Free Republic

The theory: a cargo ship with a "dirty bomb" was just outside of Charleston, South Carolina. The notion came to life during a live YouTube broadcast Wednesday evening. During the broadcast, conspiracy theorist George Webb initially claimed a "source" had told him that there was "a dirty bomb planned for a major city." Based on the information from the "source," Webb said he believed Memphis might be the target. The Coast Guard said in a further statement provided to CNN that the source of the threat had been detained by authorities for further questioning. The statement did not mention Webb's...

Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra are being eyed for possible top cabinet positions in President-elect Joe Biden's administration, said two sources familiar with the discussions. Yates, who currently serves on the advisory board to Biden's transition team, is "no doubt" being considered as a candidate to become the country's next Attorney General, said one of the two, who asked to remain anonymous because no decision has been reached.

Amid Thursday’s over-hyped brouhaha about Jeff Sessions meeting with the Russian ambassador, a curious detail emerged. In Sessions's recusal memo, it was explained who at the Justice Department would be handling any investigations into the Trump campaign's alleged ties to Russia. "Consistent with the succession order for the Department of Justice, Acting Deputy Attorney General and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Dana Boente shall act as and perform the functions of the Attorney General with respect to any matters from which I have recused myself to the extent they exist," reads Sessions's official statement on the matter....

The fix was in to protect Justice Department officials as high up as the US Attorney General even before the Awan investigation started, FBI veterans with knowledge of the case now fear. And so far President Barack Obama, who appointed the US Attorney in the District of Columbia who is slow walking the case, has proven insulated too from an investigation now on the fringes of exposing espionage and blackmail of Democratic members of Congress. The US Attorney in DC is Channing Phillips, who worked for Loretta Lynch and Eric Holder in key roles during their tenures as US Attorney...

Chris Gowen, Imran Awan’s lawyer, is a long-time campaigner for former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a member of an attorney team that brought a fraudulent lawsuit against energy giant Chevron. Pakistani-born Awan was arrested late Monday at Dulles Airport in Northern Virginia before he could board a flight to Qatar and then Pakistan on bank fraud charges. Awan, his younger brothers, Abid and Jamal, his wife, Hina Alvi, and Rao Abbas, his best friend, have been subjects of a federal criminal investigation led by the U.S. Capitol Police and including the FBI since...

Senior Justice Department official Bruce Ohr has provided a point-by-point narrative of his actions promoting the 2016 Democratic Party-financed dossier that conflicts with Rep. Adam B. Schiff’s official version, according to a comparison of the two. Mr. Schiff, a California Democrat who has promised a wide investigation of President Trump as chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, issued a memo last year on the FBI’s early-on investigation into the Republican’s campaign. It was a counter to a report issued Feb. 2 by Rep. Devin Nunes, a California Republican who was chairing the committee. Mr. Nunes won White...

Today, I sent this letter to House IG Mike Ptasienski calling for the release of potentially critical information related to the Imran Awan investigation. There are serious questions about this investigation & the American people deserve to know the truth. see below for letter

So back to the tragic murder of Jamal Khashoggi. My intelligence sources tell me he had worked as an intelligence agent for the Saudi intelligence service, GID, for around 20 years. At one point he was sent by GID to Sudan to meet Osama bin Laden and to try to lure him away from terrorism. He failed. Khashoggi had always been close to the Muslim Brotherhood, the people who took over Egypt under Morsi following the so-called Arab Spring. The Muslim Brotherhood is a hard-line Islamist organisation dedicated to the introduction of Sharia and the creation of an Islamic caliphate....

Three of the highest ranking cyber-investigators announced immediate retirement. They say it isn’t because of all the Justice Department scandals but the frustration of not being able to do their jobs, as pointed out by a recent DOJ report, might have been too much to bear. Top cyber-sleuths are leaving the Federal Bureau of Investigation in droves. Three more departures were announced by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday. Washington, D.C. bureaucrats are screaming that this couldn’t happen at a worse time. Threats “like Russia’s election interference and online foreign influence campaigns, have reached a point of alarm,” writes CNN....

Federal prosecutors concluded an 18-month investigation into a former congressional technology staffer on Tuesday by publicly debunking allegations — promoted by conservative media and President Trump — suggesting he was a Pakistani operative who stole government secrets with cover from House Democrats.

Over 40 offices in the House of Representatives may have fallen victim to an “IT security violation,” according to a secret memo from top congressional law enforcement to the Committee on House Administration. The memo, written in part by Paul Irving, the House’s sergeant at arms, detailed the disappearance of a server for the House Democratic Caucus following its marking as evidence in a cybersecurity probe. Imran Awan, email server administrator to former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and members of his family had logged into the server more than 7,000 times between 2015 and 2016 without proper authorization. Since...

