Free Republic

President Trump declared on Wednesday that he would scrap a planned summit meeting with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, or even walk out of the session while it was underway, if his diplomatic overture was not heading toward success. Mr. Trump continued to express optimism — verging on eagerness — about sitting down with the North’s reclusive leader. But as the momentum for a meeting grows in both Washington and East Asia, the president acknowledged that it was a perilous undertaking that could still end in failure. “If I think that it’s a meeting that is not going to be...

The House voted Wednesday to implement a series of bipartisan changes to the IRS that were billed as customer service improvements. The votes had been planned for weeks to go along with Tax Day, but were given added timeliness with the IRS’ website failure Tuesday just as taxpayers faced the filing deadline. Two bills passed in Wednesday’s votes. One, the 21st Century IRS Act, would overhaul parts of the agency’s cybersecurity and information technology practices. It passed with only three "no" votes, all Republicans. Another, the Taxpayer First Act, which passed unanimously, would set new rules on the agency's interactions...

Dissenting judge on panel worries ruling could foster ‘inappropriate… political attacks’ on presidencyA federal appeals court said this week it will appoint a lawyer to argue that former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s contempt of court conviction should remain on his record despite President Trump’s pardon. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that since the federal Justice Department is supporting both the pardon and Mr. Arpaio’s request to have his conviction stricken, someone else needs to argue the other side. Mr. Arpaio argues that the pardon came before he had a chance to appeal his conviction, and even before...

Washington, DC – Rep. Ron DeSantis (FL-06) today sent a letter, along with several colleagues, to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and US Attorney John Huber, asking them to investigate several Obama-era officials for potential violation(s) of federal statutes. These officials include former FBI Director James Comey, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, former Acting Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe, FBI Agent Peter Strzok and FBI Counsel Lisa Page, among others. Read the criminal referral here. The following members have joined DeSantis in this call for equal application of the law:...

<p>The pilot’s voice was calm yet focused as her plane descended with 149 people on board.</p> <p>“Southwest 1380, we’re single engine,” Tammie Jo Shults, a former fighter pilot with the U.S. Navy, said. “We have part of the aircraft missing so we’re going to need to slow down a bit.” She asked for medical personnel to meet her aircraft on the runway. “We’ve got injured passengers.”</p>

A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he would not be making floor time for legislation designed to shield Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III from firing. McConnell’s determination that the action is not needed is apparently regardless of what happens in the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I don’t think he should fire Mueller, and I don’t think he’s going to,” the Kentucky Republican said. “So, this is a piece of legislation that’s not necessary in my judgment.”

CIA Director Mike Pompeo made a top-secret visit to North Korea over Easter weekend as an envoy for President Trump to meet with that country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, according to two people with direct knowledge of the trip. The extraordinary meeting between one of Trump’s most trusted emissaries and the authoritarian head of a rogue state was part of an effort to lay the groundwork for direct talks between Trump and Kim about North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, according to the two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the highly classified nature of the talks.

Breaking...

A former Minneapolis FBI agent caught leaking classified documents to The Intercept pleaded guilty in federal court in St. Paul Tuesday afternoon.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 3-1 to support the Trump administration’s lawsuit against California over laws that the state passed last year to limit its role in immigration enforcement. The county will file an amicus brief at the first available opportunity, likely on appeal, said Kristin Gaspar, supervisor for District 3 and chairwoman of the board. “We’re talking about people who are crossing the border illegally, coming into this county and committing a crime and them being let loose probably to commit another crime,” said Dianne Jacobs, supervisor for District 2. “That creates a public safety issue...

PHILADELPHIA — A Southwest Airlines jet apparently blew an engine at about 30,000 feet and got hit by shrapnel that smashed a window and damaged the fuselage Tuesday, killing a passenger and injuring seven others, authorities said. The plane, a twin-engine Boeing 737 bound from New York to Dallas with 149 people aboard, made an emergency landing in Philadelphia just before noon as passengers breathing through oxygen masks that dropped from the ceiling said their prayers and braced for impact. "I just remember holding my husband's hand, and we just prayed and prayed and prayed," said passenger Amanda Bourman, of...

North and South Korea are preparing to officially end the war when their two leaders - Dictator Kim Jong-Un and President Moon Jae-in - meet next week. The two Koreas are technically still at war as the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty. South Korean media reports that the two sides had been discussing plans for a permanent end to the war at the North-South summit, citing an unidentified Seoul official.

A spokesperson for the office of special counsel Robert Mueller has released a warning about the media’s “many” fake news reports regarding the investigation into President Trump and Russian collusion, reports the Washington Times. “What I have been telling all reporters is that many stories about ohur investigation have been inaccurate,” the Mueller spokesperson said. “Be very cautious about any source that claims to have knowledge about our investigation and dig deep into what they claim before reporting on it. If another outlet reports something, don’t run with it unless you have your own sourcing to back it up.” The...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Tuesday that part of a federal law that makes it easier to deport immigrants who have been convicted of crimes is too vague to be enforced. The court's 5-4 decision concerns a provision of immigration law that defines a "crime of violence." Conviction for a crime of violence subjects an immigrant to deportation and usually speeds up the process. A federal appeals court in San Francisco previously struck down the provision as too vague, and on Monday the Supreme Court agreed. The appeals court based its ruling on a 2015 Supreme Court decision...

The Federal Judge, Kimba Wood, who is making decisions in the case against President Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen, is the same person who officiated George Soros wedding. Go figure. Today Judge Kimba Wood demanded, in open court, that attorney Michael Cohen state -on the record- the names of his clients….. Then, moments later, in a decision about the seized records taken by the FBI during their raid last week, Judge Wood demanded all of the Cohen records be transferred into a federal database so they could be searched, reviewed, categorized and then leaked more efficiently to the media.

Under plan, troops would replace American military contingent after ISIS defeat and help secure country’s north; proposal faces challenges. WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is seeking to assemble an Arab force to replace the U.S. military contingent in Syria and help stabilize the northeastern part of the country after the defeat of Islamic State, U.S. officials said. John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s new national security adviser, recently called Abbas Kamel, Egypt’s acting intelligence chief, to see if Cairo would contribute to the effort, officials said. The initiative comes as the administration has asked Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to...

An unnamed client of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's longtime personal attorney, is Fox News host Sean Hannity. The revelation came after U.S. District Court judge Kimba Wood ordered Cohen to disclose the name in a court hearing on Monday. In an earlier court filing Monday morning, lawyers for Cohen refused to identify the recent client — one of three people Cohen represented between 2017 and 2018. The lawyers also refused to identify the names of other past clients. Lawyers for Cohen — whose business records were seized by FBI agents April 9 — said the then-unnamed client had told...

A Russian investigative journalist who wrote about the deaths of mercenaries in Syria has died in hospital after falling from his fifth-floor flat. Maxim Borodin was found badly injured by neighbours in Yekaterinburg and taken to hospital, where he later died. Local officials said no suicide note was found but the incident was unlikely to be of a criminal nature.

Whole Title of Article: "Behind The IG Report — How The Obama Justice Department Tried To Shut Down The FBI’s Investigation Into The Clinton Foundation" Excerpt from Article: The Department of Justice Inspector General report on the “lack of candor” by FBI deputy Director Andrew McCabe also documents for the first time the Obama administration’s effort to shut down the bureau’s investigation of the Clinton Foundation, according to a review of the report by The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group.