Free Republic

Jury consultant Robert Hirschhorn told CNN on Monday that the prosecution’s lack of evidence in former President Donald Trump’s trial so far is a major issue that could lead to a “not guilty” verdict despite the likelihood of the jury being largely Democratic because of the Manhattan venue. Former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney testified on Monday, asserting that Trump never directed him to falsify documents under cross examination by the defense. McConney is yet another witness who has not proven direct involvement by the former president, with Hirschhorn saying even a Democratic jury is likely to acquit Trump if...

A high-profile New York real estate lawyer, whose law license was once suspended, said he approached the judge presiding over Donald Trump’s civil fraud case to offer unsolicited advice about a law at issue in the case. Attorney Adam Leitman Bailey made the claim during an interview with NBC New York, saying he spoke to Judge Arthur Engoron three weeks prior to the judge’s February decision to fine the former president $454 million for falsely inflating the value of his assets. The judge, through a court spokesman, denied impropriety and said he was “wholly uninfluenced” by Mr. Bailey. New York’s...

Don’t look now, but journalism might be back. In a rare uplifting press story, New York Times executive editor Joe Kahn seemed to lose patience with incessant demands that he elect Joe Biden instead of reporting news, directing an epic, And Justice For All-style “No, you’re out of order!” tirade against the White House and its lackeys. When Ben Smith at Semafor asked Kahn about former Obama official Dan Pfeiffer’s complaint that the Times does not “see their job as saving democracy or stopping an authoritarian from taking power,” Kahn went ballistic. “I don’t even know how it’s supposed to...

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it received a recording of a phone message left by an FBI special agent for someone at the Secret Service in the context of the raid on President Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. The August 11, 2022, recording says: Yes, hi, this is Special Agent [redacted] from FBI [unintelligible]. We met on Monday [the day of the raid]. We have a couple of specific follow-up asks of you, um, so give me a call so we can discuss that. My number is [redacted]. Again, my name is [redacted]. Thanks, bye. The recording...

Legal analysts are accusing Judge Aileen Cannon of pro-Donald Trump bias after indefinitely suspending his classified documents case. Cannon, a Trump appointee, indefinitely postponed the trial on Tuesday, citing legal disputes around classified evidence. Cannon said there were eight outstanding substantive pending motions for her to rule on and predicted this will take until at least late July. It is unknown whether the case will begin before the November 2024 presidential election. If elected, Trump has a number of options to kill the trial, including pardoning himself or appointing a favorable attorney general to drop the charges. Cannon is overseeing...

A new California bill has the potential to ban self-checkout options in grocery stores in an attempt to curb retail theft. Senate Bill 1446, introduced by Democratic state Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, would “prohibit a grocery or retail drug establishment from providing a self-service checkout option” unless conditions such as ensuring that no more than two self-service checkout stations are monitored by one employee are met, according to a summary of the proposed legislation. The bill also mandates that stores access how using artificial intelligence or other technology may cut jobs and “significantly affects the essential job functions of its employees.”...

A group of migrants staying at an encampment in Denver sent a list of demands to the mayor’s desk. That group said if their demands are met, they will voluntarily stay in city-funded shelters and leave their encampment where families, including young children, still live in tents. he migrants have been lobbied by Denver Human Services to get off the street and into shelters — an offer that remains, according to city officials. But they are holding out and said the city has reneged on its deal with them, while the city maintains it will continue to offer services to...

Public confidence in the military has slipped. One major reason is the politicization of senior military officers, who show an increasing propensity to compromise their integrity to gain influence and achieve both budgetary and policy goals. Their willingness to spin carefully parsed and knowingly misleading testimony and advice compromises civilian control of the military. Simply stated, these generals and admirals are not providing full and complete representations of plans, concepts, and assessments to senior civilians in the executive and legislative branches, thereby depriving them of the unbiased information they require to make decisions required by the Constitution. In an era...

Joe Biden’s administration released a finalized rule on Friday that expands Title IX protection to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” Title IX prohibits discrimination based on sex in any public school or university that receives federal funding, and in 2022 the administration unveiled a revised version that would extend prohibitions against “gender identity.” The administration’s new rule is the finalized version after months of review and public comment and will go into effect on August 1, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Education (DOE). ... The updated regulation prohibits schools from “preventing someone from participating...

President Kornbluth assured us … that the encampment would be removed in time for our Yom Ha'atzmaut celebration,' letter from Jewish group says.. In the run-up to an annual Israeli Independence Day celebration at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, university president Sally Kornbluth assured student organizers that an unauthorized anti-Israel encampment—located in the same area where the Jewish students planned to hold their event—would be cleared in time. It wasn't, prompting school officials to walk back their promise and press the Jewish students to reschedule or relocate the event, messages obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show. On April 24,...