A secret memo marked “URGENT” detailed how the House Democratic Caucus’s server went “missing” soon after it became evidence in a cybersecurity probe. The secret memo also said more than “40 House offices may have been victims of IT security violations.” In the memo, Congress’s top law enforcement official, Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving, along with Chief Administrative Officer Phil Kiko, wrote, “We have concluded that the employees [Democratic systems administrator Imran Awan and his family] are an ongoing and serious risk to the House of Representatives, possibly threatening the integrity of our information systems and thereby members’ capacity to serve constituents.”...

Reports of the FBI seizing computer hard drives form the home of the congressional IT director and aide of Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz are accurate, according to FBI sources: with the exception of one major detail. The computer hard drives were not damaged when they were confiscated, FBI sources said. The FBI, who is working in some capacity to assist with the Capitol Police on the Awan investigation, confirm the hard drives and other computer equipment have been damaged but are pointing the finger at the Capitol Police’s chain of custody with the evidence. The FBI, they said,...

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’ indicted former IT aide, Imran Awan, was married to two Virginia women simultaneously, and 15 days after one of them told police that Imran kept her “like a slave,” gunmen shot into her family home, according to police reports filed in Pakistan. Timeline: 10/16/2015 Siddique calls police to her apartment in Virginia; they observe “cut on stomach and arm” 11/16/2015 Fairfax, Virginia police report on telephone threats involving Imran and Siddique 4/2016 Inspector General investigation into Imran’s finances begins 7/18/2016 Siddique calls police to her apartment and tells them Imran “treat her bad and keep her...

The curious case of Imran Awan, which sounds like an international spy thriller, is entering its third act. Awan was a congressional IT aide to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., and he was finally fired just after he was arrested trying to fly to Pakistan last summer. Awan and his wife, Hina Alvi, were charged last summer with bank fraud. They now appear poised to strike a plea deal with the Department of Justice. A plea agreement hearing is set for July 3 before U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan in Washington, Fox News reported Wednesday.

FULL TITLE: VIDEO: Imran Awan’s Attorney’s Epic Meltdown: Slams Trump, Offers to Sell Case Evidence to Reporter for Cash, Calls Marine a Criminal Imran Awan’s attorney Chris Gowen is not the brightest bulb in the shed. The attorney snapped Thursday, unleashed an epic meltdown that could jeopardize his client’s scheduled plea hearing on July 3. Unglued is not a strong enough word to describe Gowen’s rant, triggered by Crowdsource the Truth editor Jason Goodman who recorded the phone call. Gowen likely crossed the legal line, offering to sell Goodman evidence in the Awan case for $1,000. That offer came after...

<p>Wasserman Schultz cornered House Chief Administrative Officer Phil Kiko and called him a “fucking Islamophobe,” saying “you will not so much as take away their parking spots,” the two House employees said Kiko told them.</p>

The husband and wife team of Imran and Hina Alvi Awan will be pleading guilty to federal charges, according to new court documents. After 11 months of unexplained court delays. But few know exactly to what federal charges at this time. The duo, indicted for bank fraud, are expected in federal court on July 3 for a plea hearing. Sentencing would normally follow about 90 days after they attest to the plea agreement in court. This story is developing Why does Obama-Crony judge keep postponing the Imran Awan trial? To allow him to flee to Pakistan, where co-defendant and wife...

The Capitol Police turned over a trove of evidence in the alleged Imran Awan House cyberbreach and theft case to the defense attorneys when they were supposed to deliver it to prosecutors instead, according to court documents and a source. And hours after The Daily Caller News Foundation asked prosecutors about the disclosure, Awan’s lawyer said he had learned of the forthcoming story from a source on Capitol Hill. TheDCNF had not told anyone other than prosecutors about it. “The cop came to [Awan’s defense attorney] Chris Gowen’s office with a stack of papers … Then he came back and...

The federal court case against Imran Awan, the former IT aide to congressional Democrats, has been hit with repeated delays over the last six months -- a situation fueled by allegations in the media that, according to his attorney, have piqued the curiosity of prosecutors. Since November, a judge has postponed Awan’s court hearing in U.S. District Court five times at the request of the prosecution and defense. The latest postponement came Thursday, when the judge pushed Friday’s scheduled hearing to June 7. In an interview Thursday with Fox News, Awan’s attorney, Christopher J. Gowen, blamed the delays on the...