Free Republic

Ammar Campa-Najjar now bills himself the “most conservative” candidate in California House race. Ammar Campa-Najjar is running for Congress in California’s 50th District and outpacing his Democrat rivals in fundraising. As the California Globe notes, Campa-Najjar received $1.972 million in the first quarter, while Democrats Alex Balkin and Marisa Calderon raised only a combined $150,000. Campa Najjar’s out-of-state funding of $462,816 nearly triples opponent Darrell Issa’s $167,730. The money gap is hardly the only unusual feature of the campaign. In his 2018 race against Duncan Hunter, Campa-Najjar billed himself as a progressive “Latino Arab-American.” In a January interview with the...

Convicted Ex-Rep. Duncan Hunter was sentenced on Tuesday to 11 months in prison with three years of supervised probation after he pleaded guilty to a single corruption charge. Family, friends and lawyers say the California Republican is a devoted father and proud former Marine who should be shown some mercy for making mistakes after returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prosecutors paint a different picture. They have submitted 87 pages of details to U.S. District Court Judge Thomas J. Whelan ahead of Tuesday's sentencing that shows a corrupt congressman who intentionally and repeatedly stole from his campaign funds...

Hillary Clinton Apologized to FBI Over Emails, But It Was Not Recorded on FBI Interview Document! CIA, DOJ Stonewall on Existence of Eric Ciaramella Records Soros-Tied Group Run by Dem Operatives Promotes Leftist Agenda Prosecutorial Misconduct, Clinton Connection in Duncan Hunter Case Hillary Clinton Apologized to FBI Over Emails, But It Was Not Recorded on FBI Interview Document! We keep digging into the chain of events surrounding the FBI’s non-investigation of Hillary Clinton and her email misconduct. The correspondence between Peter Strzok and his lover Lisa Page is proving to be a treasure trove. We have now received 191...

Rep. Duncan Hunter submitted his resignation from Congress on Tuesday, marking the end of an 11-year stint in the House marred by his misuse of campaign funds for a variety of endeavors, including spending money on Lego sets, movie tickets, a $14,000 family vacation to Italy and flights for his family’s pet bunny rabbits. In his resignation letters to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Hunter said his resignation would be effective Jan. 13. “It has been an honor to serve the people of California’s 50th District, and I greatly appreciate the trust they have put in me...

SAN DIEGO — U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, whose district includes two-thirds of Temecula, says he will plead guilty Tuesday, Dec. 3, to a charge of misusing campaign funds and has indicated he will leave Congress. The California Republican is facing federal corruption charges he looted campaign cash to finance vacations, golf outings and other personal expenses. He told KUSI television in San Diego in an interview that aired Monday that he is changing his plea to protect his three children from going through a very public trial. “I think it would be really tough for them,” he said. “It’s hard...

A military judge on Monday took the rare step of removing a prosecutor accused of misconduct from the war crimes case of a decorated Navy SEAL. Capt. Aaron Rugh ordered Cmdr. Christopher Czaplak removed from the case of Operations Chief Edward Gallagher after defense lawyers accused the prosecution of spying on their emails, according to the ruling. ~snip~ Rugh has not yet ruled on whether to dismiss murder and attempted murder counts against Gallagher.

Full title: Citing prosecutor misconduct, defense urges judge to drop charges against Navy SEAL charged with murderDefense attorneys for a Navy SEAL charged with war crimes argued Friday that military prosecutors’ actions amounted to misconduct so egregious that all the charges against their client, Chief Special Operator Edward R. Gallagher, should be dismissed. The judge in the case, while agreeing prosecutors violated Gallagher’s rights, did not immediately rule on their motion. Gallagher is charged with killing a wounded ISIS fighter in Iraq in 2017 after providing medical care. Other charges he faces are related to fellow SEALs’ statements that he...

Full title: Lawyers defending accused SEAL Chief Eddie Gallagher alleged prosecutors spied on them, and at least one reporter, via software attached to emails.A San Diego-based Navy SEAL charged with war crimes — including premeditated murder — was ordered released from pretrial restriction at Navy Base San Diego Thursday because the judge said prosecutors interfered with his defense counsel and caused delays in his trial. The delays are due to a Navy Criminal Investigative Service investigation into media leaks in the case. The judge said the release was a partial remedy. According to court testimony, Cmdr. Chris Czaplak, the Navy’s...

An attorney for Navy SEAL chief Edward "Eddie" Gallagher also represents the Trump Organization, CNN has learned, just days after reports surfaced indicating the President is considering pardoning Gallagher of charges that could constitute war crimes. Gallagher faces a slew of accusations connected to violations of military law while he was deployed to the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2017, including premeditated murder in the stabbing death of an injured person in Iraq. He has pleaded not guilty. Trump Organization lawyer Marc Mukasey started working on the case in recent months, according to sources familiar with the situation.

