Free Republic

Dear Attorney General Sessions, Director Wray, and Mr. Huber: We write to refer the following individuals for investigation of potential violation(s) of federal statutes. In doing so, we are especially mindful of the dissimilar degrees of zealousness that has marked the investigations into Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, respectively. Because we believe that those in positions of high authority should be treated the same as every other American, we want to be sure that the potential violations of law outlined below are vetted appropriately. ...

Three of the top cybersecurity officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation are retiring from government service, according to people familiar with the matter—departures that come as cyberattacks are a major concern for the country’s security agencies. Senior U.S. intelligence officials warn that the country is at a “critical point” facing unprecedented cyberthreats, including Russia’s ongoing attacks on the American political system. The retirements also come as the FBI is facing regular criticism from President Donald Trump and his supporters, and is working to attract and retain top cyber talent. Scott Smith, the assistant FBI director who runs the Bureau’s...

You gotta love Mossad. Agents snuck into a warehouse smack in the middle of Tehran last January and, in a 6 1/2-hour operation, managed to steal 100,000 documents that Israel says prove Iran was lying about their nuclear weapons program. Wall Street Journal: The Israeli team secretly reached the warehouse holding the materials and broke in during a tight time window when it knew the building would be unguarded, the officials said. To avoid drawing attention to the nondescript facility, Iran hadn’t posted full-time guards, they said, but rather relied on alarm systems that the Israeli agents disabled. The Israeli...

Heading into his summit in Finland Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Trump has an important goal: improve relations with the world’s second-ranked nuclear power – but only if doing so will benefit the United States. “Getting along with Russia would be a good thing, not a bad thing,” the U.S. president said in April – a sentiment he has voiced many times before and since, going back to his days as a presidential candidate. President Trump – despite what his critics say – is not a naïve fool who will sell out the United States and our allies...

Authorities in Pennsylvania were searching Wednesday for more than 640 pounds of high explosives that were reportedly stolen over the weekend from a work site in Lancaster County. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information that leads to the recovery. A contracting company reported the theft Monday, the Lebanon Daily News reported. The missing explosives include 640 pounds of dynamite and 400 blasting caps, the report said. A blasting cap is used to trigger an explosive device.

American Special Forces Kill 170, Capture ISIS Capital in Afghanistan During an operation in Deh Bala, an area in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border, American Green Berets worked with three Afghan commando companies to combat ISIS in the region. The US military has confirmed that, during the operation, approximately 170 terrorists were killed in the ISIS capital, and the area is no longer in the hands of terrorists. The joint US-Afghan assault took place between April and was largely completed by early June. Around 600 Green Berets took part in the operation along with their Afghan counterparts. In the end,...

Armenia has been in the grips of a mass public protest movement since early April, when opposition leader and member of parliament Nikol Pashinyan launched street demonstrations and strikes in cities all over the country against former president Serzh Sargsyan’s attempt to be named the next prime minister. But after Sargsyan stepped aside, the acting prime minister, Karen Karapetyan (a former chief executive of Gazprom’s fully owned Armenian subsidiary, who has long surrounded himself with support from Russian oligarchs), refused to accept the conditions of a peaceful transition of power to the opposition. To reinforce these counterrevolutionary measures, Samvel Karapetyan...

You've heard of skunks at the garden party? Such as still-ruling Nicaraguan socialist strongman, Daniel Ortega, who got his famous nickname from none other than the great Ronald Reagan? Well, now we have pigs at the garden party of democracy, the Organization of American States' Summit of the Americas, and this time, quite literally. At the globally watched summit, locals released a bunch of pigs through the streets of the Peruvian capital of Lima, around the Plaza San Martin, which is one of its main public spaces, spray-painted with the names of Venezuela's dictator, Nicolas Maduro, and Cuba's dictator, Raul...

A call from the White House to the Philadelphia Police Department kicked off a criminal investigation into the April 13 death of Herbert R. McMaster Sr. at Cathedral Village, according to testimony Tuesday ---SNIP--- One of three nursing assistants scheduled to work the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift that started on April 12 was two hours late for work and then took a two-hour nap during the shift, Piper alleged, limiting the amount of care available for the 39 patients on the first floor of Cathedral Village’s rehabilitation wing. Because McMaster had four falls between 9:45 p.m. on April...

