Free Republic

What do you do when federal government agents manufacture false rumors that you’re a Russian spy? What if they then launch a phony counterintelligence investigation against a US presidential candidate? What do you do when the mainstream media, weirdly allied with corrupt government officials, furthers their lies about you? Or what if the media accuses an innocent high school student of being a racist, selectively editing a video of said teenager to further that falsehood - all because he’s wearing a MAGA hat? What if you are innocent and state prosecutors charge you with second degree murder based on a...

A Sanford judge today ruled that Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi does not have to answer defense attorneys' questions under oath in a mammoth Internet casino gambling case pending in Seminole County. Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. made that ruling this morning.The case involves more than 50 defendants, accused of violating the state's gambling, racketeering and money laundering laws by operating Internet cafes that prosecutors say served as storefront gambling parlors. Each had ties to the non-profit Allied Veterans of the World, a group that provided charity to military veterans but, according to authorities, donated just two percent of its...

The names of the six-member jury panel that acquitted George Zimmerman in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin have been made public for the first time, after a new court order, records show. Circuit Judge Debra Nelson, who had previously ordered the jurors' identifying information be kept confidential, granted access to the names in a ruling March 21.

The State of Florida vs. George Zimmerman was no different. But there was one key player who was both highly visible and oddly inscrutable. Wearing an inevitable muted pantsuit, she sat at the defense table scribbling notes and occasionally whispering to the stoic Zimmerman and lead defense attorney Mark O’Mara. Newspaper cutlines identified the woman with shoulder-length blonde hair as Lorna Truett, co-counsel. Although she never questioned a witness, spoke to a reporter or addressed the jury, she played an integral, behind-the-scenes role in this high-profile, once-in-a-career case. Truett, whose name hangs on the shingle outside the tiny converted house...

Juror B29, also known as “Maddy,” made her first major television appearance with Al Sharpton Tuesday afternoon since she first revealed her face and spoke to ABC News’ Robin Roberts about her conflicted feelings on the George Zimmerman verdict. Maddy offered her reactions to Zimmerman’s recent detainment in connection with a domestic dispute involving his estranged wife and father-in-law. After viewing dashcam video of Zimmerman being put in handcuffs by officers, Maddy told Sharpton, “it hurts a lot,” because she keeps going back and thinking “what could I have done” to change the outcome of the trial. At the same...

It turns out Shellie Zimmerman didn’t lie to prosecutors last year, about her and George’s finances during his bond proceedings, after all–and the case filed against her for alleged perjury is as malicious and full of holes as was the attempted railroading of her husband. Not only that, but the whole reason for charging Shellie, at the time they did, was merely to have it hanging ominously over both of the Zimmermans–to have more grave threat and stress brought upon their family, in addition to the trumped-up 2nd degree murder charge George faced, so prosecutors could bring that much more...

Did you hear about the seventeen-year-old Queens resident, Natasha Martinez, who was stabbed eleven times last week by a black male wearing a white hoodie? Yep, just a few days ago, as this young lady was walking home from her job at Mickey D’s, and right in front of her house, Natasha was jumped by a black dude in a white hoodie and suffered eleven stab wounds -- she is in serious condition. Her state was so grave the doctors at Jamaica Hospital had to remove her spleen and confiscate a vein from her leg and implant it into her...

Recently President Obama offered some much-analyzed comments on the Zimmerman verdict and racism in America. But I believe I could have written his comments far more effectively than did his current advisers. As someone who was born in Africa, grew up as a persecuted Christian, and now pastors a racially-mixed church (where people love one another and love their African-born pastor), I have a different perspective than our current president. This is what I would have said: “Before I begin, I want to be clear—by speaking about racism, I am not attempting to take the nation’s attention away from Benghazi,...

Turn on the TV. This week the "big news" is the birth of a British royal. Even Drudge ran the birth of the Prince of Cambridge at the top of his page, treating it like it was the biggest event out of Europe since D-Day. Maybe the media wanted to change the subject to something pleasant -- or completely unimportant -- but the arrival of Kate and William's baby boy was a timely blessing. It blew George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin and the issue of race in America off the front pages. It even eclipsed President Obama's teleprompter-free speech about the...

Mr. President, history and reality teach us that as racists go, we are, frankly, rank amateurs. And I am sick and tired of Ivy League elites like you and Professor Gates pretending otherwise. What? You think I'm crazy? Look at it this way. If we were worth a damn as racist whites, would we fall all over ourselves everyday to voluntarily watch, cheer for, emulate, take advice from and enrich folks named Tiger and Oprah? Those are, after all, the two people that white racist America has anointed as the top cultural icons in our society. Ever heard about "the...

