Free Republic

NEW YORK — The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s hush money trial has fined him $1,000 for violating his gag order and sternly warned the former president that additional violation could result in jail time. The fine marks the second sanction for Trump for inflammatory comments about witnesses since the start of the trial last month. He was fined $9,000 last week for nine violations. Judge Juan M. Merchan warned Monday that additional gag order violations could potentially result in jail time, though he said that was “the last thing I want to do.” Prosecutors in Trump’s hush money trial...

Lemme know if you find a crime. Haven’t seen one yet.

Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns is heading to Doha, Qatar, in a last-ditch effort to save talks on a potential hostage deal between Israel and Hamas after the terror group balked at Israel continuing the war against it.

The Biden regime has cut off ammunition supplies to Israel as they attempt to appease the growing anger among the left of the Democratic Party over America’s support for the war against Hamas. According to a report from Axios, the decision to put a hold on the ammunition shipment caused panic among the Israeli security services and is intended to prevent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from proceeding with an invasion of Rafah. Axios notes: The Biden administration last week put a hold on a shipment of U.S.-made ammunition to Israel, two Israeli officials told Axios. It is the first time...

Court documents showed Kandic had multiple responsibilities, including recruiting foreign fighters (ISIS photo) On January 4, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) called for worldwide targeting of Jews and Christians, which it later claimed resulted in 610 people wounded or killed in 110 attacks across 12 countries. Avril D. Haines, the Director of National Intelligence, told a Senate panel, “The threat from ISIS remains a significant counterterrorism concern,” while noting that the majority of its attacks have been carried out by “parts of ISIS that are outside of Afghanistan.” The main body of ISIS is active in Turkey,...

Armed groups in Gaza, including one with presumed Hamas links, last month robbed the Bank of Palestine of some $70 million, French daily Le Monde reported Saturday. The funds were taken from the vaults of several branches of the bank, it said, citing a Bank of Palestine document sent to “certain international partners” detailing the robberies. On April 16, staff discovered a hole in the ceiling of the safe deposit room at one of the bank’s Gaza branches and found that some $3 million worth of Israeli shekels destined for cash dispensers were missing, Le Monde said. The next day,...

The Democratic Party is bracing for massive protests during the Democratic National Convention, comparing it to another chaotic event from the 1968 convention. As pro-Hamas protests continue to rage through college campuses due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, concerns that similar protests will occur during the DNC convention this August in Chicago. Former President Barack Obama’s chief of staff William Daley told the Washington Post that the chaotic college protests that have occurred in the past week have “taken the demonstrations to a different level.” “It portends that you have the potential for big demonstrations. Whether they get violent —...

As many universities and colleges around the nation are preparing for summer break and commencement ceremonies, anti-Israel protesters show no signs of giving up. Several protesters told Politico they were not going to give up, even with summer approaching and as several anti-Israel encampments on university campuses have been cleared, adding there is “nothing that will deter” them from continuing to protest as the war between Israel and Hamas continues. “There is a genocide going on in Gaza and there’s nothing that will deter us from doing everything we can do end it,” Ryan Mersol-Gard, a senior at the University...

Three things are certain: antisemitism is on the rise; hatred of Muslims is increasing; and everyone – but especially those at universities with time to reflect – should be very, very troubled by this. Without taking account of the hate waves, it is impossible to understand why the seemingly mundane act of pitching a tent on campus has become so high stakes: is it announcing a desire to annihilate Israel, or is it a perfectly legitimate way to protest against particular US (and university) policies

The High Speed Rail Authority shared an update on the Fresno River Viaduct .. They were widely mocked with Elon Musk and Billy Markus piling in .. California has been mercilessly mocked for boasting about completing the 'world's most pointless crossing' to nowhere at a cost of $11billion. The California High Speed Rail Authority shared an update on the Fresno River Viaduct in Madera County last week, proudly saying it was one of the 'first completed high-speed rail structures'. The Tweet did not get the reaction officials were hoping for with Elon Musk and Dogecoin creator Billy Markus piling in...

Israel has ordered the closure of Al Jazeera in the country, a move the Qatar-based news network called a “criminal act.” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a post on X: “The government headed by me unanimously decided: the incitement channel Al Jazeera will be closed in Israel.” Ofir Gendelman, the prime minister’s spokesperson to the Arab world, said Sunday that the decision would be “implemented immediately.” In a post on X, Gendelman said that the network’s “broadcast equipment will be confiscated, the channel’s correspondents will be prevented from working, the channel will be removed from cable and satellite...

The Talk Shows May 5th, 2024 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows:FACE THE NATION (CBS): Margaret Brennan anchors: Gov. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.), author of "No Going Back: The Truth on What's Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward."; Jordan's Queen Raina; Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.: and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Anchor Shannon Bream: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee; Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee; Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) and USA Today's Susan Page, author of "The Rulebreaker:...

