Free Republic

Lawyers for E. Jean Carroll have asked a federal appeals court to expedite Donald Trump’s appeal of the verdict in their first trial in which a jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages after finding Trump liable for defamation and battery in May 2023. Carroll wants to see the oral arguments for the appeal scheduled to take place by July, arguing that the former president will try to further delay the proceedings, using his ongoing criminal trial or busy campaign schedule as an excuse. The motion with the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals filed Tuesday cites Trump’s numerous attempts...

Even after five weeks, the Trump bookkeeping case in Manhattan is a "Potemkin Village," according to law professor Jonathan Turley. That means it has all the appearance of being real, but upon closer inspection, there's no there there. Indeed, the indictment of former President Donald Trump on 34 counts of bookkeeping errors, statute-expired misdemeanors that have been miraculously spun into a series of felonies, is the Seinfeld of criminal cases. But a jury could still find him guilty. "It's Trump," Manhattan jurors could say to themselves. "Of course, Cheeto-man must be guilty of something." But after the prosecutors told Judge...

Six of the migrants charged in connection to the vicious attack on two NYPD officers in Times Square were offered plea deals Tuesday as a Manhattan judge revealed that one of the accused cop-beaters was arrested again while out on bail. Yohenry Brito, 24 — who was remanded after his initial arrest — was nabbed last week for petit larceny after an activist Brooklyn priest posted his $15,000 cash bail in February, Judge Laura Wood said in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday. “I am furious that Mr. Brito was rearrested and charged with petty larceny while he was out on...

The northern border shares something in common with the southern border of the United States - it is understaffed and Border Patrol agents are stretched thin. Despite a lack of proper support, agents at the northern border continue to apprehend a record number of illegal border crossers. In the busiest northern border sector of Swanton, Border Patrol agents made history by apprehending the greatest number of illegal border crossers in sector history of 1,109 in March, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. While the numbers are significantly lower than those apprehended at the southwest border, they are out...

A New York county executive plans to "deputize" legal gun owners to help law enforcement officers during emergencies, but the move is facing pushback from critics who say it will lead to acts of vigilantism. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said the deputies must be over 21 years old, be U.S. citizens and Nassau County residents, undergo a full background check, take a drug test and have a valid firearm license. They would be paid $150 a day for their service, according to the plan. "They will have to be trained on the law and use of force," Blakeman, a...

This article is posted in its entirety after a podcast from Bloomburg discussed the unfair NYC property tax system.New York City’s notorious property tax system — which places a higher burden on rental properties and advantages affluent white areas at the expense of lower-income neighborhoods of color — appears headed for a major overhaul.The state’s highest court voted 4-3 on Tuesday to reinstate a lawsuit by a coalition called Tax Equity Now New York that sought to have the convoluted system declared illegal.The Court of Appeals revived two claims from the suit, which had previously been dismissed by lower courts....

Up to now, there is a winner and a loser out of this Manhattan trial. The winner is President Trump, who keeps getting stronger. The loser is New York, or the perception that the Empire State is a banana republic. Using the legal system to target political opponents is Banana Republic 101. This is from Jonathan Turley:Cohen’s testimony will be the culmination of this travesty of a trial. But Bragg already jumped the shark with Daniels. After three weeks, legal experts are still debating what the crime was that Trump was seeking to conceal by recording payments for a standard...

Actress Susan Sarandon — who was dropped last year from a talent agency over her anti-Jewish rant — and Shellyne Rodriguez, the ex-professor who threatened a Post reporter with a machete, were both spotted at an anti-Israel protest at Columbia University Friday. The Oscar-winning “Thelma and Louise” star was seen strolling among demonstrators with “Free Palestine” signs while sporting a grin and an odd leather coat jacket decked out with an image of Bart Simpson on its red leather sleeve. The 77-year-old celebrity has rocked the same quirky get-up at other anti-Israel demonstrations in recent months.

The New York criminal trial against former President Trump resumes Monday. Prosecutors with Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg's office are expected to call former lawyer Michael Cohen to the stand to testify, the star witness in the case.

Actor Steve Buscemi is OK after he was punched in the face by a man on a New York City street, his publicist said Sunday. The 66-year-old star of “Fargo” and “Boardwalk Empire” was assaulted late Wednesday morning in Manhattan and taken to a nearby hospital with bruising, swelling and bleeding to his left eye.

In February of this year, Nassau County in Long Island, New York banned males from participating in girls' and women's sports. While many supported the move, protests broke out on the left and lawsuits were filed. On Friday, a judge on the state Supreme Court struck down the rule. This led to celebrations among trans activists, including New York Attorney General Letitia James. But those celebrations may turn out to be a bit premature. A closer reading of the ruling reveals that Judge Francis Ricigliano did not rule that the ban couldn't be enacted. Instead, he determined that the County...