President Obama rarely misses an opportunity to insert himself into an issue. Last Friday, he appeared in the White House press room to comment on the George Zimmerman verdict. The president said he could have been Trayvon Martin. Not likely, given his private schooling and the way he was fast-tracked to success. The president said the history of African-Americans partially explains the way many black people view the case. He spoke of blacks hearing car doors lock as they cross the street and of white women who clutch their purses tightly when a black person enters an elevator. Then he...

It seems to me that almost every time President Obama talks publicly about race, he stirs things up rather than calms them down. Whether intentional or not, it's unfortunate -- and damaging. It's difficult to express opinions on race that don't conform to the politically correct narrative, because race baiters are always lying in wait to denounce anyone who dissents from their assessment as a bigot. Indeed, many leftists who call for a national dialogue on race routinely brand conservatives as racists -- merely because they are conservative -- even when they remain silent on racially sensitive issues. But understand...

While angry crowds rallied in 100 cities this weekend to protest George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the high-profile Trayvon Martin case, Floridians quietly proved they are satisfied with the trial’s results. A recent poll reveals their approval of the jury’s decision and, perhaps more interesting, their disapproval of the president’s handling of race relations since his inauguration. Viewpoint Florida asked 900 people, most of whom were Democrats, for their opinions on Zimmerman’s not guilty verdict. A majority, 56 percent, believe the jury got it right and 63 percent felt Zimmerman should not have to face federal hate crime charges. Also intriguing...

Sanford police have turned over all of the evidence from the George Zimmerman murder trial to the FBI and the Department of Justice.

(Note: This post has been updated to more accurately reflect the state of self-defense in immunity law in Ohio, which does not appear limited to acts of self-defense around one’s home as previously reported. Thanks to Peter Bossley for the insight–your complimentary copy of “The Law of Self Defense, 2nd Edition” goes in the mail tomorrow, Peter.)Now that the Zimmerman criminal trial has concluded, much attention has focused on the prospects for Zimmerman seeking protection under Florida’s self-defense immunity statute from any possible civil action against him.Florida’s statute 776.032, is among the broader self-defense immunity statutes, in that it possesses...

George Zimmerman was acquitted of killing Trayvon Martin, a New Orleans attorney complained to me Monday, because the prosecution didn't want to win a conviction. The attorney, who has worked at Tulane and Broad as an assistant district attorney and as a defense lawyer, called me to say that he's handled hundreds of homicide cases over his career and that he's never seen prosecutors who want to win make the series of missteps that the Florida prosecutors made. So he's convinced they lost on purpose. He offered six reasons for his belief that the state threw the case.

Although they may not realize it, some supporters of the dead teenager Trayvon Martin are actually exploiting him, using his death to advance their own personal agendas. That is very disturbing when you think about it. After the acquittal of George Zimmerman, one loon out in San Francisco justified some mob-driven property damage, saying: "We have to grow a new society. A people society. Not one where Wells Fargo, the Federal Reserve, all these big banks. We need a whole new system!" A protester in D.C. said: "We don't get democracy. We get capitalism. We get white supremacy." And then...

Eric Holder dismissed America as a "nation of cowards" because we wouldn't, he argued, have a "national conversation" about race. It's a slander wrapped in a farce. We talk of race unremittingly. That's the farce. The slander is hydra-headed. No honest conversation about race is possible when accusations of racism replace reasoned arguments. Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, who mentioned high rates of crime among black males, was rewarded with the racist label within minutes by some of those (The Atlantic, Slate) who presumably agree with Holder that we are too timid when discussing race. Many American liberals are achingly...

If Hispanic is categorized as being a specific ethnic group (according to the monumentally-long list of ethnic groups - beginning with Abazins and ending with Zuni - under the heading "List of Ethnic Groups" at Wikipedia), and black is categorized there as African American, ask yourself the following questions: Would the MSM be treating the Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin story differently if Zimmerman were African-American Hispanic, and not White Hispanic, or if Trayvon Martin were also White Hispanic or Asian Hispanic? I mean, if Black, White, Hispanic, Asian and Native American can be broken down further into White Hispanic (as the MSM...

A Texas grandmother was terrified after Trayvon Martin supporters surrounded her SUV, hit her in the head and tried to prevent her from taking her sick grandchild to the hospital. The grandmother, along with her daughter and granddaughter were trying to get the Texas Children’s Hospital when protesters blocked traffic on a highway. “When we first drove up I thought it was a wreck,” said Georgia, who asked that her last name not be used. “When we got closer, I realized all these protesters were everywhere. They weren’t letting us through.” Georgia told Fox News she was trying to get...