Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Delaware man who threatened a Black police officer with a pole attached to a Confederate battle flag as he stormed the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Thursday to three years in prison. Kevin Seefried, 53, tearfully apologized for his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot before U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden sentenced him. McFadden said it was deeply troubling that Seefried wielded the flagpole as a weapon against the officer. “Bringing a Confederate flag into one of our nation’s most sacred halls was outrageous,” the judge said. McFadden allowed Seefried to remain free until he...

A federal judge has overruled prosecutors and sided with a Jan. 6 defendant by refusing to hand down a prison sentence during sentencing. U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden showed compassion for Nicholas Rodean of Frederick, Maryland. McFadden ruled that Rodean, who suffers from Aspergers, will not have to do years in prison and sentenced him to 240 days of home confinement and 5 years of probation. Washington Post reporter Tom Jackman detailed what happened in the court: “Just watched an amazing sentencing of Jan. 6 defendant Nicholas Rodean, who is on the autism spectrum with Asperger’s Syndrome. “He smashed...

One of the most prominent points made by supporters of the political prisoners arrested following the mostly peaceful protest at the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, is that tons of video evidence shows law enforcement officers ushering in the protesters. If these people were breaking the law, doesn’t that mean the police were breaking it with them by pulling down the barricades, opening the doors, and ushering them in? Are we not supposed to listen to the instructions of law enforcement? This premise was tested with glorious results for January 6 defendant Matthew Martin. According to Sean Davis: This...

A federal judge on March 18 blocked a Washington, D.C., law that allowed children in the nation’s capital to receive a vaccine without parental consent.The parents who sued over the law appear likely to succeed in proving claims that the law violates federal statutes and will be irreparably harmed if a preliminary injunction weren’t entered, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden wrote in a 38-page opinion.The D.C. Council passed the District’s Minor Consent for Vaccinations Amendment Act in 2020. It lets children as young as 11 get a vaccine without permission from their parents.But the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of...

A Trump-appointed federal judge threw out a lawsuit from the 45th president late Tuesday that sought to prevent House lawmakers from obtaining his tax returns. US District Judge Trevor McFadden ruled that the House Ways and Means Committee has broad authority to obtain and potentially publish the former president’s tax returns — and described Trump’s claims as “wrong on the law.” “A long line of Supreme Court cases requires great deference to facially valid congressional inquires,” McFadden wrote in his ruling, according to the Associated Press. “Even the special solicitude accorded former presidents does not alter the outcome.” McFadden stayed...

A federal judge on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit filed by former President Donald Trump, who was trying to block the release of his taxes to Congress. In his ruling, Judge Trevor McFadden deferred to the need for Congress to carry out "facially valid inquiries." "A long line of Supreme Court cases requires great deference to facially valid congressional inquiries," wrote McFadden. "Even the special solicitude accorded former Presidents does not alter the outcome. The Court will therefore dismiss this case." The lawsuit brought by the former president stems from a 2019 request issued by the House Ways and Means...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rejecting the recommendation of prosecutors, a federal judge sentenced a Jan. 6 rioter to probation on Friday and suggested that the Justice Department was being too hard on those who broke into the Capitol compared to the people arrested during anti-racism protests following George Floyd’s murder. U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden questioned why federal prosecutors had not brought more cases against those accused in 2020 summertime protests, reading out statistics on riot cases in the nation’s capital that were not prosecuted. “I think the U.S. attorney would have more credibility if it was even-handed in its...

A federal judge ordered the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to release additional information about its purchases of organs harvested from aborted human fetuses, according to a statement issued by Judicial Watch on Monday. Two agencies under the HHS, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), both purchased organs from California-based Advanced Biosciences Resources (ABR) to use in HIV research. ABR partners with Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers to dismember fetuses and sell their parts for research. Judicial Watch initially filed a lawsuit in March 2019 after HHS failed to...

A federal judge granted Capitol Hill Baptist Church’s request for a preliminary injunction against Mayor Muriel Bowser allowing the congregation to resume worship services in the District of Columbia. “The Court determines that the church is likely to succeed in proving that the District’s actions violate [the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993] RFRA,” wrote U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Trevor McFadden in a decision late Friday. “The District’s current restrictions substantially burden the church’s exercise of religion. More, the District has failed to offer evidence at this stage showing that it has a compelling interest...

