Free Republic

Hunter Biden's attorney has spoken out to slam the tax evasion charges against the president's son, claiming that nobody similarly situated would be criminally charged. 'Where's the fairness, justice and decency in this?' attorney Abbe Lowell said in an interview with CNN on Friday, after Hunter was hit with nine new charges carrying a penalty of up to 17 years in prison. The 56-page indictment filed by Special Counsel David Weiss accuses Hunter of scheming to avoid $1.4 million in taxes he owed from 2016 through 2019, while spending lavishly on drugs, prostitutes, and an extravagant lifestyle. 'The charges in...

Hunter Biden faces 42 years in federal prison for nine tax and three gun charges filed by special counsel David Weiss. Per Weiss’ indictments: Weiss charged Hunter Biden on Thursday, asserting he was “engaged in a four-year scheme” to not pay at least $1.4 million in taxes “he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019 and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns.” “If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 17 years in prison,” the Department of Justice wrote regarding the tax indictment. “Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less...

This is one of those infuriating stories that remind us of how libertine persuasions in Western Europe have led to permissive criminal justice systems that have steadily been infecting the United States in recent decades. There’s really no comfort to be taken by pointing out that it happened in Germany because it shouldn’t be happening anywhere. Three years ago, a 15-year-old girl was attending a party in Hamburg, Germany when she was dragged outside into the bushes and gang raped by eleven men. All eleven were identified and later detained. Two of the men were somehow acquitted, but the other...

Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, was stabbed by another inmate and seriously injured Friday at a federal prison in Arizona, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The attack happened at the Federal Correctional Institution, Tucson, a medium-security prison that has been plagued by security lapses and staffing shortages. The person was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the attack and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity. The Bureau of Prisons confirmed that an incarcerated person was assaulted at FCI Tucson at around 12:30 p.m. local...

A San Francisco venture capitalist who was once dubbed 'Silicon Valley's Party Animal' has been convicted of fraud totalling $19 million - and now faces up to 60 years in prison. Michael Brent Rothenberg, who was raised in a Jehovah's Witness family in Georgetown, Texas, used his dense network of successful Ivy League friends to set up his own VC fund in 2012 based on the strategy of throwing opulent parties. He rubbed shoulders with Mark Zuckerberg, rented out baseball stadiums for networking events, and threw all-day-and-night parties in a bid to attract investors and companies to invest in. This...

An Italian man who was serving 30 years in prison for murdering his girlfriend was recently released from prison because judges ruled that prison food didn’t allow him to go on a diet behind bars. In 2017, Dimitri Fricano was arrested for killing his girlfriend, Erika, during a heated argument, while they were vacationing in Sardinia. He originally told police that robbers had attacked and killed his partner, but as investigators found more and more holes in his story, he eventually admitted that he had been the one to stab her 57 times. Apparently, she had scolded him for leaving...

World-renowned author J.K. Rowling said she'd rather go to prison for two years than repeat the lie that “trans women are women.” Rowling, a British fiction writer who gained international fame and notoriety for authoring the seven-book Harry Potter series, took to X last week to react to a picture of a message projected on the exterior wall of a building that read: “Repeat After Us: Trans Women Are Women.”Rowling shared the photograph, with a caption declaring: “No.”No. pic.twitter.com/YhoHfKdeat— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 17, 2023Musician Scott Spalding replied to Rowling’s post with the comment, “Vote Labour, get a two-year stretch!”His...

WASECA, Minn. — The nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization filed a lawsuit last week against the federal women’s prison in Waseca for violating the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) complaint against the prison requests declaratory and injunctive relief for an incarcerated Somali-American Muslim woman who was photographed after her hijab was removed, then forced to carry that photo on her ID card. “Mrs. (Muna) Jama was often threatened if she did not comply with orders to remove her hijab — including threats to cut off her communication with her children,” CAIR legal...

A Swiss writer has been fined and sentenced to 60 days in prison for a speech crime that's made international headlines. While Alain Bonnet is a controversial figure, in this instance, he was sentenced for defamation, discrimination, and incitement to hatred for calling journalist Catherine Macherel a “fat lesbian” in a Facebook video two years ago, Fox News Digital reports. This won’t be the first time he’s served a prison sentence. He was previously jailed in France over his Holocaust denials, a crime in the country. The Franco-Swiss writer had initially been convicted of defamation at the first instance in...

The Swedish government is rushing to prepare the public for expanded police use of biometric systems including those monitoring from traffic stanchions and drones. Gang violence that includes firearms and explosives has pushed the government and a far-Right conservative party to examine the proposed surveillance change in a fast-tracked inquiry, according to local reports. The nation’s justice minister this week said the inquiry will be completed in half the usual time for such a body. A finding could be published by spring. Government inquiries generally are used to bury a topic or to show the public an action has been...

