Free Republic

...The law will require nongovernmental groups and media organizations that receive at least 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as organizations “pursuing the interests of a foreign power.” The country’s justice ministry will be given broad powers to monitor compliance. Violations could result in fines equivalent to more than $9,000.

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — WARNING: The story contains graphic details. A Flowery Branch man was sentenced to 30 years in prison last week in Gwinnett County for raping a teenage girl and stabbing her 86 times. Zachary Iona, 22, pleaded guilty to rape, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, statutory rape, child molestation, and possession of a knife during the commission of a felony in Gwinnett County Superior Court. Iona and his attorneys negotiated a plea for a life sentence of 30 years in prison, followed by five years of parole and mandatory sex offender registration. [snip] After he left, the girl...

Chase Oliver won the Libertarian Party presidential nomination on Sunday after seven rounds of voting at the party’s convention in Washington, DC. The 38-year-old, who has previously run for Congress multiple times in Georgia, focused his pitch on making Libertarian values palatable to a broader audience. In an interview with CNN following his nomination, Oliver said he believes earning 2% of the vote nationally in November’s general election is a reasonable goal. ...

ATLANTA - One man is dead and three others are injured after police say an attempted car-break led to a gunfight in Downtown Atlanta. Police tell FOX 5 that the shooting happened around 11:30 p.m. on Monday on the 200 block of Auburn Avenue near the corner of Leonard Tate Street. Man killed in gunfight in Downtown Atlanta One man is dead and three others are injured after a gunfight over an attempted car break-in outside a Downtown Atlanta nightclub. ATLANTA - One man is dead and three others are injured after police say an attempted car-break led to a...

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis appealed on Thursday a Georgia judge’s decision to dismiss six charges lodged at former President Donald Trump and his allies. Willis asked the Georgia Court of Appeals to reverse Judge Scott McAfee’s decision to throw out the charges, including three against Trump, that were part of her 41-count election interference case against Trump and his co-defendants. In March, McAfee dismissed six of the charges saying that Willis had not been specific enough. “As written, these six counts contain all the essential elements of the crimes but fail to allege sufficient detail regarding the nature...

Fani Willis on Tuesday won the Democratic primary in Georgia for her Fulton County District Attorney seat, which she has held since 2020. Willis won with 89 percent of the vote at the time the Associated Press called the race. Polls closed at 7 p.m. ET and the AP called the race shortly before 7:40 p.m. The result came as Willis seeks to continue her election interference case against former President Donald Trump. Willis indicted Trump and several other co-defendants for charges relating to the 2020 presidential election results in the state and violations of the state's Racketeer Influenced and...

Joe Biden held a campaign even in Atlanta Saturday and literally dozens of people showed up. The event, which entailed more pandering to black people, took place at Mary Mac’s Tea Room in downtown Atlanta, where Biden looked completely out of it. He looked around totally confused and began saluting as people laughed at him before he was introduced: Just look at the size of the crowd: Earlier, Biden’s motorcade drove through Atlanta and practically no one cared: Compare this energy to the Trump Rally in New Jersey last weekend where almost 100,000 people turned up: Biden is probably on...

President Biden applauded a call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip Sunday while attending the commencement of Morehouse College in Atlanta on Sunday. Valedictorian Deangelo Fletcher, who spoke before Biden’s commencement address, stopped short of any direct rebuke of the president but called for an “immediate and a permanent ceasefire.” “It is only right for the class of 2024 to utilize any platform provided to stand in solidarity with peace and justice,” Fletcher said while evoking the activism of Morehouse alumnus Martin Luther King Jr.

The Georgia Court of Appeals has given a green light to Donald Trump's case to remove Fani Willis from his election fraud trial in the latest blow to the Fulton County DA. Willis has courted controversy while prosecuting the county's election interference case against Trump after it was revealed she had a past relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade. She escaped with just a slap on the wrist after Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee dramatically ruled she could stay on the Trump election interference case if Wade removed himself. Trump and eight of his co-defendants charged in the Georgia state...

