Free Republic

The world is watching New York City turning into a banana republic. A lot of investors and job creators are watching too. They are wondering about their money, and what a partisan AG and DA will do to their investments if they don’t want to pay to play. I remember a Mexican investor once telling me that he invests in the U.S. because he trusted the judicial system, no matter who was president. My guess is that investors are looking at New York City now and wondering, “Why?” Believe it or not, but New York City may be arresting an...

Even after five weeks, the Trump bookkeeping case in Manhattan is a "Potemkin Village," according to law professor Jonathan Turley. That means it has all the appearance of being real, but upon closer inspection, there's no there there. Indeed, the indictment of former President Donald Trump on 34 counts of bookkeeping errors, statute-expired misdemeanors that have been miraculously spun into a series of felonies, is the Seinfeld of criminal cases. But a jury could still find him guilty. "It's Trump," Manhattan jurors could say to themselves. "Of course, Cheeto-man must be guilty of something." But after the prosecutors told Judge...

Six of the migrants charged in connection to the vicious attack on two NYPD officers in Times Square were offered plea deals Tuesday as a Manhattan judge revealed that one of the accused cop-beaters was arrested again while out on bail. Yohenry Brito, 24 — who was remanded after his initial arrest — was nabbed last week for petit larceny after an activist Brooklyn priest posted his $15,000 cash bail in February, Judge Laura Wood said in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday. “I am furious that Mr. Brito was rearrested and charged with petty larceny while he was out on...

Sen. JD Vance’s (R-Ohio) surprise appearance at a Manhattan courthouse to support former President Trump, and his qualified answer about supporting the results of the 2024 election, show he’s challenging Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) as the Senate front-runner to be Trump’s running mate in the fall. GOP senators and strategists say it’s hard to predict whom Trump will choose, but they say Scott and Vance are viewed as the two most likely choices within the Senate GOP conference. Vance and Scott are stepping up their efforts to grab Trump’s attention by staying close to his orbit and showing off their...

On Monday, conservative attorney, legal scholar, and commentator Jonathan Turley weighed in on the day's testimony by Michael Cohen in the ongoing New York trial of former President Donald Trump. Mr. Turley's comments about Cohen were, to say the least, sharply pointed.Michael Cohen apparently wants a reality show but, if his testimony Monday is any indication, reality is about to sink in for not just Cohen but the prosecutors and the court.In stoking interest in his own appearance, the former Trump counsel promised the public that they should be “prepared to be surprised.” Thus far, however, Cohen has offered nothing...

Michael Cohen apparently wants a reality show but, if his testimony Monday is any indication, reality is about to sink in for not just Cohen but the prosecutors and the court. In stoking interest in his own appearance, the former Trump counsel promised the public that they should be “prepared to be surprised.” Thus far, however, Cohen has offered nothing new and, more importantly, nothing to make the case for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is "counting on" Michael Cohen lying during former President Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial, according to attorney and Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett on Saturday. Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and fixer, is set to testify in the high-profile trial on Monday, which will determine whether the former president falsified business records over payments, allegedly facilitated by Cohen, to former adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep an alleged affair that happened in 2006 secret before the 2016 presidential election, as alleged in a criminal indictment. Prosecutors led by Bragg allege the $130,000 payment...

Below is my column on the completion of the testimony of Stormy Daniels and the start of the testimony of Michael Cohen. With a dubious legal theory, the testimony has only magnified the criticism of the prosecution as parading sensational rather than material evidence before the jury and the public. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is losing even CNN hosts and legal analysts. Fareed Zakaria noted “I doubt the New York indictment would have been brought against a defendant whose name was not Donald Trump” Elie Honig has observed that, if brought in a less Democratic district, “I would say...

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s paralegal testified on Friday that his office deleted from their evidence three pages of phone records between convicted liar Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Keith Davidson without notifying former President Donald Trump’s legal team, according to reports. Trump attorney Emil Bove questioned paralegal Jaden Jarmel-Schneider on Friday about three pages of 2018 phone records between Davidson and Cohen that Bragg’s office had deleted, according to CNN. Additional phone records between Daniels manager Gina Rodriguez and then-National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard regarding Daniels’ claim about her alleged affair were also deleted, according to The Epoch...

Up to now, there is a winner and a loser out of this Manhattan trial. The winner is President Trump, who keeps getting stronger. The loser is New York, or the perception that the Empire State is a banana republic. Using the legal system to target political opponents is Banana Republic 101. This is from Jonathan Turley:Cohen’s testimony will be the culmination of this travesty of a trial. But Bragg already jumped the shark with Daniels. After three weeks, legal experts are still debating what the crime was that Trump was seeking to conceal by recording payments for a standard...

