good advice. On the surface at least, what Trump said could cause him trouble in court. When Baier asked, “Why not just hand [the documents] over then?” Trump replied, “Because I had boxes —...

This one might surprise you. The findings of a new survey revealed that a significant number of Democratic voters would support the next president issuing a pardon for former President Donald Trump if he is convicted by the Justice Department.A majority of voters, as revealed in a survey by Harvard-Harris, believe that former President Donald Trump should be pardoned if he is convicted and sentenced to jail for mishandling classified documents. The poll showed that 53 percent of respondents were in favor of a potential presidential pardon, while 47 percent were against it. The issue of pardoning Trump is largely...

Below is my column in the Messenger on the odds of Trump going to jail (as opposed to being convicted) and an interesting option for President Joe Biden: pledge to commute Trump’s sentence.Here is the column:“Can you give me the odds?” The question from a foreign correspondent this week was blunt but understandable. Legal analysts often are asked to give the percentages on a case’s outcome or conviction. This reporter wanted the odds on Trump being convicted. As in the past, I declined to offer a spread. For most of us, convictions are what gamblers call “off the board” bets;...

Donald Trump may indeed be guilty of the charges for which he was indicted last week…or maybe not. He may even end up being convicted. Regardless, assuming he’s on the ballot, I’ll vote for him, even if he’s dressed in stripes and sitting in a jail cell.Why? Not because I don’t take seriously handling classified records or trying to “obstruct” the Justice Department. Both are serious. But even if Trump were guilty of both, even if he violated the letter and the spirit of the law, those violations are nothing compared to the federal government weaponization we’ve observed over the...

Former President Donald Trump has declared his intention to run for the White House in 2024, even if convicted. Trump faces 37 counts related to documents seized from the infamous raid at Mar-a-Lago last August. Trump maintains his innocence, and calls the federal case a “boxes hoax” and a “witch hunt.” The former President made two campaign stops, giving 90-minute speeches in both Georgia and North Carolina on Saturday. Trump’s supporters lined the side of the highway running parallel to the runway at the airport in Columbus, Ga., where Trump’s jet would be touching down, while others, including Georgia Congresswoman...

Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis Police Officer convicted in the murder of George Floyd, is appealing his case to the Minnesota Supreme Court. Chauvin’s lawyer, William Mohrman, on Wednesday filed a petition for review with the state’s highest court, arguing that the district judge’s decision not to move the proceedings out of the city deprived his client of a fair trial. The petition comes a month after the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld Chauvin’s conviction for second-degree murder and let his 22-1/2-year sentence remain in place. Morhman had unsuccessfully asked the appeals court to throw out the ex-officer’s conviction for...

Afederal jury found a Hardin, Montana man guilty of selling eagle feathers in South Dakota Tuesday. The jury found that Harvey Hugs, 59, is guilty of three counts of violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act in 2020 after a two-day trial at the federal courthouse in Rapid City. The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act was enacted in 1940. The act prohibits the possession, use and sale of eagles or their feathers and parts. Exceptions to the act include the use of eagles by Native Americans. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service operates the National Eagle Repository as...