Free Republic

President Donald Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, may have been convinced by the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to plead guilty to a supposed violation of campaign finance law, but that doesn’t mean that what happened is actually a federal crime. In fact, neither the Federal Election Commission—which is the independent agency tasked with enforcing the Federal Election Campaign Act—nor its former commissioners would likely agree with the overaggressive view that the Southern District is taking. Indeed, the Southern District’s aggressive stance on this issue might have violated the Justice Department’s own policy....

Since the start of the Trump administration, the calls to reform America’s outdated prison and sentencing policies have grown into a massive chorus that transcends partisanship, race, and class. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership and willingness to work with elected officials across the political spectrum, we are closer than ever to passing new policies that will equip inmates with the skills necessary to enter the workforce while also ensuring our communities remain safe. This can be the most significant legislation for minorities since the 1964 civil rights bill Federal prison reform comes right out of Sen. Kennedy’s playbook Of course,...

WASHINGTON — Toll lanes around the Capital Beltway and I-270 in Maryland could be built in several separate phases and even operated by different companies under the latest plans released to industry insiders. It indicates Beltway construction could last for years. The first phase would include fixes for the Legion Bridge.A new document sent last week ahead of the next forum for private companies that could design, build and operate the lanes said that while Maryland eventually plans more than 70 miles of toll lanes from Frederick to Bethesda and from the Legion Bridge to near Oxon Hill, building out...

In a hotel conference room in Denizli, Turkey, about 60 Iranians sing along to songs praising Jesus mixed with Iranian pop music. When the music stops, American pastor Karl Vickery preaches with the help of a Persian translator. "I'm not famous or rich. But I know Jesus. I have Jesus," he says, with a Southern drawl. The Farsi-speaking Christian converts shout "Hallelujah!" and clap.

I am writing from my home, Barquisimeto, the fourth largest city in Venezuela, which was, not so long ago, the most prosperous country in Latin America. In the past four years, things here have changed — utterly. I am writing to explain how much has changed, and how quickly. I moved here as a girl in 1973 from San Cristobal in the Tachira region of the Andes, and I went on to become a university professor. My story was made possible by my country’s success. My mother, a widow who ironed laundry for a living, managed to send my three...

Large earthquakes aren’t supposed to happen in Tennessee. On Wednesday, the largest earthquake in 45 years hit eastern Tennessee, and it made headlines all over the nation. The magnitude 4.4 quake was so powerful that it was felt in portions of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Kentucky. Significant shaking was even felt as far away as Atlanta, and that was highly unusual. The original earthquake was rapidly followed by a magnitude 3.0 aftershock, and subsequently there were several other noteworthy aftershocks. We live at a time when earthquakes are increasing in size and frequency, and many are concerned...

A former Green Beret who told Fox News in 2016 that he killed a suspected Taliban bomb maker nearly a decade ago during combat operations in Afghanistan is now being charged in the man’s death -- a move his lawyer says is an act of betrayal by the Army. The murder charge facing Maj. Matthew Golsteyn comes after years of on-and-off investigations by the Army following an incident said to have taken place during his 2010 deployment. A military tribunal that probed the killing years ago initially cleared Golsteyn -- but the investigation into him was re-opened after he spoke...

Socci: Horror! Socci: Horror! From Antonio Socci's Facebook December 14, 2018 Questioned by journalists, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Parolin (Bergoglio’s right-hand man) declared that presently there is no diplomatic activity involving the Holy See to bring Asia Bibi and her family to safety.  He said verbatim: “It’s an internal question that regards Pakistan, I hope it will be resolved in the best ways possible”. An internal question that regards Pakistan? The cynicism of the Bergoglians towards persecuted Christians is horrifying!                                  ...

Donald J. Trump on Twitter: "The pathetic and dishonest Weekly Standard, run by failed prognosticator Bill Kristol (who, like many others, never had a clue), is flat broke and out of business. Too bad. May it rest in peace!"

On Sunday, Dec. 16, the comet known as 46P/Wirtanen will make one of the 10 closest comet flybys of Earth in 70 years, and you may even be able to see it without a telescope. Although the approach will be a distant 7.1 million miles (11.4 million kilometers, or 30 lunar distances) from Earth, it's still a fairly rare opportunity. "This will be the closest comet Wirtanen has come to Earth for centuries and the closest it will come to Earth for centuries," said Paul Chodas, manager of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in...

