Free Republic

A federal judge in New York has rejected former President Donald Trump's request to move his hush-money criminal case into federal court. "Trump has failed to show that the conduct charged by the Indictment is for or relating to any act performed by or for the President under color of the official acts of a President," Judge Alvin Hellerstein wrote in his ruling Wednesday. Trump has pleaded not guilty to a 34-count indictment charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election. He...

Michael Cohen claimed he was not reimbursed by Donald Trump or his organization for hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels in a 2018 letter to federal authorities, contradicting his recent grand jury testimony,The bombshell document, exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com, could throw a wrench in the works of prosecutors pursuing criminal charges against Trump over the payments.Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and the star witness in the case over which Trump reportedly faces imminent arrest, claims that Trump got him to pay $130,000 to Daniels to keep her quiet about her alleged affair with the real estate mogul, just days...

A large majority of Americans in a new poll said they find it believable that former President Trump paid adult-film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to keep her from talking about an alleged affair between the two. Seventy percent in the Reuters-Ipsos poll released on Tuesday said they find the allegations at the center of the Manhattan district attorney’s probe into the former president to be very or somewhat believable. While most Democrats — 89 percent — said they found the allegations believable, while 50 percent of Republicans also agreed that the claims against the former president...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) weighed in Monday on Donald Trump’s possible criminal indictment in New York, breaking a two-day long silence on the former president’s claim that he will be arrested this week. Asked about the rumored indictment during an event, DeSantis lambasted Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office is investigating hush money paid to a porn star on Trump’s behalf during his 2016 campaign, calling him a “Soros-funded prosecutor” and accusing him of “weaponizing” his office. “I’ve seen rumors swirl. I have not seen any facts yet, and so I don’t know what’s going to happen,” said...

‘Life, Liberty & Levin’ host Mark Levin says nondisclosure agreements are not ‘hush money,’ and says Democrats are setting a ‘dangerous precedent.’

On this day in 1998, President Bill Clinton settled a sexual harassment lawsuit by making an $850,000 payment. The settlement with Paula Jones, reached without the suit going to trial, heaped fuel on Clinton’s impeachment proceedings by the Republican-controlled House. (He was acquitted in a subsequent Senate trial and completed his term in office.) In the aftermath of the settlement payment, most of which went to Jones’ attorneys, Robert S. Bennett, Clinton’s attorney, maintained that Jones’ claim was baseless, and that Clinton agreed to settle only to end the lawsuit and move on.

The Biden administration is expected to announce in the coming days another package of military assistance for Ukraine, which will follow an $800 million package announced last week. CNN and NBC News reported that the administration was putting together another $800 million weapons package for Ukraine. A congressional source told The Hill that a weapons package was being considered, but that there were no further details.

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg slammed President Donald Trump and Rush Limbaugh at a CNN town hall Tuesday night. Last week, Limbaugh came under fire for making homophobic comments about Buttigieg and his marriage, something he has said he won’t apologize for, according to Limbaugh, because Trump told him not to. But between Limbaugh’s comments and Trump telling the conservative radio host not to apologize, Trump said he’d vote for a gay presidential candidate, and Buttigieg isn’t buying the contradictory stories. Asked if he’d take Trump at his word about voting for a gay candidate, Buttigieg responded, “Well, not if...

President Donald Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, may have been convinced by the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to plead guilty to a supposed violation of campaign finance law, but that doesn’t mean that what happened is actually a federal crime. In fact, neither the Federal Election Commission—which is the independent agency tasked with enforcing the Federal Election Campaign Act—nor its former commissioners would likely agree with the overaggressive view that the Southern District is taking. Indeed, the Southern District’s aggressive stance on this issue might have violated the Justice Department’s own policy....

New York Times reporter Ali Watkins' past tweets are raising eyebrows after revelations she had a three-year romantic relationship with a Senate Intelligence Committee aide now accused by federal prosecutors of leaking sensitive information to journalists, including herself. (Snip) In an April 2013 tweet, Watkins also tweeted about the fictional Netflix television show “House of Cards,” where a young reporter has an affair with an older member of Congress. “I wanted to be Zoe Barnes...until episode 4,” she tweeted. “Sleeping with your source- especially a vindictive congressman? #badlifechoice #HouseofCards”

The Trump-haters, consisting of the Fake News Media-Democratic Party and NeverTrumps, are unhinged and hysterical in their delusion that President Trump committed a crime by paying two women before the election to silence them about his alleged affairs with them. Michael Cohen, represented by Clinton lawyer Lanny Davis, negotiated a plea where Cohen pleaded guilty to eight counts of tax fraud, bank fraud, and campaign law violations.  Cohen didn't pay income tax on over four million dollars from 2012 to 2016. Attorneys not affiliated with the Trump-haters have criticized the Cohen deal negotiated by Clinton lawyer Lanny Davis.  There was no...