After 12 years of marriage and less than two years into his congressional career, Georgia Republican Rep. Rich McCormick has filed for divorce from his oncologist wife Dr. Debra Miller. Capitol Hill insiders say McCormick has often been seen acting overly friendly toward a female Republican member of the House Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas.

A judge has ordered a redo of the November 2022 election between Tami Pierce and DaSean Jones for the 180th District Court in Harris County after finding far more illegal votes were cast in the race than the margin of victory. Pierce, a Republican, contested her 449-vote loss to Democrat incumbent Jones in January 2023, but the case was delayed for nearly a year by a motion to dismiss filed by Jones. Judge David Peeples, a visiting judge from San Antonio, ruled Wednesday that the true outcome of the election cannot be determined and ordered a new election. Following a...

When you go into the voting booth, it’s easy to focus on the big races. Those high-profile contests at the federal and state level get the most coverage, and you can do your homework and learn about the candidates. If you have your ear to the ground or have decent local media, you can do the same with some local races. But every state has those down-ballot races that are often nonpartisan and don’t get much media coverage. It’s easy to ignore races like these when you don’t know anything about the candidates. Georgia has one of those races this...

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...

Media fact-checks have asserted that the 2020 presidential election in Georgia didn’t have serious irregularities. But more evidence regarding Fulton County’s handling of ballots and signature verification appear to challenge those claims. Numerous issues have been documented regarding the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, specifically in Fulton County. The media repeatedly "fact-checked" these irregularities, despite confirmation of the issues by election officials. This has resulted in former President Donald Trump and other Republicans who raised concerns about election irregularities often being labeled “election deniers” by Democrats and the media. Georgia election officials have recently confirmed issues that occurred in Fulton...

State Election Board calls for a monitor in Fulton for this year’s elections.. The State Election Board reprimanded Fulton County and ordered an independent election monitor Tuesday, finding that the county likely scanned over 3,000 ballots twice during the recount of the 2020 presidential election. The decision, on a 2-1 vote, resolves one of the last remaining investigations of the 2020 election, drawing jeers from a crowd of Republican voters who wanted more severe punishment against the Democrat county. The case exposed errors in Fulton’s 2020 recount but didn’t indicate any fraud in the election, which Democrat Joe Biden won...

The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly voted to protect Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) from a conservative coup, torpedoing an effort by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to oust the GOP leader from the top job. The chamber voted 359-43-7 on a motion to table Greene’s motion to vacate, preventing the removal resolution from hitting the floor for a vote. The final vote — which was widely expected amid bipartisan opposition to the ouster gambit — deals a major blow to Greene, who filed her measure more than a month ago and had threatened to trigger it ever since. It means Johnson,...

Georgia State Election Board hearing yesterday on Fulton County. Then let’s look at the paper ballots. Secretary of State office: No, you can't see them. VIDEO AT LINK...........................

ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia appeals court on Wednesday agreed to review a lower court ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue to prosecute the election interference case she brought against former President Donald Trump. The move seems likely to delay the case and is the second time in as many days that the former president has gotten a favorable ruling that could push any future trials beyond the November election, when he is expected to be the Republican nominee for president. A day earlier, the judge in his Florida classified documents case indefinitely postponed that trial...

Washington — The Georgia Court of Appeals on Wednesday agreed to review a decision by a Fulton County Superior Court judge who declined to disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis and her office from the 2020 election case against former President Donald Trump because of a personal relationship Willis had with a prosecutor.

The Georgia secretary of state’s office has determined Fulton County used improper procedures during its 2020 presidential election recount. During a Georgia state elections board meeting on Tuesday, Charlene McGowan, general counsel for the secretary of state’s office, said, “The conclusion of this investigation ... is that Fulton County used improper procedures during the recount of the presidential contest in 2020.” McGowan stressed the investigation’s outcome doesn’t change the election’s overall outcome, an election that saw Joe Biden become the first Democrat since 1992 to carry any deep Southern state on his way to ousting his Oval Office predecessor, Donald...