President Trump is preparing to pardon Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher and other members of armed forces accused of war crimes, according to a published report. In a sign he is considering making the pardons on or around Memorial Day, Trump asked the Justice Department to prepare the requisite paperwork, the New York Times reported Saturday. Gallagher, a special operations officer, is scheduled to go to trial for allegedly stabbing a wounded prisoner of war to death in Iraq and shooting unarmed civilians in Afghanistan. Trump recently ordered him transferred to a “less restrictive” prison. Republican lawmakers had called for Gallagher...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tried unsuccessfully on Friday to appeal a decision made by the Architect of the Capitol to remove a controversial painting that depicted police officers as animals. The Architect of the Capitol last month decided to take down the student-made artwork, following outcry from law enforcement organizations and House Republicans offended by the depiction of the police officers as pigs confronting black protesters. (snip)

A controversial painting depicting police officers as pigs has been permanently removed from the Capitol complex. The office of Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., — a former sheriff who officially appealed to the Architect of the Capitol that the painting be removed — confirmed to the Washington Examiner that it was taken down for good on Tuesday. The painting, done by a black Missouri teenager, was one of hundreds of winners of the Congressional Art Competition. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., hung it in the tunnel leading from the Cannon building to the Capitol complex.

Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday re-hung a painting on Capitol Hill that depicts a police officer as a pig, just days after a Republican colleague took it down -- in a move sure to inflame the controversy and rile law enforcement groups.  California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter on Friday personally removed the painting, saying he was angered by its depiction of police. He said Tuesday the piece also violates the art-contest rules. But Democratic Rep. Lacy Clay, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus from whose Missouri district the picture came, said Tuesday after helping re-hang the picture that Hunter’s action...

Democratic lawmakers put back on display on Capitol Hill a controversial painting that angered police with its depiction of officers as pigs -- after Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter personally took down the picture last week. The move Tuesday by members of the Congressional Black Caucus and Rep. Lacy Clay, D-Mo., whose office for months had sponsored the display of the student artwork, could revive tensions with the law enforcement community. But Clay told the Washington Post he wants the Capitol Police to press theft charges against Hunter for removing the artwork Friday. Picture at link

A Missouri congressman is demanding criminal charges against Rep. Duncan Hunter who yanked a student’s controversial painting off the U.S. Capitol walls Friday, according to the Washington Post. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., said his staff met Monday with members of the Capitol Police to press theft charges against Hunter, R-Alpine, who removed the painting Friday and delivered it to Clay’s office as he left a Republican conference meeting where the artwork was discussed. “He had no right to take that picture down,” Clay told the Post Monday just off the House floor. “It’s thievery.” The painting, by a recent...

Democratic lawmakers plan to rehang a controversial painting on Capitol Hill that angered law enforcement groups with its depiction of police officers as pigs, after Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter personally took down the picture last week. ...... Rep. Lacy Clay, D-Mo ... CBC member ... [the CBC said]: “The rehanging of this painting ... yadayada ... protecting the rights of a student artist ... blahblah ... a proud statement in defense of the 1st Amendment"

Rep. Duncan Hunter removed a controversial painting from a hallway which connects to the U.S. Capitol Friday. The painting depicts a street protest with people holding signs including “racism kills.” One protester in the foreground has the head of a wolf or a dog and is giving a black power salute. Two police officers, depicted as pigs, are pointing guns at the protester. Fox News’ Chad Pergram posted a photo of the painting on Twitter:

The San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco police unions are calling on House Speaker Paul Ryan to remove a student painting from the U.S. Capitol Complex that depicts officers as pig-like creatures. Last spring, “Untitled #1” by then-high school senior David Pulphus was selected as the winner of Missouri Democrat William Lacy Clay’s 16th annual Congressional Art Competition.

Capitol Hill Police blasted a painting that now hangs in the U.S. Capitol, which depicts police as pigs shooting up a black St. Louis neighborhood and want the piece removed immediately. “The painting portrays a colorful landscape of symbolic characters representing social injustice, the tragic events in Ferguson and the lingering elements of inequality in modern American society,” Democratic Missouri Rep. Lacy Clay said in a statement last June of the painting created by David Pulphus and chosen by Rep. Clay as part of the annual U.S. Congressional Art Competition.

The St. Louis County Police Association is calling a painting placed in the U.S. Capitol complex by Rep. William Lacy Clay a “punch in the mouth” for depicting police officers as animals. Clay, D-St. Louis, said he would not take it down, despite criticism from conservative bloggers and a call from a Fox News commentator for it to be taken down. The painting, which has hung for months in a tunnel that connects House office buildings with the U.S. Capitol, was chosen the winner of Clay’s annual art competition for St. Louis students last spring. It was done by then-Cardinal...