Free Republic

Not so long ago, when newspapering was still a going concern, being a "court reporter" was a much sought-after beat - albeit modestly demanding, in that one was expected to know something about the case one was covering and the legal questions it raised. Not anymore - as I learned during my own trial in the District of Columbia Superior Court a few weeks back. The likes of The New York Times and NPR never sent a reporter to court to cover proceedings for a single day, but instead waited until the verdict and then had the "climate correspondent" write...

The former leader of Northern Ireland’s biggest unionist party was jeered as he left court Wednesday following his appearance on sexual abuse charges dating back nearly four decades. Some members of the public shouted at Jeffrey Donaldson and lunged toward him, and he had to be surrounded by police as he left Newry Magistrates’ Court following his first appearance since his arrest last month. Donaldson, 61, faces one charge of rape, a single charge of gross indecency and nine indecent assault charges dating from 1985 to 2006. His wife, Eleanor Mary Elizabeth Donaldson, 58, faces four counts of aiding and...

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vowed Friday to appoint a special counsel to review cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot against rival Donald Trump and his supporters if Kennedy wins the Oval Office — arguing one can oppose the former president but still be “disturbed by the weaponization of government against him.”“As President, I will appoint a special counsel — an individual respected by all sides — to investigate whether prosecutorial discretion was abused for political ends in this case, and I will right any wrongs that we discover. Without the impartial rule of law,...

PROSECUTORS HOLD a lot of power. They determine criminal charges, recommend bail and sentences, accept or reject plea deals. Their actions, or inaction, affect millions of Americans each year.But until fairly recently, elections for the more than 2,300 DA offices across the country were low-profile, down-ballot affairs. Candidates worked the radio circuit and hammered signs on street corners. They ran ads and shook hands. But campaigns started to change in 2015 when outside money poured into the Red River bottom lands of Caddo Parish, La., the spot George Soros selected for a test run of his new philanthropic plan. Soros’...

In the months since I was terminated for expressing opinions, I have learned that my experience is all too common in Big Law. I am a Navy SEAL and Iraq war veteran who transitioned back into civilian life as a lawyer. Recent experience has taught me that people with my beliefs and values are viewed as parochial, at best, and in any case are not welcomed by many of those who are considered “leaders” in the legal profession. One of the things I realized soon after I started practicing law is that there are very few practicing attorneys who are...

I am just asking. How hard Is it to move a U.S. District Court from one location to another? It seems to me that at certain Federal District Courts democrats usually get a jury of their peers but republicans almost usually do not. A conservative president can appoint as many conservative judges as he is able, but if the jury pool is decidedly one-party then justice is never served. As long as these courts are centered in major cities that are about as blue as they can get, justice will always be weighed for one side over another simply for...

Who will guard against the corruption of some of America's guardians? No one, apparently. Not in Georgia anyway. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, adjudicating over the state's election interference case against Donald Trump, has essentially let District Attorney Fani Willis off the hook. Willis has been prosecuting the sprawling racketeering case against the former president and 18 other co-defendants. That was until proceedings were abruptly halted in early January when it was revealed that she had engaged in a secret romance with the special prosecutor she appointed for the trial. After weeks of silence, Willis and her now-former...

Special Counsel Robert Hur finally went public with his report on his investigation of Joe Biden and his handling of classified materials. I guess that most of you are wondering out loud like me: Who do you believe? Him (Biden) or Hur (counsel)? In one part of his investigation, he reported that the president said that he did not share the classified information with the ghostwriter. Sorry, he did. Well, the transcript shows that Mr. Biden lied or had a bad memory. This is from Steven Nelson: Hur testified that Biden lied at least twice to the public; once when...

Donald Trump has all but secured the Republican nomination for President of the United States, defeating Nikki Haley handily in South Carolina. The left wing media continues to furiously pump out highly negative articles as that eventuality approaches. A significant part of that effort involves the "threat" of Trump seeking revenge. Alexander Vindman, who stabbed Trump in the back, says his wife is saving money in case they need to flee the US. Stephanie Grisham says she's "terrified." Mark Zaid, lawyer to other Trump back-stabbers, said“I know of many prominent ‘never Trump’ advocates, including many Republicans, who are considering their...

A federal judge on Wednesday found that the “selective prosecution” of far-right groups without charging their far-left counterparts for the same acts is “constitutionally impermissible.” U.S. District Court Judge Cormac Carney of southern California therefore dismissed charges against two men from the “white nationalist” Rise Above Movement (RAM) who violently clashed with members of the far-left group Antifa at three southern California pro-Trump events in 2017. In his 35-page order, the judge stressed the importance of equal protection under the law. He said that although the two men may have been involved in violent acts, prosecutors were wrong to exclusively...

