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International

Trump DOJ investigating Washington for new law forcing priests to break Seal of Confession

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From LifeSiteNews

By Matt Lamb

The Trump DOJ has launched a federal civil rights investigation into a new Washington law that would jail priests unless they break the Seal of Confession, an excommunicable offense.

The state of Washington is now under federal investigation for a newly signed law that orders priests to break the Seal of Confession by turning in penitents – or face jail time.

“SB 5375 demands that Catholic Priests violate their deeply held faith in order to obey the law, a violation of the Constitution and a breach of the free exercise of religion cannot stand under our Constitutional system of government,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon wrote in a news release on Monday.

“Worse, the law appears to single out clergy as not entitled to assert applicable privileges, as compared to other reporting professionals. We take this matter very seriously and look forward to Washington State’s cooperation with our investigation,” Dhillon stated.

Democrat Governor Bob Ferguson, a left-wing politician, signed the legislation on Friday, May 2, as first reported by LifeSiteNews.

Ferguson cited his alleged Catholic faith and his uncle, who was a Jesuit priest, in his comments justifying his decision to send government agents after priests who don’t excommunicate themselves by revealing alleged abuse heard in Confession.

“My uncle was a Jesuit priest for many years, (I’ve) been to Confession myself – and so I’m very familiar with that,” Ferguson said during the signing. “I felt this was important legislation,” he added.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) notes the bill “singles out” priests, stripping them of their right to privileged communication.

The state’s new law excludes clergy from a list of “supervisors,” according to the DOJ, “who may not rely on applicable legal privileges, including religious confessions, as a defense to mandatory reporting.”

“The Civil Rights Division will investigate the apparent conflict between Washington State’s new law with the free exercise of religion under the First Amendment, a cornerstone of the United States Constitution,” the DOJ announced.

During the debate over the bill, Frame berated Seattle Auxiliary Bishop Frank Schuster for explaining that neither he, and not even Pope Francis, could change canon law when it comes to confessional secrecy.

Canon 1386 states, “A confessor (priest) who directly violates the sacramental seal incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; he who does so only indirectly is to be punished according to the gravity of the offence.”

Frame previously dismissed religious freedom concerns during a hearing. “I have tried really hard over the last couple of years to find a balance and to strike a careful compromise,” she claimed before saying “sorry” for not being willing to “make a compromise anymore.” She criticized efforts to protect clergy-penitent privilege “in the name of religious freedom.”

A similar effort to jail priests died in Montana this year, led by another left-wing female Democrat who said she has apostatized and no longer practices Catholicism.

Legal expert Jonathan Turley has previously criticized efforts by Democrats to violate the religious freedom rights of priests and lay Catholics.

Turley, who is Catholic, wrote “the Washington State law is a frontal attack on free exercise and would be struck down if enacted.”

“The only question is why Democrats consider such legislation to be any more viable politically than it is constitutionally,” the George Washington University professor wrote in February on his legal commentary website.

The Washington State Catholic Conference stressed its opposition to the bill and said its priests will not comply.

International

Matt Walsh slams Trump administration’s move to bury Epstein sex trafficking scandal

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From LifeSiteNews

By Doug Mainwaring

‘We can’t drop it. We can’t move on. Because what we want is justice. We have a deep desire for justice,’ Matt Walsh explained.

Matt Walsh minced no words as he criticized the Trump administration’s stunning reversal in its messaging surrounding Jeffrey Epstein’s client list.

“There’s simply no getting around the massive craterlike hole that the administration dug for itself here,” Walsh said during his most recent podcast. The Trump administration is “just telling us to shut up, essentially.”

“Millions of Americans are not satisfied with what we’ve been told,” Walsh declared. “And we shouldn’t be, because it’s been contradictory and insulting to our intelligence every step of the way.”

“This is what happens when people are deceived and strung along for years, only to be told that they’re not entitled to any kind of transparency whatsoever,” he said. “People are not just going to move on with their lives, no matter how badly you want them to, and there’s a reason for that.”

“I want to make this very clear to those on the right, including the President himself who are telling us to just drop the subject and move on,” Walsh said.

“We can’t drop it. We can’t move on. Because what we want is justice. We have a deep desire for justice.” he explained, “And we can see how the corrupt and the powerful are never held accountable.”

He continued:

We can look at our cities and see violent criminals running rampant in the streets. Also not held accountable.

We want these evil doers to be punished.

We want the innocent to be defended.

We want justice. It’s one of the most basic and most honorable of all human desires.

We want to see that justice is done.

Turning his attention back to the Epstein scandal, Walsh said, “We want to know who else was in those awful videos that Pam Bondi told us about, and we want those people to be dragged in front of us, weeping and begging for mercy.”

“We want them exposed and humiliated and shamed and punished in the harshest and most painful way. Because that’s justice, and we’re not going to drop the subject until we get it,” he promised.

“In other words, don’t give us any more excuses from bureaucrats on Fox News. Don’t give us any more stonewalling and doublespeak,” he demanded. “We’ve seen more than enough of that in this case and so many others.”