A paralegal from Manhattan Attorney General Alvin Bragg’s office testified on Friday during former President Donald Trump’s “hush money” trial that some phone call records between Michael Cohen and Stephanie Clifford’s (a.k.a. Stormy Daniels) lawyer were deleted, raising questions about evidentiary integrity.In a bid to challenge some of the evidence being put forward in President Trump’s business records falsification trial in Manhattan, Trump attorney Emil Bove asked paralegal Jaden Jarmel-Schneider in court on May 10 about roughly three pages worth of records that the attorney claimed Mr. Bragg’s office had deleted.Mr. Jarmel-Schneider confirmed some deletions. He acknowledged that some phone...

Were the campus protests that engulfed so many elite universities a Cuban intelligence operation? They might have been, based on this investigative report from ADL America, (which JustTheNews also cited):Some of the anti-Israel protests taking place at U.S. college campuses, including the recent demonstrations at Columbia University, have been supported by organizations that traveled to communist Cuba to receive resistance training, an ADN investigation has uncovered.ADN’s investigation coincides with a recent Sunday report published by the New York Post that revealed a radical NYC based organization known as The People’s Forum familiarized anti-Israel activists with Black Lives Matter protest techniques...

Some of the anti-Israel protests taking place at U.S. college campuses, including the recent demonstrations at Columbia University, have been supported by organizations that traveled to communist Cuba to receive resistance training, an ADN investigation has uncovered. ADN’s investigation coincides with a recent Sunday report published by the New York Post that revealed a radical NYC based organization known as The People’s Forum familiarized anti-Israel activists with Black Lives Matter protest techniques just hours before they stormed Hamilton Hall at Columbia University, and that the group was incited by Manolo De Los Santos–a radical activist organizer with deep ties to...

Even for those of us who have long been critics of the “hush money” case against Donald Trump and its dubious legal theory, it has been surprising to see that the prosecutors had no more evidence than we previously knew about. The assumption was that no rational prosecutor would base a major criminal case almost entirely on the testimony of Michael Cohen, who was recently denounced by a judge as a serial perjurer peddling “perverse” theories in court. The calculus of Alvin Bragg is now obvious. He is counting on the jury convicting Trump regardless of the evidence. Which is...

One of former President Donald Trump’s fiercest critics is questioning whether any other defendant would’ve been charged in the hush money case. CNN anchor Fareed Zakaria made the admission while assessing the political blowback from the prosecution of Trump. “The trials against [Trump] keep him in the spotlight, infuriate his base — who see him as a martyr and even may serve to make him the object of some sympathy among people in general who believe that his prosecutors are politically motivated,” the host said during his opening monologue on “Fareed Zakaria: GPS” on Sunday. “This happens to be true,...

“You say it’s not a MeToo case,” Maher pressed Daniels at the time. “It’s not a MeToo case,” Daniels replied. “I wasn’t assaulted. I wasn’t attacked, or raped, or coerced or blackmailed.” ... Daniels [Friday] claimed that Trump “was bigger and blocking the way,” that at the end of it, saying “my hands were shaking so hard,” and “I just wanted to leave.” She also claimed that she “blacked out” during the encounter... Maher contended that Daniels’ testimony now has deviated from her original iteration of the alleged encounter. “She’s talking about ‘he was bigger and blocking the way.’ It’s...

On Thursday, a gay couple filed a class action lawsuit against New York City because the city’s health insurance plan does not cover in vitro fertilization (IVF) for male couples. According to NBC News, the lawsuit comes as part of a “yearslong effort” by the gay couple to get the Big Apple to amend its health benefits. In the lawsuit, the couple alleges that the current policies in place are discriminatory. The gay couple spearheading the lawsuit reportedly plans to utilize IVF and surrogacy to have kids (via NBC News):Corey Briskin and Nicholas Maggipinto said they have been talking about...

Joe Biden has pledged to ensure that Trump’s tax reform expires next year. While many have already pointed out that this will mean a significant tax increase for most Americans, few have noticed that it will also mean a windfall for Biden’s political donors, in the millions of dollars. A key feature of the Trump tax reform, also known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), was to limit the state and local tax (SALT) deduction to $10,000. Previously, ultra-high-income earners in high-tax states could use this unlimited deduction to reduce their taxable income by millions of dollars. This...

CLAIM: President Ronald Reagan, like President Joe Biden, withheld arms from Israel to influence its military policy. VERDICT: MISLEADING. Reagan acted within the law, and in very different circumstances, in withholding arms. The New York Times‘ Peter Baker — winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his newspaper’s bogus reporting on “Russia collusion” — wrote Friday that President Reagan, too, withheld weapons from Israel over concerns about their use. Baker’s aim in the article appears to be to rescue Biden from some of the criticism he has faced since he confirmed earlier this week that the administration was withholding bombs and...