A Portland man who had previously had a prison sentence commuted by former president Barack Obama is going back to prison. The man received an extra 25-year prison sentence this week for various drug and gun crimes. Dontae Lamont Hunt, 42, received a 300-month federal prison sentence and five years of supervised release for “dealing counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl analog, money laundering, and unlawfully possessing firearms, all while on supervised release from his last federal conviction,” according to a press release from the United States Attorney for the District of Oregon. Hunt must also pay $60,000 to satisfy a...

While lawmakers on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. debate sending billions more in military aid to Ukraine, an American citizen journalist, Gonzalo Lira, is languishing in a Ukrainian prison on allegations of spreading Russian propaganda, throwing into question the status of free speech in the supposed democracy the Biden administration argues is worthy of more taxpayer dollars. The Biden administration is asking Congress to approve another $24 billion for Ukraine for now through the end of this year, which would add to the $113 billion that Congress has committed to the country since its war with Russia began in February...

A suspected serial killer’s life came to a violent end when a cellmate attacked and killed 50-year-old Billy Chemirmir, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced. “The victim’s cellmate, who is serving a sentence for murder out of Dallas County, was identified as the assailant,” Director of Communications Amanda Hernandez said. “The Office of Inspector General is investigating.” ***Chemirmir faced a total of 22 murder cases in the court system; there are also two alleged attempted murders. Authorities said he preyed on elderly women, making his way into their homes by pretending to be a maintenance or health care worker....

BISHOPVILLE, SC (WIS) — Investigators raided a local South Carolina prison last week, after finding a contraband cell phone with child pornography. But the targets of this prison search, weren’t the inmates By the time investigators left, evidence bags were loaded with narcotics, shivs capable of killing, and cell phones that could unravel prison safety. And two correctional officers were taken out in handcuffs. It was a crackdown long in the making on the Lee Correctional Institution that has seen about 620 contraband cell phones identified and shut down in a month, according to officials. The South Carolina Department of...

Former President Donald Trump “must die in prison” to “protect the Democratic Republic,” according to MSNBC Columnist Dean Obeidallah, who claimed he is “passionate” about the matter “with every fiber” of his being. While conversing with Mediaite Reporter Tommy Christopher about the media’s portrayal of the advanced ages of the two primary presidential contenders on his eponymous show Friday, the left-wing commentator and SiriusXM radio host argued that Trump “must die in prison.”

A fugitive who escaped from a Pennsylvania prison just days after being sentenced to life without parole in the fatal stabbing of his ex-girlfriend was captured early Wednesday, Pennsylvania State Police said. Details on the capture have not yet been revealed. Police have scheduled a press conference for 9:30 a.m. The end of the 14-day manhunt for 34-year-old Danelo Cavalcante came as a relief to residents of Pocopson Township, Pennsylvania, who had been advised by officials to stay alert. Several schools within the area also briefly canceled classes amid the search for the convicted murderer. Officials said Tuesday that Cavalcante...

Minnesota’s Stillwater Prison reportedly went into emergency lockdown after about 100 inmates took over a section of the facility. According to reports, the inmates refused to return to their cells Sunday while facing high temperatures. A Minnesota Department of Corrections spokesperson said the reason inmates “are refusing to return to their cells remains unclear.”

In 2002, Jonathan Richardson was sentenced to 55 years in prison for killing his 11-month-old stepdaughter. He now claims to be a transgender named Autumn Cordellione and wants the state to fund the "sex reassignment" surgery that Indiana law prohibits the Department of Corrections from providing. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing Indiana on Richardson's behalf. ACLU spokesman Bertram Petty asserted that "while Autumn admitted to strangling 'the little f**king bitch' back in 2001, that doesn't mean she forfeits her constitutional rights. If it weren't for the misfortune of being born male, she wouldn't have been forced into...

A murderer who killed a preacher's wife in 1988 is set to become the first death row inmate in America to be executed with nitrogen. Alabama officials want to put Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, to death by nitrogen hypoxia - forcing him to breathe only nitrogen, depriving them of oxygen and causing them to die. Several states have authorized the method, which is said to be painless, but it has still never been used. Critics have said authorities would be 'experimenting with a never before used method - but even Smith has said he would prefer death by nitrogen to...

Donald Trump’s old tweets are coming back to haunt him. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis highlighted a dozen of the former president’s posts on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, in her sweeping 2020 election racketeering case against him. The tweets were showcased in a section of the 13-count indictment against Trump that outlined 150 instances that played a role in his alleged conspiracy to thwart the 2020 election. Here are the tweets cited in the 98-page document. “Wow! Blockbuster testimony taking place right now in Georgia. Ballot stuffing by Dems when Republicans were forced to leave the...