Free Republic

On Monday, conservative attorney, legal scholar, and commentator Jonathan Turley weighed in on the day's testimony by Michael Cohen in the ongoing New York trial of former President Donald Trump. Mr. Turley's comments about Cohen were, to say the least, sharply pointed.Michael Cohen apparently wants a reality show but, if his testimony Monday is any indication, reality is about to sink in for not just Cohen but the prosecutors and the court.In stoking interest in his own appearance, the former Trump counsel promised the public that they should be “prepared to be surprised.” Thus far, however, Cohen has offered nothing...

Houston’s police chief has resigned after emails obtained by a local news outlet appear to show that he knew about massive failures in the department well before he said he did. Within hours of issuing a statement about the findings, he resigned. In February, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner first announced that the Houston Police Department dropped 264,000 crime reports, including violent crimes and sexual assaults, which weren’t investigated because a “lack of personnel” code was assigned to them, The Center Square reported. In March, new Houston Mayor John Whitmire appointed an independent panel to review an internal HPD investigation...

The man Chicago police have been hunting since a woman was attacked in the West Loop last month is a Venezuelan migrant living at a nearby shelter, officials say. And a CWBChicago reader helped police track him down. Jheison Lazaro, 19, was on pretrial release for a felony shoplifting case when he attacked the woman in the 100 block of North Carpenter on April 14, officials said. Lazaro grabbed the 38-year-old woman with both hands and dragged her into an alley around 5:24 a.m., according to prosecutors. He covered her mouth with one hand and wrapped his other arm around...

“We had 20 people shot at that parade, and not one of them dies?” said Detective Rob Hurst, Hart’s partner at the scene. “If that’s not a miracle, you tell me what is.” Hovering near death, Cotton somehow dictated a statement from the intensive care unit that a close friend delivered to a hastily called New Orleans City Council hearing. “Do you know what it takes to be so disconnected in your heart that you walk out into a gathering of hundreds of people who look just like you and begin firing?” she asked. Alluding to the bleak circumstances facing...

Brexit leader Nigel Farage has vowed to lead the charge against the “mission creep” of the World Health Organization (WHO), joining a campaign to “take back control” from the globalist institution as it pushes for an international Pandemic Treaty.Vowing to take on the “billion-dollar global health empire”, Nigel Farage said he has joined the Action on World Health (AWH) campaign group to reduce the scope of the W.H.O., calling for its £5.5 billion budget to be dramatically cut and to fight against the implementation of the controversial pandemic treaty being imposed.“The W.H.O. is proposing a pandemic treaty that would be...

Florida sheriffs have been making news of late for doing their jobs. I say that not as a commentary on said sheriffs, but as a sad observation that in parts of this country, violent repeat criminals rule the streets. One such Florida sheriff is Lee County's Carmine Marceno, whose hard line on criminals who think they can "play" in his county is crystal clear: My message … is clear. If you think you can deal poison and commit crime, stay clear of Lee County and all the great state of Florida. We're ready, and we will absolutely find you, hunt...

OJ Simpson’s attorney Alan Dershowitz said that he would have represented the alleged victims of the 1994 murder “if they had called me first." Dershowitz made the statement to Fox’s Sean Hannity on Thursday, following the news that Simpson had died from prostate cancer aged 76. “I want to send my sincerest condolences to the Goldman family, the Brown family. They’ve done a phenomenal job in standing up for their relatives, and if they had called me first before the OJ team called me, I probably would have represented the Goldman or the Brown family,” Dershowitz said, as earlier reported...

French President Emmanuel Macron wants to fix the nation's demographic problem as the birthrate collapses, but his remedy is worse than the disease. Macron last week chose women's magazine Elle to outline his plan for "demographic rearmament," a program he announced in January as the public saw the latest data showing the deaths of French citizens drawing dangerously close to the number of births. In Elle, the president stuck to his bellicose expressions of concern despite wide criticism on the part of liberals and feminists.

Bay Area dog trainer Josh Beckler stumbled upon an unusual sight last Sunday on his way to the gym. As he pulled his Tesla into the parking lot of a Target complex in Vallejo, he noticed the row of supercharging stations had been vandalized. Taking out his phone, he recorded a video as he walked down the row of 20 stations, highlighting that every charging cable that connects power to the electric vehicles had been cut. “You would think that it’s a protest or some symbol of activism,” Beckler said with a chuckle in the video. “But it’s not. It’s...

