Free Republic

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.

The hush money case against former President Donald Trump got underway with opening statements on Monday and the first witness in the case. George Washington law school professor and Fox contributor Jonathan Turley said that the case has left him in "utter disbelief" that they've pursued this case against Trump. He noted some of the problems with the case.“What is clear, is in this case, Trump is right. I mean, this is an embarrassment. I mean, the fact that we are actually talking about this case being presented in a New York courtroom, leaves me in utter disbelief. I mean,...

New York Attorney General just lost her effort to negate the bond agreement allowing Trump to appeal the judgment. The court added conditions but turned down her effort to reject the company as a viable bonding company.

We have often discussed how cities and universities will use the threat of protests to block or shutdown free speech, particularly of conservative speakers or groups. We now have a major decision out of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that could prove an important precedent in resisting the growing anti-free speech movement in the United States. In Meinecke v. City of Seattle, the court ruled against Seattle in a case involving the arrest of a pro-life protester. Matthew Meinecke was harassed by Antifa and other counterprotesters, but police arrested Meineche when he refused to yield...

Thanks to the relentless political targeting of President Trump, there’s been a spotlight on the use of “hush money” and secret funds to sweep indiscretions under the rug in politics. This shouldn’t come as a shock to many, given the nature of fame and power, but where do we draw the line? When is it acceptable for politicians to dip into taxpayer-funded slush funds to settle their sexual indiscretions privately, and without fanfare, and when is it deemed unacceptable for a private political candidate to do the same with personal funds? Here’s the thing that’s got everyone scratching their heads:...

We have another successful “deplatforming” of a speaker at a university this week after Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) had to be removed from an event at the University of Georgia. This follows incidents discussed this week involving student protests at Tulane and Maryland. Rep. Collins was invited to speak on campus by the University of Georgia Turning Point USA chapter and College Republicans. His remarks, however, were drowned out by protesters screaming profanities and insults. Collins attempted to discuss the recent death of Laken Riley, who was allegedly murdered by an illegal immigrant while jogging at the University of Georgia....

he removal of lead special prosecutor Nathan Wade from Donald Trump’s prosecution had the feel of a Southern Gothic. Fulton County, Ga. District Attorney Fani Willis had described Wade as “a Southern gentleman. Me, not so much.” For weeks, the public has been enthralled by accounts of Wade’s illicit affair with Willis. Then there was the roughly three-quarters of a million dollars paid to Wade before he was booted from the case this week. Channeling Tennessee Williams in his play “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” Judge Scott McAfee wrote that, after their testimony, there remained “an odor of mendacity.”...

I have written about the disastrous policies of Mayor Brandon Johnson for Chicago. As a native son, it is hard to watch this wonderful city undermined by Johnson and radical allies in the city council. Some initiatives like reparations and state-funded grocery stores will cost money but will not impose nearly the costs of Johnson’s dismal record on crime and taxes. However, this week saw a particularly confusing moment when, after calling the anti-crime program ShotSpotter “racist,” Johnson asked the company to extend its contract beyond the upcoming Democratic National Convention. So Johnson will put an end to this supposedly...

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said Monday that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis chose “the worst possible tack” when responding to a subpoena in her alleged lover’s divorce case. Willis sought to have the subpoena declared invalid in a Thursday court filing, claiming that Jocelyn Wade, the estranged wife of Nathan Wade, Willis’ alleged lover, was trying to “harass and embarrass” the Fulton County DA. Turley said that Willis and Nathan Wade were “undermining” their case. ... The damage is already done for Willis, and in many ways she’s really magnifying that damage with her moves,” Turley...

On Wednesday, I received a letter from Bryan M. Sullivan, a partner at Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae LLP, who is the lawyer of Kevin Morris (who is the lawyer for Hunter Biden). The letter warns that I could face a defamation action if I do not retract (or if I repeat) my criticism of Morris’s representational relationship with Hunter. Putting the personal invectives aside, Sullivan did offer a couple of details on the possible defense of Morris in a pending ethics complaint brought by a conservative legal group. Roughly a year ago, I wrote a column discussing how...

Two years ago, I wrote a column denouncing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s use of a counter-terrorism law to shut down the Freedom Convoy trucker protests as an authoritarian attack on free speech. Now, a Canadian court has agreed and ruled that the use of the Emergencies Act was unlawful and “unreasonable.” Despite Trudeau’s attacks on civil liberties, he remains a favorite of the media as an iconic figure on the left. Various civil liberties groups have opposed the iron-handed measures of Trudeau, including The Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Constitution Foundation. The characterization of political critics as...

