Free Republic

Former president Donald Trump posted a $91.63 million bond on Friday as he appeals a Manhattan jury’s judgment against him for defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll. The posting of the bond is expected to allow Trump to stop the penalty from being enforced while he challenges January’s verdict at the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The bond is guaranteed by the Federal Insurance Company, which has offices in Virginia and New Jersey, according to Trump’s filing. Trump was ordered to pay the massive sum at a trial to determine damages after a federal judge found Trump...

The pace of FBI arrests and the opening of new Jan. 6 criminal cases quickened so much in late 2023 and early 2024 that District of Columbia federal courts could bend under the weight. In the past two months, 93 people have been arrested and charged, according to Department of Justice (DOJ) reports. At the current rate, some 445 new cases could hit the docket in 2024—more than in 2022 and 2023, according to one estimate. In total, up to March 6, at least 1,358 people have been arrested by the FBI and criminally charged by the Department of Justice...

In December 2020 I had to put my home on the market and move 1,000 miles away. Two months before I’d considered refinancing my mortgage and the bank gave me a valuation of $285,000. I thought it probably should have been higher but didn’t really feel like taking the time to look into it because I wasn’t really that worried about it. Suddenly in December I was forced to worry about it. So I reached out to a realtor friend (an actual realtor, not a guy with a side gig) and asked him to give me an estimate. He thought...

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—A Christian who faced persecution for her faith in Communist Romania in the 1980s and barely survived an assassination attempt orchestrated by dictator Nicolae Ceausescu warns that the undermining of parental rights in the U.S. today echoes Ceausescu’s totalitarian government. “It’s the same system that the socialists use in order for parents to be put in jail that the students, kids, will be taught in school to report their [parents] to school,” Virginia Prodan, a human rights lawyer who grew up in Communist Romania but came to the U.S. after President Ronald Reagan secured her release... She raised the...

Lawfare is the vengeful exercise of raw political power to punish political enemies. It is unadulterated fascism, and the destruction of the American system of justice. What a week! Consider what has happened this week: SCOTUS delayed Jack Smith's Jan. 6 trial -- possibly until after the election. Judge Cannon is likely to delay the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case at least until the summer. Fani Willis and Nathan Wade are likely to be removed from the racketeering case, delaying and perhaps ending their RICO persecution of Trump. Trump has appealed Letitia James' Draconian penalties to New York Appeals Court which...

The higher courts are finally stepping in to limit the legal overreach evident in both the J6 cases and Jack Smith's jihad against President Trump. This week all eyes were on the Willis-Wade fiasco in Fulton County, Georgia, but three less smuttily scintillating cases seem at last to be limiting the overreach of the Department of Justice respecting the J6 defendants and Jack Smith’s persecution of President Donald Trump. In interpreting criminal statutes, it seems to me that Courts should not be creative and expansively read into them things that the legislature which writes the laws did not clearly proscribe...

UPDATE: 1:56 p.m. ET: Baker has been released: UPDATE: 1:16 p.m. ET: Investigative journalist Lara Logan had the following to say about Baker's treatment Friday: UPDATE: 1:05 p.m. ET: What happened to Baker got the attention of Donald Trump, Jr. as well: UPDATE: 12:51 p.m. ET: Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy weighed in on Baker's arrest and the state of freedom of the press: UPDATE: 12:37 p.m. ET: BlazeTV contributor Jill Savage noted that she exited the courtroom with Baker who "was able to wear his dress clothes but had shackles on his wrists and ankles. He is expected...

The deep-rooted corruption of the Biden administration has already reached new and frightening lows this year when the Department of Justice shockingly convicted six pro-life activists—who now face up to 11 years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines—for doing nothing more than peacefully singing hymns and praying in the hallway outside a Nashville abortion clinic. The Biden administration’s record of anti-Christian persecution has garnered increasing attention from Republican leaders, and the conviction of the Nashville activists reveals the chilling extent to which the left is willing to weaponize the law to silence, intimidate, and ultimately imprison...

We are all Steve Baker now, writes a longtime personal friend of Baker's, who, along with Baker, has contributed to American Thinker. As many of you know by now, The Blaze’s journalist Steve Baker was arrested yesterday by the FBI, put in handcuffs, leg irons, and paraded before a magistrate who read off charges of ... wait for it ... four misdemeanors. Four FRIGGIN misdemeanors. Charges, not convictions, mind you. Nonetheless: Leg irons. Handcuffs. Hours in a jail cell. The message is clear: you dare go against the government narrative, this could be you. All that was missing was the...

Baker — who for years has been searching for the truth about Jan. 6, 2021, and believes the U.S. government has been targeting him for it — on Friday was charged with four misdemeanors related to his Jan. 6 coverage at the U.S. Capitol after turning himself in to the FBI in Dallas. But first he was handcuffed and perp-walked: The charges are: Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority Disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds Disorderly conduct in a capitol building Parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a capitol building...

