Free Republic

Nicaraguan prosecutors charged three U.S. citizens and 11 Nicaraguans with money laundering. | Mountain Gateway Ministries/ADF InternationalThe Nicaraguan judiciary has convicted 11 Nicaraguan pastors linked to the U.S.-based Mountain Gateway ministry on charges of money laundering. The case, which has caused great controversy in the Central American country and throughout the region, also implicates three U.S. citizens who have not yet been arrested, according to the prosecutor's office.The charges relate to an alleged money laundering network that operated through wire transfers from the U.S. to Nicaragua. The charges came just weeks after the ministry held a series of massive evangelistic...

The Supreme Court let stand former Hunter Biden business associate Devon Archer’s criminal conviction Monday, rejecting for a second time Archer’s bid to avoid prison. In 2018, a federal jury convicted Archer and several others on charges of defrauding a Native American tribe by fraudulently issuing and selling more than $60 million of tribal bonds. In a brief order without explanation, as is typical, the Supreme Court declined to take up Archer’s appeal. The president’s son is not implicated in the case, but Archer has become a key figure in House Republicans’ investigation into Biden’s business dealings. Archer last summer...

Below is a longer version of my column in the New York Post on the leaking of the interviews of former counsel to Donald Trump.The interviews could magnify the difficulties for both Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Special Counsel Jack Smith in their respective prosecutions. These cases still represent a serious threat to Trump, but these prosecutors must first overcome a glaring potential contradiction. That does not mean that Christie and the other candidates will not get a “Spring Break” with a conviction, but it could prove more challenging even with highly favorable jury pools.Here is the column:This...

During an interview airing on CBS Evening News, Florida’s Governor was blunt about former President Donald Trump’s chances — or lack thereof — of winning the presidency if convicted in any of his upcoming trials. “I think the chance of getting elected President after being convicted of a felony is as close to zero as you can get,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis. “I didn’t think even before all this, that the former President should have run again. I mean, I think that there’s too many voters (for whom) he’s a deal breaker for them,” DeSantis told Norah O’Donnell. The comments...

John Bolton, during a recent appearance on CNN, argued that Republicans should not back former President Donald Trump in 2024, as he could be a “convicted felon” by the 2024 Republican primary convention, and it would look bad for the Republican Party. Bolton, who is anti-Trump but served as Trump’s national security adviser, said he would ask Republican voters, “Do you really want to vote for Donald Trump even if you don’t mind voting for a convicted felon for President?”

The decision by the Department of Justice to charge Hunter Biden for two mere misdemeanors for massive tax evasion linked to the foreign payoffs he took, and put him in a "diversion program" with dismissal likely for lying about his drug use and possible drug distribution activies on his gun ownership application drives home to most Americans that we have a two-tier justice system. It's not just in striking contrast to the cascade of charges being leveled at President Trump on questionable matters as he seeks to re-run for office. It's that any one of us, faced with the same...

If former president Donald Trump’s case ever makes it to court, federal prosecutors will use his own words against him — spoken on national TV to Fox News host Bret Baier on Monday. I’m not a lawyer. I don’t even play one on internet video. So when it comes to stories like this one, there are a few people I turn to for sharp analysis and good advice. On the surface at least, what Trump said could cause him trouble in court. When Baier asked, “Why not just hand [the documents] over then?” Trump replied, “Because I had boxes —...

This one might surprise you. The findings of a new survey revealed that a significant number of Democratic voters would support the next president issuing a pardon for former President Donald Trump if he is convicted by the Justice Department.A majority of voters, as revealed in a survey by Harvard-Harris, believe that former President Donald Trump should be pardoned if he is convicted and sentenced to jail for mishandling classified documents. The poll showed that 53 percent of respondents were in favor of a potential presidential pardon, while 47 percent were against it. The issue of pardoning Trump is largely...

Below is my column in the Messenger on the odds of Trump going to jail (as opposed to being convicted) and an interesting option for President Joe Biden: pledge to commute Trump’s sentence.Here is the column:“Can you give me the odds?” The question from a foreign correspondent this week was blunt but understandable. Legal analysts often are asked to give the percentages on a case’s outcome or conviction. This reporter wanted the odds on Trump being convicted. As in the past, I declined to offer a spread. For most of us, convictions are what gamblers call “off the board” bets;...

Donald Trump may indeed be guilty of the charges for which he was indicted last week…or maybe not. He may even end up being convicted. Regardless, assuming he’s on the ballot, I’ll vote for him, even if he’s dressed in stripes and sitting in a jail cell.Why? Not because I don’t take seriously handling classified records or trying to “obstruct” the Justice Department. Both are serious. But even if Trump were guilty of both, even if he violated the letter and the spirit of the law, those violations are nothing compared to the federal government weaponization we’ve observed over the...