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Board of Education are following the lead of other major cities and eliminating gifted school programs in the name of achieving greater racial and social “equity.” Eleven “high-achieving selective-enrollment schools” will be eliminated, according to Chicago Board of Education CEO Pedro Martinez, to reduce “stratification and inequity.” As we have previously discussed, major cities with failing public education programs are erasing performance gaps in their schools by decapitating the top performers rather than elevating the performance overall. Other schools have also eliminated or lowered proficiency standards to achieve higher passage rates.According to the...

The 56-page indictment of Hunter Biden for tax evasion makes for racy reading, with the special counsel describing a four-year criminal pattern directed at maintaining Biden’s “extravagant lifestyle.” That lifestyle included massive expenses for strippers, sex clubs, fast cars and other distractions. The steps taken by Hunter to evade taxes are impressive, but not nearly as impressive as the efforts of the Justice Department to evade any direct implications for his father, President Biden.

When hired by MSNBC as a legal analyst Andrew Weissmann, host Ari Melber explained that Weissmann is a “legend” while others heralded his insider perspective on cases. While many disagreed, Weissmann now has the inside scoop on a major defamation lawsuit in Washington, D.C. He is also the defendant. The controversial former aide to Special Counsel Robert Mueller (and NYU law professor) is being sued after declaring that attorney Stefan Passantino coached former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson to lie before Congress. Weissmann has long a reliable source for MSNBC in assuring the public that a wide variety of claims against...

Below is a longer version of my column in the New York Post on the leaking of the interviews of former counsel to Donald Trump.The interviews could magnify the difficulties for both Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Special Counsel Jack Smith in their respective prosecutions. These cases still represent a serious threat to Trump, but these prosecutors must first overcome a glaring potential contradiction. That does not mean that Christie and the other candidates will not get a “Spring Break” with a conviction, but it could prove more challenging even with highly favorable jury pools.Here is the column:This...

Below is my column in the New York Post on the Associated Press guideline for reporters to avoid calling Hamas a terrorist organization. Voice of America and other media outlets have made the same decision. This is not about supporting the Palestinian cause. It is about correctly describing a group that commits terrorist attacks as a terrorist organization. Here is the column: Confucius once said that “the beginning of wisdom is the ability to call things by their right names.” That does not appear to be the approach of the Associated Press this week after the media organization told its...

Claimed victims in image were killed by IDF, but they really were victims of Syria’s dictator Ilhan Omar, the Democrat representative in Congress for a suburban district in Minneapolis, long has insisted that “disinformation” be struck from the conversations Americans have about issues. Apparently that would be, however, only “disinformation” with which she disagrees. That’s apparent because she was caught over the weekend spreading “disinformation,” or a lie, about the war that the Hamas terrorists launched against Israel a week ago. In that initial assault, the terrorists broke into Israeli territory and killed an estimated 1,200 individuals immediately, including babies...

Below is my column in the New York Post in response to the attack this week by Harvard Professor Laurence Tribe. I am honestly saddened by the ad hominem attacks that have become common place with many academics like Tribe. There was a time when legal disagreements could be passionate but not personal. The use of personal insults and vulgar trash talking were avoided in our profession. Now even law deans have called Supreme Court justices “hacks” to the delight of their followers. I have always said that there are good-faith arguments on both sides of the 14th Amendment theory...

After the collapse of the Hunter Biden plea bargain, it was telling that the Biden Team seemed most insistent on one demand: the gun charge agreement was still in full effect. Many of us noted that Hunter’s placement into the pre-trial diversion program not only contradicted the position of his father and the Biden Administration on such charges, but was sharply in contradiction with similar contemporaneous cases. Perhaps for that reason, the Biden attorneys were apoplectic in maintaining that the gun charge was inked and sealed. The Justice Department just declared, however, that it is dead as Dillinger. That is...

With the new disclosures in the Biden corruption scandal, the media has, again, pivoted to avoid acknowledging the obvious. It now has a new demand before it will fully recognize or report on the scandal. Of course, after long repeating denials of Joe Biden that he ever knew about his son’s foreign business deals, the media must now recognize that Hunter was selling influence and access. So they have added yet another task: show Joe Biden actually accepting money. It is what in literature is called the “impossible task” demand like the Slavic tale of a Tsar ordering a suitor...