Authorities in China were expected on Monday to release a citizen journalist jailed for four years after she documented the early phases of the coronavirus outbreak from the central city of Wuhan in 2020. Zhang Zhan, 40, had travelled to Wuhan in early 2020 from Shanghai where she was based, posting first-hand accounts ... After several months of reporting that included videos.. she was detained in May 2020. She went on hunger strike in late June, court documents seen by Reuters said, prompting police to strap her hands and force-feed her with a tube, her lawyers said at the time....

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is "counting on" Michael Cohen lying during former President Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial, according to attorney and Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett on Saturday. Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and fixer, is set to testify in the high-profile trial on Monday, which will determine whether the former president falsified business records over payments, allegedly facilitated by Cohen, to former adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep an alleged affair that happened in 2006 secret before the 2016 presidential election, as alleged in a criminal indictment. Prosecutors led by Bragg allege the $130,000 payment...

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....

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During its quarterly meeting on May 7, 2024, the Georgia State Election Board (SEB) refused to refer Election Complaint(SEB2023-025) to the Attorney General(AG) for investigation and prosecution per a motion from SEB member Dr. Janice Johnston. The case is possibly one of the most important election cases in Georgia's history. Sadly, board member Rick Jeffares, who had promised support for the case, was a day late and several dollars short. Jaffares failed to show up at the hearing. The moment was critical and would have allowed him to second Johnston's motion to refer the case. His vote would have forced...

A First Communion service in Louisiana erupted in panic when a 16-year-old armed with a rifle attempted to storm the church through a back door. But parishioners spotted the teen and swarmed him — holding him outside until police arrived and arrested him. The terrifying scene unfolded at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church in Abbeville — which was full of parents with young children who were there for the rite of passage in the church. The incident was streamed live on the church’s website Saturday morning as Fr. Nicholas G. Dupré led the faithful in prayer from the altar. In...

Iranian member of Parliament Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani said in an interview this weekend that he believed his country had successfully developed a nuclear weapon, contrary to international law, but would not admit to it. Ardestani claimed that Iran would still claim to be abiding by the “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action” (JCPOA), the 2015 agreement brokered by American President Barack Obama that dramatically reduced sanctions on Tehran in exchange for promises not to expand its nuclear development. Iran has consistently violated the nuclear deal for years; President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018 but the other four countries...

Based on the latest available data and an enhanced version of a stress-tested methodology from a scholarly journal, a new study by Just Facts has found that about 10% to 27% of non-citizen adults in the U.S. are now illegally registered to vote. The U.S. Census recorded more than 19 million adult non-citizens living in the U.S. during 2022. Given their voter registration rates, this means that about two million to five million of them are illegally registered to vote. These figures are potentially high enough to overturn the will of the American people in major elections, including congressional seats...

**SNIP** Police initially shut down the carnival in Chester County Saturday night after a group of juveniles created what officials described as an "unsafe environment" for those at the fair. Additional officers from agencies around the county were also called in to help with crowd control. While they didn't specify exactly what happened, police said the large crowd in the outer lot of the Exton Square Mall was creating a disturbance. **SNIP** Police are also investigating a fight that they say occurred inside the mall after the carnival was shut down. The department released surveillance footage captured by a business...

One of Europe’s most notorious people-smugglers has been arrested in Iraq following a BBC investigation. Barzan Majeed was arrested in Iraqi Kurdistan on Sunday morning, a senior government official said. For several years, he and his gang were heavily involved in the people-smuggling trade - in boats and lorries - across the English Channel. The BBC tracked down Majeed - also known as Scorpion - to the city of Sulaymaniya, where he said he had transported thousands of migrants across the channel. “Maybe a thousand, maybe 10,000. I don’t know, I didn’t count,” he said. A senior member of the...

Louis Knuffke, a LifeSiteNews Washington D.C. correspondent, was interviewing Heather Idoni, 59, over the phone on May 13 when she disclosed that she had had 3 stents placed above her heart two weeks ago and was told to take daily doses of heart medicine. However, prison officials have not given her a single dose, she told Knuffke, and jail personnel have told her that their records say she has been given them every day. Idoni, who said she was suffering from fluttering of the heart, terminated the interview after saying she would request a trip to the hospital. Knuffke then...