“Instead, for a change,” Walsh said, “give us something we’re not used to seeing from the federal government and the DOJ: Give us justice.”

Walsh was reacting to the DOJ’s announcement last week that there is no Epstein “client list” and that “no further disclosure is warranted,” immediately igniting a firestorm of criticism from the grassroots MAGA movement and conservative pundits.

“This EPSTEIN AFFAIR is NOT going away!” General Michael Flynn declared on X. “This has to change and quickly.”

“Until this case is fully revealed, every elite institution carries a stench they can’t wash off,” Glenn Beck said.

“The Epstein case isn’t over. It’s the Rosetta Stone of public trust,” Beck said. “And if we don’t get to the bottom of it, we’ll never restore what’s already been lost.”

“The justice department and the FBI are irredeemably compromised and corrupted,” Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton averred in a podcast discussion with former Trump confidant Steve Bannon.

Trump and his administration had clearly not read the room before attempting to deflect attention away from the Epstein scandal but has since recalibrated its public stance.

“Just got off the phone with top federal law enforcement contact. The change in approach to Epstein has been dramatic,” conservative commentator Benny Johnson wrote on X. “Expect more disclosures. Some very powerful people inside Admin are now pushing for a Special Counsel and a full press briefing on Epstein findings.”

“This is why when you feel strongly about something you should never shut the f— up. Never underestimate the power of X,” said Mike Benz, executive director of the Foundation for Freedom. “Kudos to the Trump admin (at least via its (spokesperson) today) for signaling a change in stance to be responsive to the public.”

“Obviously, the next few months will tell the final tale, but it’s very heartening to have a government that feels like it really keeps its nose to our grindstone,” Benz added.

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COVID-19

Sen. Rand Paul: ‘I am officially re-referring Dr. Fauci to the DOJ’

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Fr0m LifeSiteNews

By Doug Mainwaring

‘Perjury is a crime,’ Sen. Rand Paul declared on X. ‘And Fauci must be held accountable.’

Sen. Rand Paul announced Monday that he is again pressuring the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to launch a criminal probe of Dr. Anthony Fauci after The New York Times revealed his 11th-hour pardon by the Biden administration is likely invalid.

“Today, I will reissue my criminal referral of Anthony Fauci to Trump DOJ!” declared Paul, later adding, “Perjury is a crime. And Fauci must be held accountable.”

By late in the afternoon on Monday, the Kentucky senator had composed a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi citing the times he believed Fauci had lied under oath during congressional hearings and urging the DOJ to finally investigate Fauci.

“In July 2023, I referred Dr. Anthony Fauci to the Department of Justice for lying under oath to Congress. His own emails directly contradicted his sworn testimony,” Paul wrote X.

“NYT reports Fauci was quietly pardoned by an autopen, operated by Biden’s staff. If the President didn’t authorize this pardon personally, then the Department has a duty to investigate and prosecute as it would any ordinary citizen,” Paul said.

“Fauci has been sainted by the extremist Left, but it doesn’t erase his lying before Congress,” Paul said. “I am officially re-referring Dr. Fauci to the DOJ.”

Sen. Paul concluded his letter to Bondi by explaining that his autopen pardon is now seen to be illegitimate:

On January 19, 2025, Dr. Fauci was issued a full and unconditional pardon for any offenses that he may have committed or taken part in since 2014. Dr. Fauci was included among a group of individuals granted unprecedented preemptive pardons on President Joe Biden’s final day in office. However, new information has revealed that these pardons were executed via autopen, with no documented confirmation that the President personally reviewed or approved each individual grant of clemency.

According to reports, White House staff authorized the use of the autopen to issue the clemency documents. This raises serious constitutional and legal concerns about the legitimacy of Dr. Fauci’s Pardon.

President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that the constant reliance on the autopen by the Biden administration is “one of the biggest scandals that we’ve had in 50 to 100 years.”

“I guarantee (Biden) knew nothing about what he was signing,” Trump asserted.

Fauci’s mendacious relationship with Congress 

The senator from the Bluegrass State and Dr. Fauci have long had a combative relationship.

In 2021, Sen. Paul alleged that Fauci, who then served as director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) and as medical adviser to former President Joe Biden, “lied to Congress” when he claimed that the National Institutes of Health (NIH), of which the NIAID is a part, was not funding and had never funded “gain-of-function” research in Wuhan, China.

Then in 2023, Paul again filed a criminal referral to the DOJ against the White House COVID czar for lying to Congress about his role in subsidizing controversial gain-of-function (GOF) research that was suspected of contributing to the COVID outbreak.

“We have him dead to rights, the problem is this: we have Merrick Garland who I think is a pure rank partisan,” Paul said at the time. “I don’t think he’ll ever be prosecuted. We also have a Democrat Party that is happy to have paid him more than the president, more than any president makes and he actually got a million dollars from a private foundation while he was still a public servant. Everything about this is rotten to the core and if we don’t bring him to justice we’ll never get the control we need on this type of research to try and prevent it from happening again.”

Paul has said multiple times that Dr. Fauci should “go to prison” for lying to Congress.

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