Just as the Senate is about to begin President Clinton's impeachment trial in earnest, Mr. Clinton sent $850,000 to Paula Corbin Jones today to settle the sexual misconduct lawsuit that started it all. Clinton Administration officials said a check for $850,000, the amount agreed to in November to settle the case, was being sent by overnight mail to Ms. Jones and her lawyers.

Americans were rightfully outraged when they learned that members of Congress had used taxpayer dollars to pay settlement claims to alleged victims of sexual harassment.They were even more outraged when they saw the numbers. The secret payouts for harassment claims, of which there have been more than 200, amounted to more than $17 million. There's no telling so far how much of that money went to silence sexual assault accusers.Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is seeking to release the names of lawmakers who used this "hush fund." She's a co-sponsor of the Congressional Accountability and Hush Fund Elimination Act, which would...

Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz seemingly planned to pay cyber-probe suspect and IT aide Imran Awan even while he was living in Pakistan, if the FBI hadn’t stopped him from leaving the U.S. Monday. Public statements and congressional payroll records suggest she also appears to have known that his wife, a fellow IT staffer, left the country for good months ago — while she was also a criminal suspect. In all, six months of actions reveal a decision to continue paying a man who seemingly could not have been providing services to her, and who a mountain of evidence suggests...

Clinton family foundation had not donated to hospital before Hillary's stay BY: Joe Schoffstall August 9, 2016 4:15 pm Hillary Clinton kicked $125,000 in donations from her family foundation to a hospital after receiving treatment for a blood clot in 2013, the Washington Free Beacon has discovered. Clinton was discharged from New York Presbyterian Hospital in January 2013 after being treated for a blood clot. Doctors discovered the clot during follow-up treatment for a concussion she sustained weeks earlier after she passed out from dehydration, causing her to fall and hit her head. The New York Times wrote in January...

Despite no proof and lots of denials, the story refuses to die...It’s been a week since the National Enquirer reported that “pervy Ted Cruz” was “caught cheating” with five unnamed women. Cruz and two of the women who have since been identified have vehemently denied the allegations, and no one has presented any evidence. Yet the sordid story has made its mark, even in this sordid campaign season.

Roger Stone said he would expound on this subject on the radio at 7:05 this morning. Here it is.

A woman has filed a lawsuit against a Florida megachurch after it reportedly did not pay her the promised hush money to keep her alleged affair with a pastor a secret. Church member Arlene Miranda filed the suit against Orlando Baptist Church based in Orange County, saying the church failed to pay the agreed $3,000 so she would keep quiet about her alleged affair with Pastor David Janney, 61, married, and the church's president. "They threatened me. If I didn't sign it, they threatened me," Miranda told WFTV. Miranda denied she filed the lawsuit for the money, saying "I committed...

Federal officials have indicted former House Speaker Dennis Hastert for lying to the FBI about $3.5 million he agreed to pay to an undisclosed subject to "cover up past misconduct." The indictment was unsealed in the District Court of Northern Illinois on Thursday. The Justice Department alleges that Hastert made large withdrawals after agreeing to pay the money. The indictment does not explain precisely what the "past misconduct" is, but instead details at length various withdrawals and financial transactions he made with the unidentified subject. The payments totaling about $1.7 million occurred over a period of years beginning in 2010...

Want to influence a casino bid? Polish your corporate image? Not be labeled a racist? Then you need to pay Al Sharpton. For more than a decade, corporations have shelled out thousands of dollars in donations and consulting fees to Sharpton’s National Action Network. What they get in return is the reverend’s supposed sway in the black community or, more often, his silence. Sony Pictures co-chair Amy Pascal met with the activist preacher after leaked e-mails showed her making racially charged comments about President Obama. Pascal was under siege after a suspected North Korean cyber attack pressured the studio to...