Going all in on attacking President Trump isn’t proving to be a particularly effective business strategy for media outlets.The Weekly Standard, a 28-year old neoconservative institution, is reportedly headed towards dissolution after its founder, Bill Kristol, devoted almost three years of work to attacking the President and his supporters.It’s not just Kristol. The entire world of clickbait Trump-hate seems to be in jeopardy, including sites that cater to the liberal base.The same week that The Weekly Standard’s troubles broke, Vanity Fair dropped a bombshell report about the struggles faced by those hip, millennial-targeted left-wing rags with the cool names...

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) said Wednesday that he "would love to be able to regulate the content of speech," but it would be illegal to do so due to the First Amendment. "I would love to be able to regulate the content of speech," Lieu said Wednesday on CNN. "The First Amendment prevents me from doing so. And that's simply a function of the First Amendment. But I think over the long run, it's better that government does not regulate the content of speech."

A House Committee Hears Our Clinton Foundation Scandal Evidence Obama’s State Department Worked to Undermine the Trump Administration Hillary Clinton Claims Her Email System Was for ‘Convenience’ Media Buries Key Facts to Conceal Migrant Health Threat — TB, Hepatitis, HIV A House Committee Hears Our Clinton Foundation Scandal Evidence When I was asked by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s Subcommittee on Government Operations to testify this week about the Clinton Foundation, I knew the challenge would be organizing the vast trove of information we have accumulated through court action over the past several years. That evidence,...

The Department of Homeland Security claimed in a statement Friday that the 7-year-old migrant girl who died in their custody was not ill upon an initial screening and was offered food and water. The father and daughter, identified by a Guatemalan official as Nery Caal and Jakelin Caal, crossed the U.S. border into New Mexico in a remote location 90 miles from the nearest Border Patrol station The father denied that Jackeline was ill and signed a form indicating that there were no visible signs of trauma and that the child appeared to be in good health, according to a...

A new kind of giant dinosaur has been described in Russia. Dubbed Volgatitan, the herbivore belonged to a family of long-necked dinosaurs called sauropods. It weighed 17 tons and walked the earth 200 million to 65 million years ago. The enormous dinosaur was identified from seven of its vertebrae, which had been stuck in a cliff for 130 million years until they were discovered on the banks of the Volga river near Ulyanovsk in 1982. ..." The bones sat for 20 years until they were re-examined by Averianov. ..." “[After] checking the literature when I returned home, [I] confirmed that...

Some people know how to make an entrance, while others specialize in exits. On December 6th, 17-year old Jackson Racicot posted a video titled, “How I quit my job today,” on Facebook. As of today, the video has been viewed nearly 300,000 times. The teen quit his job at the Walmart Grande Prairie Supercentre in Alberta, Canada, by reading a prepared speech into a store-wide intercom system, Insider reports. “Attention all shoppers, associates and management, I would like to say to all of you today that nobody should work here, ever,” he said over the speakers. “Our managers will make...

A bill that would ban abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected was approved this week by the Ohio Senate, the first step in what the bill's author says is the controversial legislation's path to being welcomed by the U.S. Supreme Court "with open arms." But many legal experts and women's rights groups say the bill has no chance of surviving in the nation's highest court — even with the shift in the makeup of Supreme Court justices that President Donald Trump's conservative nominations have ushered in. Ohio's so-called heartbeat bill would ban abortions from the moment a heartbeat is...

 The case is Texas, et al., v. United States of America, et al., Defendants, California, et al. Intervenors-Defendants.  Case 4:18-cv-00167-O Here is the actual decision where Judge O'Conner, of the Northern District Court of Texas, has ruled that Obamacare is unconstitutional because the Supreme Court ruled it was only Constitutional because the individual mandate was a tax. That tax was removed by Congress during the first year of the Trump administration. From courtlistener.com: The United States healthcare system touches millions of lives in a daily and deeply personal way. Health-insurance policy is therefore a politically charged affair—inflaming emotions and...

SANTA ROSA COUNTY, Fla. (WEAR) — A registered sex offender from Milton is facing several charges after a report says he exposed himself to numerous pizza delivery drivers. John Allen Racine, 46, has been charged with multiple counts of indecent exposure. According to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office, Racine called multiple pizza shops on several occasions requesting pizza to be delivered to his home... Officers arrested Racine for indecent exposure in November. He was apprehended again on Monday for the same misdemeanor.

Alarmed by the growing popularity of rap among Russian youth, President Vladimir Putin wants cultural leaders to devise a means of controlling, rather than banning, popular music. Putin says “if it is impossible to stop, then we must lead it and direct it.” […] Putin noted that “rap is based on three pillars: sex, drugs and protest.” But he is particularly concerned with drug themes prevalent in rap, saying “this is a path to the degradation of the nation.” …