Despite assurances from President Joe Biden’s administration, the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) new rule for healthcare providers could end up forcing religious hospitals and doctors to perform child sex-change procedures, legal experts told the DCNF. The rule, which HHS issued on April 26 under the Affordable Care Act, bars healthcare and insurance providers who receive federal funding from denying care due to a patient’s gender identity or sexual orientation. While HHS claimed that the rule “respects” federal protections for religious freedom, legal experts told the DCNF that the rule will likely force religious healthcare providers to choose...

The GOP-led House of Representatives is scheduled to vote for Wednesday on legislation that would add a U.S. citizenship question to the census.The census is conducted every 10 years.The Equal Representation Act, would require a "citizenship question on the decennial census" as well as "modify apportionment of Representatives to be based on United States citizens instead of all persons."According to the U.S. Census Bureau, "at the conclusion of each census, the results are used to calculate the number of House memberships to which each state is entitled," a process referred to as apportionment.The Trump administration explored adding a citizenship question...

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has filed a privileged motion to vacate the chair, forcing the House to vote within two legislative days to eject Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).Johnson is expected to immediately move to table – and effectively kill – the motion, a vote which requires a simple majority. Yet House rules do not prohibit Greene, or any other lawmaker, from forcing additional votes, and she and her allies have not tipped their hand as to what they’ll do should the motion be killed.Further, Johnson’s immediate future, despite assurances from Johnson-friendly media outlets, is far from certain. Some Republicans,...

It comes after prosecutors wrote that the order of items within a box was ‘not the same’ as digital photographs of materials raided from Mar-a-Lago by the FBI.Former President Donald Trump argued that special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents case against him should be tossed after prosecutors wrote that they misled a judge about the order of items in an evidence box.In a post on Truth Social over the weekend, President Trump called for the arrest of Jack Smith and argued that the case should be thrown out based on the new court filing.It came after Mr. Smith’s team wrote...

The U.S. Secret Service reiterated that it “must provide protection” to former presidents amid speculation that President Donald Trump could be jailed by a New York judge for violating his gag order. On Monday, Judge Juan Merchan told the former president that if he continues to violate a gag order for speaking about witnesses and other individuals connected to the trial, he could face a jail term. In response to questions about how the Secret Service would respond if President Trump were jailed, a spokesperson for the agency told The Epoch Times Tuesday that “under federal law, the United States...

On Monday, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters that federal agencies such as the FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) restarted discussions with Big Tech platforms. According to NextGov/FCW, this coordination will focus on “removing disinformation on their sites as the November presidential election nears.” Warner claimed these talks resumed in March, around the same time oral arguments in Murthy v. Missouri — which centers on the feds’ censorship efforts — were heard before the U.S. Supreme Court. When pressed on the validity of Warner’s remarks, an FBI representative confirmed to...

A former Mayo Clinic resident accused of fatally poisoning his wife last year may have been identifying as a widower before she even died, a new warrant reveals. Connor Bowman, 31, is facing charges of second- and first-degree murder for the death of 32-year-old Betty Bowman on Aug. 20, 2023. According to her obituary, Betty Bowman died at the Mayo Clinic's St. Marys Hospital "following a sudden onset of autoimmune and infectious illness." While hospitalized, Betty suffered heart issues, fluid buildup in her lungs and had to have part of her colon removed. She eventually died from organ failure. Toxicology...

A federal judge has struck down an Indiana law which had prohibited health care providers from giving information to minors about how to obtain an abortion out-of-state without parental consent. Known as the “aid-or-assist statute,” the law protected minors from being coerced into abortions, especially without parental consent. The legislation was challenged by Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky Inc. (PPGNHAIK) in a push for more abortion — even if minors are at risk. U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Barker sided with PPGNHAIK, saying that the law would violate the First Amendment if enforced against the health care...

Actress Mia Farrow took to social media on Wednesday to declare porn star Stormy Daniels “a strong woman who may not want to appear to be weak or a victim” while she testifies against former President Donald Trump. “Stormy is a strong woman who may not want to appear to be weak or a victim,” Farrow wrote in an X post, adding, “but what she described seemed very like a sexual assault.” Stormy is a strong woman who may not want to appear to be weak or a victim – – but what she described seemed very like a sexual...

Planned Parenthood South Atlantic and the state of South Carolina were in court last week arguing a lawsuit over the state’s Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act and its definition of a “fetal heartbeat.” The lawsuit, filed by Planned Parenthood and Taylor Shelton, a South Carolina woman, is asking Circuit Judge Daniel Coble to interpret the law’s definition of “fetal heartbeat” to mean the formation status of the heart at nine weeks post-fertilization, rather than six, and to block the law until a ruling is issued. The South Carolina law states that “fetal heartbeat means cardiac activity, or the...