Free Republic

FIFTH ANTIPHON O ORIENS, splendor lucis æternæ, et sol justiæ; veni et illumina sedentes in tenebris, et umbra mortis. O ORIENT! splendor of eternal light, and Sun of Justice! come and enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death. O JESUS, divine Sun! thou art coming to snatch us from eternal night: blessed forever be thy infinite goodness! But thou puttest our faith to the test, before showing thyself in all thy brightness. Thou hidest thy rays, until the time decreed by thy heavenly Father comes, in which all thy beauty will break upon the...

White Semidouble LET US CONTEMPLATE the sentiments of profound respect and maternal tenderness, which fill the soul of our Blessed Lady, now that she has conceived Jesus in her chaste womb: he is her God, and yet he is her Son. Let us think upon this wonderful dignity bestowed upon a creature; and let us honor the Mother of our God. It was by this mystery that was fulfilled the prophecy of Isaias: Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son; and that of Jeremias: The Lord hath created a new thing upon the earth; a Woman shall...

Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson struck a deal on Wednesday to testify voluntarily before the House Intelligence Committee next week to discuss his opposition research firm’s involvement in the Steele dossier. Simpson and his lawyer met with members of the committee for several hours to hammer out a deal for his closed-door testimony. The Daily Caller was informed that Simpson had indicated prior to Wednesday’s meeting that he would plead the Fifth during his deposition, just as his two co-founders, Peter Fritsch and Thomas Catan, did during interviews last month. But as part of the deal struck Wednesday, Simpson will...

White Double And the spirit and the Bride say: Come! And he that heareth, let him say: Come! —Surely I come quickly: Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. While we honor the Church triumphant with our chants, and succor the Church suffering with our prayers, let us also turn our thoughts to the Church militant, during these days when the closing cycle presents her to us as about to complete her work on earth. Now the Church is our model; but especially at the close of our pilgrimage ought we to made her attitude our own. The above-cited dialogue, which will...

Gov. Jerry Brown and state politicians will receive a 3 percent pay hike starting in December, their fifth raise in as many years as California’s budget picture continues to improve. The raises, approved Monday by the California Citizens Compensation Commission, come on top the 4 percent salary increases that kicked in late last year. Brown’s pay will climb from $190,102 to $195,805, while rank-and-file lawmakers will go from $104,117 to $107,240. Salaries for other statewide politicians like Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Treasurer John Chiang also will rise. The raises, which came amid five years of...

Disclosures that the aide who set up Hillary Clinton’s private email server has refused to cooperate with investigators on Fifth Amendment grounds mark an ominous new turn for the Democratic presidential frontrunner as she fights allegations she mishandled classified information while secretary of state. One former Republican U.S. attorney predicted Thursday that the development will compel the Justice Department to set aside the FBI’s limited inquiry into whether Clinton’s emails breached national security, empanel a federal grand jury and conduct a criminal investigation. “Obviously, if he’s not going to cooperate, all of these people who were on her email are...

A former aide to Hillary Clinton who helped set up her private email server has told at least three congressional committees that he will invoke the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying against his former boss, Fox News has confirmed. Bryan Pagliano, who worked on Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign before helping install the so-called "homebrew" server system in her Chappaqua, N.Y. home, was asked to testify about the server by the House Select Committee on Benghazi, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

Issues: Does a trial court’s rejection of a non-testifying defendant’s request for a no-adverse-influence instruction during the sentencing phase of a capital punishment trial violate that defendant’s Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when the defendant has pled guilty to all of the alleged crimes and aggravating circumstances? Oral argument: December 11, 2013 Court below: United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

But There’s Not a Smidgen of Corruption. Today Former IRS official took the Fifth Amendment again during a House hearing on the IRS targeting scandal.

The former senior EPA adviser who stole $900,000 from taxpayers while posing as a CIA agent pleaded the Fifth on Tuesday morning — shortly before House members expressed outrage upon learning that he’s still due to get his government pension. John C. Beale invoked his right not to incriminate himself when facing questioning from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, just four days after he pleaded guilty to charges that could bring him three years in prison.“Mr. Beale, do you have a statement?” panel Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) asked during the hearing. “Thank you, Mr. Chairman. No I do...