Blaze Media Investigative Journalist @TPC4USA has now been taken into FBI custody for his J6 reporting. PERP WALKED IN FRONT OF CAMERAS LIKE IN A BANANA REPUBLIC................ VIDEO AT LINK.......................

[Catholic Caucus] OUTRAGE: San Antonio archbishop cancels Catholic family businessThe letter from Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller of San Antonio formally prohibits all clergy, schools, retreat centers, and Catholic groups 'from contracting with or utilizing Sanctus Ranch for any Catholic-sponsored retreats, meetings, activities, or spiritual endeavors.'Support Sanctus Ranch retreat center: LifeFunderSAN ANTONIO (LifeSiteNews) — In a devastating blow to a faithful Texas Catholic family with six children who have made their living running a private ranch, the archbishop of San Antonio, Texas, has issued a public letter to all Catholics directing them not to do business with the ranch. The January 30...

A majority of voters think Democrats are “engaged in lawfare” to knock former President Donald Trump out of the race, according to a new poll. More than half of voters believe Democrats are “using the government and the legal system in biased ways to take out a political opponent,” according to a recent Harvard Caps/Harris poll. When asked the question, “Do you think the democrats today are engaged in lawfare — a campaign using the government and the legal system in biased ways to take out a political opponent or do you think the prosecutions of Donald Trump are fair...

New York Attorney General Letitia James appeared to taunt former President Trump about the interest he may own in a civil fraud judgment. Trump’s legal team on Monday appealed a Feb. 16 ruling from New York Judge Arthur Engoron’s finding him liable for more than $350 million in damages in the civil fraud case brought against him by James. Engoron ordered Trump to pay just over $354 million, with post-judgment interest accruing at nearly $112,000 per day. “In a massive victory, we won our case against Donald Trump for engaging in years of incredible financial fraud to enrich himself. Trump,...

On February 16, 2024, a judge in New York State imposed fines totaling just over $360 million on former president Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization, and several related Trump companies and trusts in the civil case brought by the New York attorney general. President Trump’s sons Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump were fined just over $4 million each. The court imposed additional sanctions, including injunctions against former president Trump; Donald Trump, Jr.; and Eric Trump from serving as officers or directors in New York corporations for specified numbers of years, among other sanctions.The media reporting on the court’s...

The Biden administration planted a Democrat operative inside a Fulton County office to target former President Donald Trump, multiple sources familiar with the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office exclusively told Breitbart News. If the Biden administration planted the operative, as the sources say, it would present a strong argument that the administration interfered in the 2024 presidential election. Breitbart News granted the sources anonymity to discuss the attorney’s office for fear of retribution. The sources have direct knowledge of the environment at the District Attorney’s Office, which they characterized as “corrupt.”

Former President Donald Trump filed a notice of appeal Monday in the matter of the New York civil judgment finding him liable for fraudulently inflating his net worth on years of financial statements. The judgement curtailed his ability – and that of the Trump Organization – to do business in New York or apply for loans from financial institutions registered with the state. Trump asked an intermediate-level state appellate court to overturn Justice Arthur Engoron’s Feb. 16 ruling in a civil fraud lawsuit brought in 2022 by New York Attorney General Letitia James, Reuters reports. Trump’s post-judgment interest will continue...

Like millions of Americans before me, I’ve done exactly what Donald Trump did; namely, sought a loan based upon my best estimate of what my property was worth—and I didn’t look to what the tax assessor said in reaching that value. However, as part of the Democrats’ lawfare, Letitia James twisted a perfectly ordinary act into something evil, and a partisan judge put his imprimatur on her efforts. If it’s allowed to stand, the results will be devastating, not just for the political class but also for normal Americans. In December 2020, I had to put my home on the...

Around the world, corrupt political regimes are weaponising the courts to go after political rivals. In one country, a prosecutor is trying to persuade a court to impose a prison sentence of up to hundreds of years on a former national leader on the basis of technicalities about handling official documents. In another lawless, illiberal regime, a partisan prosecutor is using a law intended to prosecute organised crime to destroy a politician of the other party. In a country in which the rule of law is at risk, a prosecutor and a judge seek the financial ruin of an opposition...

Was the $355 million fine against Donald Trump, for a “crime” that even the judge issuing the ruling admitted hurt no one, a bridge too far? New York Gov. Kathy Hochul seems to think so, which is why she rushed out to say that other people doing business in New York have nothing to fear: “Law-abiding and rule-following New Yorkers who are businesspeople have nothing to worry about because they’re very different than Donald Trump and his behavior.” What she should have said is: “if they are different from Donald Trump and his political views.” Because nothing about this case,...