Donald Trump has called for Special Counsel Jack Smith to be arrested after the prosecutor's team said some evidence in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case are no longer in their "original, intact" form. In a post on Truth Social, the former president demanded "ARREST DERANGED JACK SMITH. HE IS A CRIMINAL!" after federal prosecutors wrote in court filings that there are some boxes where the "order of items within that box is not the same" as they appear in digital scans of materials in the wake of the FBI retrieving them from Trump's Florida resort in August 2022. Smith's office...

On Friday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “The Hill,” White House Senior Adviser Gene Sperling discussed the recent jobs report and stated that things are “not good enough, because people are still facing too high costs in their family and personal lives. But in terms of the job market, yes, this is steady, sustainable job growth, better than even a soft landing. It’s a very steady and strong landing.”

Sinister pro-Hamas flyers have emerged on the NYU campus amid fears over rampant anti-Semitism and threatening behavior at demonstrations. Posters declaring 'Death to America' and 'Long live the intifada' have been plastered around the Manhattan college's Gaza encampment, days after over 100 protestors were arrested in furious clashes with the NYPD. The police force shared images of the fliers on Friday, noting the 'inflammatory literature and signage' observed at the 'illegal encampment.'

For Jews in America and around the world, Israel represents a thriving land of survival and opportunity, and not only for my people. Nowhere else in the Middle East are those of all races, religions, sexes and sexual orientations welcome to live in peace and prosperity. Now the dream is dying — thwarted by people who’d like nothing better than to see Israel wiped from the map. It’s a sad day across the United States and abroad as whiny, privileged college students and thrill-seeking provocateurs, egged on by leftist professors, the “mainstream” news media and numbskull politicians, foment pro-terrorist, anti-Jewish...

Actor Robert De Niro said Thursday on MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour” that former President Donald Trump’s rise was like that of Adolf Hitler’s in 1930s Germany. De Niro said, “He is sick, he is genuinely a sick person that somehow has been allowed into our system. I’m not calling him names, he just can’t be anywhere near the office of the presidency.” He continued, “I don’t understand it. I don’t I don’t think they understand how dangerous it will be if he ever, God forbid, becomes president. I don’t think they really understand. And historically, from what I see, even...

Former President Donald Trump has laid out the most concrete timeline yet for when he might select his running mate for the 2024 Republican ticket. “I’ll be picking, but probably not too much before the convention, which I happen to be having in the great state of Wisconsin,” the presumptive GOP nominee told FOX 6 Milwaukee during a campaign visit to the battleground state Wednesday. The Republican National Convention will be held in Milwaukee July 15-18. Traditionally, the vice presidential nominee will address the delegates on the penultimate night of the gathering. A source familiar with the conversation previously told...

The diverse group of names from politics to activists and entertainment include Biden’s 2020 Democratic primary opponents and former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Vice President Al Gore, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Jim Clyburn, Elizabeth Dole and recent Biden Climate Envoy and former Sec. of State John Kerry. The “grandmother of Juneteenth,” Opal Lee, and Judy Shepard, the mother of Matthew Shepard who was abducted and brutally killed in 1998 because he was gay will also be honored.

<p>The case blew up in their faces yesterday. Michael Cohen nailed for perjury by the prosecution’s own witness. Update, some observations. President Trump will be appealing the illegal gag order on constitutional grounds. Gag orders are normally applied to the prosecution to avoid tainting the jury pool. It’s never intended to be used against the defendant. The prosecution by definition doesn’t need protection — the defendant does. The case may never reach the jury. Another thing. SCOTUS’s pending ruling on immunity (June) may factor into this. The alleged falsification of business records ALL took place AFTER Trump became president. An evidentiary hearing to sort what may have been executive vs personal actions would be in order. This another reason this trial should not have move forward before all the constitutional challenges were settled. The statute of limitations on the alleged records falsification has already expired. So they turned an expired misdemeanor case into a felony by alleging that the falsification was in furtherance of another crime — a state election fraud law that doesn’t even apply to this case since Trump was a federal candidate. Harvey Weinstein’s conviction was overturned for similar abuses of discretion by prosecutors in that case. They prejudiced the jury by hauling into the courtroom all kinds of stuff having no connection to the case at hand. Hope Hicks. She’s regurgitating stuff we already knew. Airing dirty laundry, nothing more. Still no crime. She wasn’t in the room during the supposed Pecker-Trump meeting in August, 2015. Which wouldn’t have been a crime either. This is the most laughable cause I’ve ever witnessed. Colangelo & co are making all the same mistakes the Weinstein prosecutors made. They’re trying to prejudice the jury by bringing in all this extraneous stuff to create the air of criminality.</p>