A paralegal from Manhattan Attorney General Alvin Bragg’s office testified on Friday during former President Donald Trump’s “hush money” trial that some phone call records between Michael Cohen and Stephanie Clifford’s (a.k.a. Stormy Daniels) lawyer were deleted, raising questions about evidentiary integrity.In a bid to challenge some of the evidence being put forward in President Trump’s business records falsification trial in Manhattan, Trump attorney Emil Bove asked paralegal Jaden Jarmel-Schneider in court on May 10 about roughly three pages worth of records that the attorney claimed Mr. Bragg’s office had deleted.Mr. Jarmel-Schneider confirmed some deletions. He acknowledged that some phone...

As reported on Friday – DOJ hitman Jack Smith violated the same law as J6 defendants who were sent to prison for years! In August 2022, President Trump reported that he believed the FBI stole his will during the Biden-endorsed raid on Mar-a-Lago. The FBI also stole 1,800 other items that were not documents that belonged to President Trump. This was not lawful or necessary. It is also widely known at this point that Joe Biden who ordered the FBI access to Trump’s documents at Mar-a-Lago and President Trump’s personal belongings. On pages 2-3 of the ruling Judge Cannon revealed...

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump It is a really bad feeling to have your Constitutional Right to Free Speech, such a big part of life in our Country, so unfairly taken from you, especially when all of the sleazebags, lowlifes, and grifters that you oppose are allowed to say absolutely anything that they want. It is hard to sit back and listen to lies and false statements be made against you knowing that if you respond, even in the most modest fashion, you are told by a Corrupt and Highly Conflicted Judge that you will be PUT IN PRISON, maybe for...

Trump’s attorneys moved for a mistrial over Stormy Daniels’ testimony, but the crooked judge rejected it. “What’s the jury to do with that? It’s still extraordinarily prejudicial to insert safety — safety concerns into a trial about business records. There’s no way to unring the bell in our view,” Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche argued. “As a threshold matter, Mr. Blanche, I agree that there were things that would have been better left unsaid. I think the witness was a little difficult to control,” Judge Merchan said, according to ABC News. Merchan added, “I don’t believe we’re at the point where...

Michael Avenatti @MichaelAvenatti Here is my statement regarding the testimony of Stormy Daniels. Will DA Bragg pursue charges against her for falsification of business records, fraud, etc.

WHEN THE JUDGE GAGS A KEY WITNESS FOR TRUMP’S DEFENSE. The false bookkeeping trial of former President Donald Trump is now in its fourth week. This newsletter has pointed out lots of times, most recently last Friday, that while we know that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has charged Trump with falsifying bookkeeping records of a nondisclosure payment in order to commit or conceal another crime, Bragg still hasn’t revealed what that other crime is. It’s really the key to the whole case. Without the other crime, there would be no charges against Trump in this matter. The fact that...

On Monday, in the ongoing Manhattan trial of former President Donald Trump, a witness for the prosecution gave some startling testimony. While on the stand being questioned by the defense, former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney testified that former President Trump did not personally order payments made to attorney Michael Cohen, who allegedly paid the "hush money" payment to porn star Stormy Daniels."Michael Cohen was a lawyer?" defense attorney Emil Bove asked former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney on Monday at the start of the fourth week of the trial."Sure, yes," McConney responded. "And payments to lawyers by the Trump...

The prosecutor at the center of former President Donald Trump’s so-called "hush money" trial in New York received a total of $12,000 from the Democratic National Committee for consulting work in 2018, records show. According to the data collected by the Federal Election Commission, the DNC gave Matthew Colangelo two $6,000 payments in January 2018 for “political consulting.” At the time of the payments, Colangelo was working in the office of then-New York Attorney General Eric Scheiderman as a deputy, according to Fox News. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the current case against Trump, also worked in that...

It was a bad week for Alvin Bragg and his case against Donald Trump. There's no other way to put it. For starters, Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the case, may have made a critical error that could reverse the Trump verdict upon appeal by allowing prosecutors to make certain arguments. "Last week, during an appearance on 'Fox & Friends,' GWU law professor Jonathan Turley told Fox News that Merchan made a mistake by allowing Bragg's prosecutorial team, which former Biden administration official Michael Colangelo is leading, to say unequivocally that Trump was involved in federal election law violations."...

A disbarred, serial perjurer walks into a courtroom and asks to take an oath . . . No, seriously, this is not a joke. Michael Cohen will soon appear in a Manhattan courtroom in what is sure to be one of the most bizarre moments in legal history. Cohen nearly comprises the prosecution’s entire case against former President Donald Trump under a criminal theory that still has many of us baffled. It is not clear what crime Trump was supposedly trying to conceal by making “hush-money” payments to former porn actress Stormy Daniels. What is clear is that none of...