A U.S. Senate committee approved legislation on Wednesday that would help set the stage for the United States to confiscate Russian assets and hand them over to Ukraine for rebuilding after the destruction of the nearly two-year-long war. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 20 to 1 in favor of the unprecedented "Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity (REPO) for Ukrainians Act." If it were to pass the full Senate and House of Representatives and be signed into law by President Joe Biden, as expected, the act would pave the way for Washington's first-ever seizure of central bank assets from a...

Twenty years after he was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife, Laci Peterson, Scott Peterson has a new ally in his fight to prove he didn't commit the crime. The Los Angeles Innocence Project is now working with Peterson, according to news outlets in California. It's an important shift in Peterson's case. Up to now, many of his attorneys' efforts have focused on overturning his death sentence — an effort that succeeded in 2020. Peterson, 51, is now seeking exoneration and to free himself from serving a life sentence. The Los Angeles Innocence Project issued a widely cited statement Thursday...

A federal narcotics agent accused of blowing through a stop sign and hitting and killing a bicyclist while on a surveillance mission in Salem has successfully moved the criminal case from state to federal court. In federal court, he can assert immunity from prosecution on the criminal charge of negligent homicide, a defense not available to him in state court. Lawyers for the state objected to removing the case from Marion County Circuit Court. They argued that the agent’s alleged “grossly negligent actions” were not a necessary part of his federal law enforcement work. U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane...

A North Central Florida state attorney is moving forward with the first effort in the state to pursue the death penalty for an accused child rapist under a new law enacted earlier this year. State Attorney Bill Gladson announced Thursday in a press release that a Leesburg man, Joseph Andrew Giampa, was indicted for six counts of rape of a child under 12 and three counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child. “Given the severity of the crime and its impact on the community, the Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office has filed a notice that it intends...

The Las Vegas teenagers accused of beating 17-year-old Jonathan Lewis to death in an alley near their high school claimed self-defense, saying the boy threw the first punch at a court hearing Thursday. Four of the nine teens charged with Lewis’ murder appeared before Las Vegas Justice Court Judge Nadia Woods but did not receive bail as expected, with Woods instead saying she’d issue a written order on bond for each defendant next week, local CBS affiliate station KLAS reported. The four teens — Damien Hernandez, 17; Gianni Robinson, 17; Dontral Beaver, 16; and Treavion Randolph, 16 — appeared in...

Lawyers for former President Trump argued Wednesday that a federal appeals court should not accelerate its consideration of whether he is immune from prosecution over claims related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. The attorneys said federal prosecutors are attempting to speed up the case so it can be decided before the 2024 presidential election. “The prosecution has one goal in this case: To unlawfully attempt to try, convict, and sentence President Trump before an election in which he is likely to defeat President Biden,” they wrote. “This represents a blatant attempt to interfere with the 2024 presidential election...

This is one of those infuriating stories that remind us of how libertine persuasions in Western Europe have led to permissive criminal justice systems that have steadily been infecting the United States in recent decades. There’s really no comfort to be taken by pointing out that it happened in Germany because it shouldn’t be happening anywhere. Three years ago, a 15-year-old girl was attending a party in Hamburg, Germany when she was dragged outside into the bushes and gang raped by eleven men. All eleven were identified and later detained. Two of the men were somehow acquitted, but the other...

New US House Speaker Mike Johnson struck a blow for liberty and justice last week when he finally authorized the release of all the tapes from the January 6, 2021 “insurrection.”We were told by no less than President Biden himself that this was the “worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”The FBI was unleashed by the Biden Administration to hunt down hundreds of participants in this “insurrection” and lock them up in the gulag where they awaited trial in torturous conditions – many in solitary confinement.A Congressional Committee was set up under then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi to “get to...

Purse snatcher gets instant karma dealt by passerby.

The judicial mob tyranny under which we’re now living didn’t begin with Trayvon Martin and Black Lives Matter, but it certainly got a lot of traction there. Earlier this week, I attended the theatrical debut of Dinesh D’Souza’s compelling new documentary Police State. As much as I liked the movie, there was one subject left unexplored: the ironic fact that, today, among those most vulnerable to the “police state” are local police. Searching for a more inclusive metaphor than “police state” to describe our current state of peril, I reached into the past and came up with “Jacobin Justice.” In...