Former President Donald Trump has declared his intention to run for the White House in 2024, even if convicted. Trump faces 37 counts related to documents seized from the infamous raid at Mar-a-Lago last August. Trump maintains his innocence, and calls the federal case a “boxes hoax” and a “witch hunt.” The former President made two campaign stops, giving 90-minute speeches in both Georgia and North Carolina on Saturday. Trump’s supporters lined the side of the highway running parallel to the runway at the airport in Columbus, Ga., where Trump’s jet would be touching down, while others, including Georgia Congresswoman...

Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis Police Officer convicted in the murder of George Floyd, is appealing his case to the Minnesota Supreme Court. Chauvin’s lawyer, William Mohrman, on Wednesday filed a petition for review with the state’s highest court, arguing that the district judge’s decision not to move the proceedings out of the city deprived his client of a fair trial. The petition comes a month after the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld Chauvin’s conviction for second-degree murder and let his 22-1/2-year sentence remain in place. Morhman had unsuccessfully asked the appeals court to throw out the ex-officer’s conviction for...

Afederal jury found a Hardin, Montana man guilty of selling eagle feathers in South Dakota Tuesday. The jury found that Harvey Hugs, 59, is guilty of three counts of violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act in 2020 after a two-day trial at the federal courthouse in Rapid City. The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act was enacted in 1940. The act prohibits the possession, use and sale of eagles or their feathers and parts. Exceptions to the act include the use of eagles by Native Americans. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service operates the National Eagle Repository as...

There was meth-od to this Florida man’s madness. Jason Hardy will spend 10 years in prison after getting caught trying to mail meth to himself. He pleaded guilty and received his sentence Monday, the Justice Department said in a press release. Hardy put his real Florida address on the package and used his real name, real phone number and real email address in conversations with the U.S. Postal Service, the feds said. According to investigators, Hardy was plotting to send 18 pounds of meth from California to Florida, and he even flew out to the West Coast to coordinate delivery....

Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Friday on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” that the audio New York Times reporters Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin released of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) telling Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) that he would recommend to then-President Donald Trump he should resign revealed Cheney to be “a person of great courage and conviction.”

Kim Foxx, the Cook County prosecutor who nearly let disgraced actor Jussie Smollett walk scot-free, now says his criminal conviction and subsequent sentencing was an example of “mob justice.” In early 2019, the Empire actor claimed he fell victim to a hate crime on a cold winter’s night in Chicago at the hands of two men who derided him with homophobic slurs while yelling “this is MAGA country” as they tied a noose around his neck. Many in the media took Smollett’s story at face value until evidence revealed that he had hired two brothers from Nigeria to stage the...

On Wednesday, November 24, 2021, Travis McMichael, 35; Gregory McMichael, 65; and William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, were found guilty for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. On February 23, 2020, Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was out for a jog in a suburb outside of Brunswick, Georgia, when he stopped to look around a house that was under construction. Gregory and Travis, a father and son who lived in another home on that street, saw Arbery and pursued him in their white Ford pickup truck, armed with guns, because they believed he was the suspect of a recent burglary in the...

Once again, our country is facing racial injustice after Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted by claiming “self-defense.” I can’t help but think he would have been convicted if his victims were white. We all know the story of Kyle Rittenhouse. He was filled with white supremacy, so he picked up a machine gun, crossed state lines, and then opened fire on peaceful protestors, killing three black men. And those people were there because they were protesting how a black man, Jacob Blake, was murdered by cops while shopping at a candy store, so it’s more racial injustice on top of racial...

Derek Chauvin plans to appeal his conviction and sentence for the murder of George Floyd — arguing the judge abused his discretion in critical points in the case, according to documents filed Thursday. The former Minneapolis police officer said in the court filing that he intends to appeal on 14 grounds. One claim made by Chauvin in the notice to appeal is that Judge Peter Cahill abused his discretion by denying him a request to move the trial out of Hennepin County because of pretrial publicity.

A Chinese court convicted Canadian businessman Michael Spavor of espionage on Wednesday and sentenced him to 11 years in prison, in a case seen in Ottawa and Washington as part of a wider diplomatic spat with Beijing.His sentencing comes as lawyers in Canada representing the chief financial officer of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei make a final push to convince a court there not to extradite her to the United States.The Dandong Intermediate Court also said 50,000 yuan of Spavor’s personal assets will be confiscated and he will be deported, although it was not clear when. Beijing-based lawyer Mo Shaoping told...