A fifth U.S. warship steamed toward the eastern Mediterranean on Thursday to join four other cruise missile destroyers poised for strikes on Syria, as U.S. and allied military planning continued for a bombing campaign against Syria. U.S. intelligence agencies, meanwhile, continued to put the finishing touches on an assessment the Obama administration expects will conclusively link Syrian government and military leaders to the deadly nerve agent strike near Damascus Aug. 21. A defense official said the fifth destroyer, the USS Stout, would soon arrive in waters near Syria. The warship is armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles. Other officials familiar with...

Lois Lerner didn’t just take the Fifth. She gave a little speech first saying she had done nothing wrong. That certainly opens her up to some questions, although the extent to which it does is debatable. Imagine the following sequence of questions: 1) Did you do anything wrong? 2) Do you think that it would be wrong to target conservative groups because of their ideology? 3) Did you target conservative groups because of their ideology? Given that Lois Lerner gave an opening statement in which she said that she had not done anything wrong, it would be interesting to see...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: The IRS hearings today, the Issa committee. Folks, yesterday, after the Apple tax hearings at the Senate, I said, "This is all just a game," and I think this thing that happened this morning with Lois Lerner showing up... Issa basically let her get away with it. She's gone. He looked clueless, like didn't know what was going on, didn't know how to deal with this. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Okay, let me tell you what happened today at the IRS hearings. Lois Lerner, who ran the whole kit and caboodle and was... By the way, this was...

Lois Lerner, director of the IRS division that singled out conservative groups, invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to testify at a House oversight hearing on the scandal. Lois Lerner, director of the IRS division that singled out conservative groups, invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to testify at a House oversight hearing on the scandal.

Obammunist lackeys in-effect begging  for a Special Investigation... As widely expected, the IRS' Lois Lerner took the 5th at IRS targeting hearings on The Hill... but not before an arrogant, defiant diatribe about her years of great 'service' she's gifted us all with, not to mention standard Obammunist m.o.- deflect, divert, deny... then playing like she's pure as the driven snow. And this isn't the first time she's testified before Issa's committee... so that struck a couple of the more principled people in the room to ask 'hey, didn't she just forfeit her right to not testify by giving us that little propaganda spiel?...

IRS official Lois Lerner said at hearing today, "I have not done anything wrong." "I have not done anything wrong," she said. "I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations. And I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee."Lerner adds that she invoke her 5th Amendment right and "will not answer any of the questions or testify today":

Lois Lerner, the IRS official who headed the tax-exempt division when the targeting of tea-party groups took place, plans to invoke her Fifth Amendment right to refuse to answer questions before Congress on Wednesday. But Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House oversight committee where Lerner was to appear, has issued a subpoena to Lerner anyway. The subpoena was delivered after the committee received the letter from Lerner's attorney, a committee aide said. Her attorney, William Taylor, said in a letter obtained by National Journal, that Lerner had "not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation" but that...

Tuesday afternoon a bombshell was dropped into the already explosive IRS scandal when it was reported that Lois Lerner, a top IRS official in the non-profit division that paralyzed Tea Party groups with ongoing harassment, would invoke the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer questions during Congressional testimony schedule before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday. The LA Times reports that Lerner will refuse to answer any questions about what she knows about the targeting of conservative groups. She will also refuse to explain why she is refusing to answer questions. Lerner has retained defense attorney William W. Taylor 3rd,...

Today the Prenda Law enterprise encountered an extinction-level event. Faced with a federal judge's demand that they explain their litigation conduct, Prenda Law's attorney principals — and one paralegal — invoked their right to remain silent under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. As a matter of individual prudence, that may have been the right decision. But for the nationwide Prenda Law enterprise, under whatever name or guise or glamour, it spelled doom. -Hail, Hail, The Gang's All Here- The crowd gathered early outside of the courtroom of United States District Judge Otis D. Wright II. As before,...

A fifth person died as a result of the attack on our outpost at Benghazi, say sources familiar with events that took place there on 11 September 2012. "This is not being reported by State or White House," said one source, who has knowledge of events surrounding the attack that killed former SEAL Glen Doherty, computer tech Sean Smith, Ambassador Chris Stevens, and former SEAL Tyrone Woods. The source did not specify whether the fifth person killed was American, nor in what capacity the person worked. "There were people stationed there in a clandestine capacity," the source said. A second...