It was a black Monday for Russian oligarchs as up to $16 billion was wiped off the value of the country's wealthiest tycoons' holdings in the wake of U.S.-imposed sanctions. The ruble fell to its lowest level against the dollar since late 2016, while shares in sanctioned aluminum producer Rusal, which is controlled by the billionaire Oleg Deripaska, plunged more than 50 percent on the Hong Kong stock exchange. As Russian stocks tumbled, the Kremlin reportedly said it would step in to support affected companies. The latest sanctions were announced by President Donald Trump on Friday. They target leading figures...

<p>Back in October, President Donald Trump blocked the release of hundreds of records on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, agreeing to appeals from the CIA and FBI.</p> <p>Now, Trump has accepted a recommendation from the National Archives to keep the lid closed, more than five decades after the 35th president was killed.</p>

Elder Patriot – Attorney General Jeff Sessions has finally announced an investigation into the use of federal money to fund radical leftwing advocacy groups. In making the announcement Sessions cited that at least six billion dollars was funneled into what was essentially a slush fund for Obama’s army of street activists. It’s almost a certainty that that amount is going grow significantly. The groups receiving the money included La Raza (now UnidosUS), NeighborWorks America, National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Operation Hope, Black Lives Matter, and a spin-off of Acorn The Mutual Housing Association of New York, among numerous other extremist groups....

As more is becoming known about Travis Reinking, the suspect wanted for murdering four people in a Nashville area Waffle House this morning, we’re hearing a familiar refrain. Reinking was well known to both federal and state authorities. In July 2017, the U.S. Secret Service arrested Reinking for being in a “restricted area” near the White House, according to the Secret Service. After the arrest, his Illinois firearms authorization was revoked and local Illinois police seized four weapons. The firearms were given back to his family. “Among the weapons seized by those authorities was the AR-15 rifle used at the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Democratic Party filed suit against Russia, President Donald Trump’s campaign and WikiLeaks on Friday, charging that they conspired to disrupt the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign, a court filing showed. The party alleges in the federal lawsuit in Manhattan that top Trump campaign officials conspired with the Russian government and its military spy agency to hurt Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and tilt the election to Trump by hacking Democratic Party computers, the filing showed.

The Turkish Parliament on Wednesday extended the ongoing state of emergency for another three months, the Hurriyet daily newspaper reported. This is the seventh time that the state of emergency has been extended. The last time was in January. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the three-month state of emergency on July 20, 2016, five days after the failed coup that summer, saying it would enable authorities to take swift action against those responsible for the putsch. Wednesday’s extension means the upcoming early elections on June 24 will be held under the emergency rule despite widespread disapproval from opposition parties. The...

WARNING! Today, the MO of France has published an interesting report on the subject of chemical weapons in Syria. The document is compiled on the basis of open information and declassified data of French intelligence services and dated April 14, 2018. The main point in the report is that the analysis of evidence of the use of chemical weapons in the city of Duma on April 7, 2018 shows the absence of traces of installation and forgery on the records. The analysis of the situation shows that, with a high degree of probability, chemical weapons against the civilian population were...

The Justice Department has provided House lawmakers with access to a two-page document that the FBI used to initiate its original counterintelligence probe into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia. All members of the House Intelligence Committee received access to the document, a Justice Department confirmed to The Hill on Wednesday. Committee chair Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) had requested access to the unredacted document, complaining that previous "heavily" redacted versions were not adequate to the committee's own investigation. Nunes said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein allowed him and House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) to view the key document related to...

Speaker Paul D. Ryan announced Wednesday that he will not seek re-election in November, ending a brief stint atop the House and signaling the peril that the Republican majority faces in the midterm elections.

On the day FBI agents raided the home, offices and hotel room of his personal attorney, President Donald Trump's legal team working on the Russia probe was meeting with members of special counsel Robert Mueller's staff, sources familiar with the meeting told ABC News. The Trump legal team had previously scheduled the meeting, which was part of a series of ongoing negotiations between the Trump team and the Mueller team toward a potential interview with the president. One source familiar with the meeting described it as "tense" as the president's team had learned of the raid shortly before the meeting...

The FBI raided the offices of President Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen on Monday. The raid came after federal prosecutors in New York City obtained a search warrant following a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller, Cohen's lawyer told the New York Times. Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and related issues. NBC News confirmed news of the raid. The Times reported that FBI agents seized records relating to several issues, including a $130,000 payment Cohen has said he made to porn star Stormy Daniels. Daniels has said that money was given to her in exchange...