Free Republic

I caught my breath when I heard FBI Director Christopher Wray testify to Congress that there’s been no abuse of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the law under which our intelligence communities electronically spy on possible terrorists and sometimes capture private communications of innocent U.S. citizens. Section 702 and related components expire Dec. 31, and Congress must decide whether to renew them. To see if I’d heard Wray correctly, I searched for a transcript of his testimony. I found that he’d delivered the same line during an Oct. 13 Heritage Foundation speech. Wray claimed, “There’s been...

Spanning more than a decade, former FBI directors Robert Mueller and his successor and protégé James Comey relied on their inner circles to help cover up a surging and troubling amount of sexual misconduct complaints filed by physically violated and emotionally battered female FBI agents. There is a culture of corruption in the FBI. Or the FBI is a culture of corruption. “They (Mueller and Comey) didn’t care as long as they were insulated politically,” one female FBI insider said. “It’s rampant. People wouldn’t believe it. Agents are being sexually assaulted and they are terrified to speak out.” While similar...

Today marked an important moment as President Donald Trump made much-needed changes to sweeping land use designations made under previous administrations. The Trump administration listened to the combined voices of individual citizens, tribal members, small communities, and elected officials from the county, state, and federal levels. In doing so, Trump has responded to Utahns’ calls by dramatically reducing the size of both the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, which had a combined land mass larger than the state of Connecticut. This is a good step forward in reforming a law that has too easily been abused to drown...

Houston, TX — It was 2013. Kermit Gosnell had just been convicted of murder and illegal late-term abortions when Operation Rescue released its shocking report on similar behavior at a Houston, Texas, abortion facility based on eye-witness accounts of several clinic employees. Making headlines were the sensational allegations that abortionist Douglas Karpen had twisted the heads nearly off late-term babies who survived abortions done beyond the legal limit. Yet, the credible allegations of sexual harassment and abuse also made by these same women were missing from the reporting.It was actually the sexual harassment of female clinic employees that prompted one...

The Congressional swamp has surrounded itself with a legal apparatus known as the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995. This law is designed to protect sex offenders in the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, and other federal agencies from public scrutiny. Congress has also been funding a U.S. Treasury account to pay off claims for congressional acts of sexual harassment and other discrimination claims. Until recently, the political establishment on both sides of the aisle has kept the morally problematic aspects of the law from the public. Earlier this month, Laura Ingraham, Fox News host of The Ingraham Angle,...

"I've always heard stories about, you know, him kind of fooling around or whatever," Brzezinski said. Scarborough said he attended a Friars Club event several years ago for a roast of Lauer, and said many jokes were made about his sexual pursuits at work. "The most powerful people in media, and everybody that came up were making fun of Matt Lauer, not pushing himself on people, but the whole thing was, he does his show and then he has sex with people, with employees," Scarborough said.

<p>History shows that special counsels almost inevitably overstep their mandates.</p> <p>Former FBI director Robert Mueller was supposed to run a narrow investigation into accusations of collusion between the Donald Trump campaign and the Russian government. But so far, Mueller’s work has been plagued by almost daily improper leaks (e.g., “sources report,” “it emerged,” “some say”) about investigations that seem to have little to do with his original mandate.</p>

This week marks the fifth anniversary of Colorado's legalization of the commercial marijuana trade, and the reviews aren't good. An editorial in the Colorado Springs Gazette reports, "Five years of retail pot coincide with five years of a homelessness growth rate that ranks among the highest rates in the country. Directors of homeless shelters, and people who live on the streets, tell us homeless substance abusers migrate here for easy access to pot." The paper says, "Five years of Big Marijuana ushered in a doubling in the number of drivers involved in fatal crashes who tested positive for marijuana, based...

I believe a purge of not just the Clinton Clan, but of straight white men by the DNC has begun. First Clinton; not only are multiple liberal women discovering that Bill abused women 25 years ago and that it was bad that they defended him, several DNC bullhorns (Brazile, Sarandon, Newsweak) are letting the “useful idiots” of the left know they should no longer defend Hillary. Now the white guys. Have you noticed that all of the Democrat sex scandals have that in common? Menendez was spared. Liver Lips Franken was not...IMHO because he was a possible Presidential candidate. If...

I was pondering the weird behavior of people like Harvey Weinstein and Charlie Rose. This isn’t just about using the power of your position to get women. Instead, there was this weird stuff about walking around naked or in a bathrobe and expecting women to be impressed. So my thought: Instead of exercising traditionally male power, they were trying to exercise the traditionally female power of being desirable and desired. Maybe it’s because they were in industries where that power is especially prominent, but pathetically, they were acting like they hoped someone would find them . . . beautiful.

In his last phone call home, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father what was troubling him: From his bunk in southern Afghanistan, he could hear Afghan police officers sexually abusing boys they had brought to the base. “At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” the Marine’s father, Gregory Buckley Sr., recalled his son telling him before he was shot to death at the base in 2012. He urged his son to tell his superiors. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s...