A D.C. church that filed suit against the District of Columbia has won injunctive relief from a federal judge and can begin holding church services in the city again. Capitol Hill Baptist Church sued after twice being denied permission from the city to hold outdoor church services during the pandemic. While the lawsuit has not been decided, the judge’s decision in the case states that the church “is likely to succeed” in proving the District had hindered the church in holding services in violation of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

WASHINGTON – Deallto McQuil Key Davis, 25, of Maryland, pled guilty today to conspiring to defraud Wells Fargo Bank out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Michael R. Sherwin and James A. Dawson, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Washington Field Office Criminal Division.            Davis pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The charge carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Davis faces...

A federal judge on Friday issued a stay of House Democrats' lawsuit aimed at obtaining President Trump's tax returns, after an appeals court agreed to rehear a different case that touches on some of the same legal issues. Judge Trevor McFadden, a federal district court judge in Washington, D.C., and a Trump appointee, said in a court filing that the tax-return case is on hold "pending further order of this Court." McFadden had initially put the case on hold in January, until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in a separate lawsuit over House Democrats' subpoena...

A U.S. District Court judge ordered the Navy to start releasing unclassified documents related to the sinking of USS Thresher (SSN-593), 57 years after 129 officers, sailors and shipbuilders died in the nation’s worst nuclear submarine disaster. Retired Navy Capt. James Bryant, a former Thresher-class submarine commander, sued the Navy in July to force the release of unclassified investigation documents detailing Thresher‘s operation during its final dive. The Navy previously rebuffed Bryant’s request for records under the Freedom of Information Act. During a Monday court hearing, Judge Trevor McFadden ordered the Navy to start releasing the requested material. Bryant, while...

A federal judge in Washington on Monday denied a request by House Democrats to block President Donald Trump from transferring funds from appropriated accounts to construct his wall. Judge Trevor McFadden said the House lacks standing to bring the challenge and also he does not believe the court should step into the fight between the President and Congress. "The Court declines to take sides in this fight between the House and the President," McFadden wrote.

Three men were charged in an indictment returned Nov. 27 for their roles in a scheme to defraud U.S. Military contracts in Afghanistan, engaging in illegal commerce in Iran, and laundering money internationally. Their conduct was in connection to two multi-million dollar contracts to provide supplies and logistical support to U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Special Agent in Charge Patrick J. Lechleitner of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C. and Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John F. Sopko made the announcement. Abul...

A district court judge on Friday postponed issuing a ruling on former FBI Director James Comey’s effort to quash a GOP-issued subpoena. Judge Trevor McFadden gave the two sides the weekend to provide additional information about their arguments. The court will reconvene Monday at 10 a.m. for a ruling. Comey on Thursday sought to quash the subpoena for closed-door testimony, arguing that House Republicans would seek to “peddle a distorted, partisan political narrative about the Clinton and Russia investigations through selective leaks” if he was not interviewed in public. Comey’s attorneys Vincent Cohen and David Kelley argued in the motion...

A federal judge in Washington, D.C. has recused herself from a second case involving Trump dossier firm Fusion GPS. Tanya S. Chutkan, an Obama appointee, recused herself on Monday from a case involving a dispute over subpoenas issued for Fusion GPS, the firm that commissioned the dossier. Aleksej Gubarev, a Russian tech executive accused in the dossier of hacking Democrats’ computer systems, has sought to subpoena Fusion GPS records and to depose its employees to find out more about the research firm’s work on the dossier. Gubarev is suing BuzzFeed for defamation for publishing the dossier earlier this year. He...

The Senate has confirmed another of President Donald Trump's judicial nominees. The Senate by a vote of 84-10 confirmed Trevor McFadden of Virginia to serve as a judge on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. McFadden has served in the Trump administration as a deputy assistant attorney general. He is the ninth judicial nominee of Trump's presidency to win confirmation. The Senate will next turn its attention to the appellate courts. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has teed up votes this week for four more judicial nominees.