“He’s coming home tomorrow afternoon; now’s my chance to get out. Will you help me?” Telephone pleas like that 20 years ago prompted Meathead Movers to help women move — literally — out of abusive relationships. After a move in Morro Bay turned into a confrontational situation because the abuser showed up, brothers Aaron and Evan Steed approached the Women’s Shelter of San Luis Obispo County to set up the moves for them, so that they could continue to offer their free services more safely. Today the San Luis Obispo-based company offers unlimited moving services to seven domestic violence shelters...

Yes, Jeff Sessions really is making a difference at the Justice Department, as a new order curbing the department’s own power makes clear. The other day, a friend said to me that he figured Sessions really would be better off accepting a write-in bid for his old Senate seat because “he’s not really doing anything as Attorney General anyway. I haven’t seen any big successes there.” I beg to differ. I’ve covered the Department of Justice (DoJ) quite closely for more than 20 years, and have seen that much of what gets done there – especially the bad stuff –...

 was the blue suitcase that led police to the pit bull’s killer. On Wednesday, more than a month after Ollie was found in a suitcase with more than 30 stab wounds, Hollywood police announced the arrest of Brendan Evans, 31. Evans, who has a rap sheet including an arrest in 2012 on domestic battery charges, now faces a charge of aggravated animal cruelty. Police say the DNA on the suitcase linked back to Evans, who is on probation for a bank robbery in Hernando County in central Florida. Hollywood police had arrested him Nov. 15 after DNA linked him to...

Several women have accused Rep. John Conyers (a Democrat) of sexual harassment. They did this not publicly, in the media, but in court filings. Another former staff member to Michigan Rep. John Conyers alleged that she endured persistent sexual harassment by the congressman, according to court documents. A former scheduler in the Conyers' office attempted to file a sealed lawsuit against him this February in the US District Court for the District of Columbia that alleges she suffered unwanted touching by the Democrat “repeatedly and daily.” She abandoned the lawsuit the next month, after the court denied her motion to...

ANN ARBOR, MI (WXYZ/CNN) – In a lawsuit, the family of a woman with cerebral palsy says her former teacher, among others, abused and neglected her over many years while at school. The 25-page lawsuit, filed against Washtenaw Intermediate School District, a teacher, principal and two teacher’s aides, outlines "repetitive instances of abuse” suffered by Rosa Smith, a now 26-year-old woman with cerebral palsy. Smith has cognitive impairment, an inability to communicate verbally and physical impairments, including the inability to move her hands and arms. According to the lawsuit, the woman endured physical, emotional and psychological harm at the hands...

Scott Courtney, an executive vice president at Service Employees International Union, has resigned, according to a statement Monday from SEIU spokesperson Sahar Wali. "This morning, President Mary Kay Henry accepted Scott Courtney's resignation as an elected officer and member of SEIU. This comes a week after she suspended him from his assigned duties based on preliminary information that surfaced through an internal investigation launched to look into questions about to potential violations of our union's anti-nepotism policy, efforts to evade our code of ethics and subsequent complaints related to sexual misconduct and abusive behavior towards union staff," the statement reads....

A change of the old order in Hollywood is long overdue, according to Paul Haggis, the Oscar-winning film-maker behind the hit films Crash and Million Dollar Baby. The Canadian screenwriter and director said many of the established rules of big-budget showbusiness should be re-examined in the light of falling box-office receipts and the recent scandalous claims and revelations about the enduring influence of the casting couch. “Los Angeles is a town run by a group of powerful corporations, the studios, and they inevitably want to make what they know they can sell. This means they often lag a few years...

Tariq Ramadan is not only the grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (Hasan al-Banna), he's also one of the most well-known Islamist intellectuals in the world. Ramadan simultaneously presents himself as moderate and as a loyal grandson. For instance, in the Foreword to a new edition of al-Banna’s "Risalat al-Ma’thurat," a collection of key texts from the Qur’an and Hadith, Ramadan calls the book "the core of spiritual education for all members of the Muslim Brotherhood." He then praised his grandfather, extolling the "quality of his faith and the intensity of his relationship with God. Anyone who had...

<p>Corey Feldman says he’s working on a plan to bring his Hollywood abusers to justice — but he won’t name names to protect his family.</p> <p>On Thursday, Feldman — who’s been outspoken for years about alleged abuse he and his late friend and childhood co-star Corey Haim suffered — tweeted, “I will not [be] going on a talk show 2 disclose names of my abuser or [anyone else’s] abusers.” However, he added he’s “working on a plan” that might “shed some [light] on this situation if I can figure out a way 2 get actual justice while not risking my safety & well being. You will know when that time comes! . . . Let me add, this not about fear of being sued! Yes, that’s a real possibility but the bigger reason is safety 4 my family.”</p>