Free Republic

FBI Director James Comey on Monday publicly refuted President Donald Trump's claim that the Obama administration wiretapped Trump Tower before the 2016 election, saying neither he nor the Justice Department have evidence to back the president's explosive tweets. "With respect to the president's tweets about alleged wiretapping directed at him by the prior administration, I have no information that supports those tweets. And we have looked carefully inside the FBI. The Department of Justice has asked me to assure you that the answer is the same for the Department of Justice and all its components," Comey testified before the House...

During his Cabinet meeting Monday, President Donald Trump opened by saying, “We have four empty seats, which is a terrible thing.” Trump said it’s “because the Senate Democrats are continuing to obstruct the confirmation of our nominees,” the administration is lacking secretaries of labor and agriculture, a director of national intelligence, and a U.S. trade representative. “The main victim of this very partisan obstruction is the American public,” Trump said. However, it’s the absence of more than 500 deputy secretaries and assistant secretaries, ambassadors, and commissioners that could put the implementation of Trump’s agenda at risk, some conservatives fear. “Senate...

Donald J. Trump; Verified account @realDonaldTrump 3h3 hours ago We should start an immediate investigation into @SenSchumer and his ties to Russia and Putin. A total hypocrite!

The Trump administration is proposing to cut spending by 37% for the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development budget, according to a person familiar with the budget deliberations. ... One U.S. official said that the State Department is looking at development assistance to other countries as a significant source for the cuts.

"Before: CANBY and FRIEDLAND, Circuit Judges. The court has received appellants’ emergency motion (Docket Entry No. 14). Appellants’ request for an immediate administrative stay pending full consideration of the emergency motion for a stay pending appeal is denied. Appellees’ opposition to the emergency motion is due Sunday, February 5, 2017 at 11:59 p.m. PST. Appellants’ reply in support of the emergency motion is due Monday, February 6, 2017 at 3:00 p.m. PST."

Statement by the Press Secretary: At the earliest possible time, the Department of Justice intends to file an emergency stay of this order and defend the executive order of the President, which we believe is lawful and appropriate. The president’s order is intended to protect the homeland and he has the constitutional authority and responsibility to protect the American people. As the law states, "Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for...

The actions, part of a multi-day focus on immigration, are among an array of sweeping and immediate changes to the nation’s immigration system under consideration by the new president. The moves represent Trump’s first effort to deliver on perhaps the signature issue that drove his presidential campaign: his belief that illegal immigration is out of control and threatening the country’s safety and security. ... On Wednesday, Trump plans to speak to a town hall of employees at the Department of Homeland Security’s headquarters in Washington, where he is expected to sign the orders relating to the wall and “sanctuary cities.”...

The man arrested Tuesday for threatening to assassinate President-elect #Donald Trump during his inauguration is a member of a family with close personal ties to the Clintons, according to the UK's Daily Mail. Dominic Puopolo, who is currently being held at the Miami-Dade County jail, was arrested by Miami Beach police after using Twitter to threaten President-elect Trump's life and subsequently charged with threatening to harm a public servant. Puopolo reportedly confessed to posting a video online in which he declared that he would attend the inauguration and kill Donald Trump. He was apprehended Tuesday afternoon leaving a Subway restaurant....

The Justice Department’s inspector general has announced that his office will conduct a review that will focus principally on FBI director James Comey’s public statements regarding the Clinton e-mails investigation during the 2016 campaign. These were the three highly unusual announcements describing the status of the investigation in which no charges were filed: (1) the detailed presentation on July 5 of: the evidence uncovered against Hillary Clinton, a legal analysis of the applicable criminal statute, Comey’s determination that an indictment was not warranted, and his opinion that no reasonable prosecutor could disagree with his assessment; (2) the October 28 letter...

PHILADELPHIA (CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump is continuing to resist conclusions reached by US intelligence agencies on Russian involvement in the 2016 election, and on Saturday defended his long-held belief that closer ties with Russia would be good for the US. Trump’s comments come one day after he received intelligence stating that the Russian government hacked Democratic Party groups and individuals during the election, and that Moscow acted to hurt Hillary Clinton’s campaign to benefit Trump. “Having a good relationship with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. Only ‘stupid’ people, or fools, would think that it is...

Most famous among the executive orders: Obama’s unconstitutional shielding of illegal aliens from deportation in 2012, carving out exemptions for illegal aliens who arrived in the U.S. as minors. It granted a form of legal status and work permits to some 1.4 million illegals who signed up—and an “advance parole” that would let them claim U.S. citizenship, completely absent of Congressional oversight, let alone approval. Trump transition officials also asked to see any illegal aliens’ records who had been changed to ensure federal workers were not altering them to help the illegals stay in the U.S., according to Reuters. The...

On ABC’s “This Week,” ...President-elect Donald Trump response to Russian hacking, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said, “The president-elect, as you know, also said that he knows things that other people don’t know. He needs to stop talking this way. If he’s going to have any credibility as president, he needs to stop talking this way. He needs to stop denigrating the intelligence community.” KARL: So let’s pick up with the Russian hack. You heard from president-elect Trump last night saying he’s still not convinced it’s the Russians. He says hacking is a very hard thing to prove so it could...

Kellyanne Conway called the notion of Russian interference in the election to defeat Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump win the presidency “laughable and ridiculous.” On CBS's “Face the Nation” on Sunday morning, Trump's senior adviser and former campaign manager echoed statements made by her boss, who said in an interview with “Fox News Sunday” that he does not believe the CIA's conclusion that Russia had meddled in the presidential election to help him win. ... Conway said that there is no evidence that Russia had interfered to get Trump elected and that the Post story had no on-the-record sources....

Despite thermometers worldwide saying 2015 was the hottest year on record and 2016 promises to have been even hotter, Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that it’s actually getting colder. 1. This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bu*****t has got to stop. Our planet is freezing, record low temps,and our GW scientists are stuck in ice — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2014 2. Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump Obama’s speech on climate change was scary. It will lower our standard of living and raise costs of fuel & food for everyone. 1:31 PM - 26 Jun 2013 5. Donald J. Trump...

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's leader will likely seek reassurances that President-elect Donald Trump remains committed to the U.S.-Japan security alliance when the two meet in New York on Thursday. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to meet the incoming president on Thursday. It will be Trump's first meeting with a world leader since his election last week. Statements made by Trump during the campaign have caused consternation in many world capitals, including Tokyo. Trump said he would demand that allies such as Japan and South Korea contribute more to the cost of basing U.S. troops in their countries.

Google's chief executive Sundar Pichai, says it is important it and other social media businesses promote "accurate" stories to their billions of users.

Donald Trump ditched reporters on Tuesday night and went to a restaurant with his family, according to pool reports. The president-elect ducked out of Trump Tower without the group of reporters who have been following his transition meetings since he was elected last week. He was spotted at the 21 Club on West 52nd Street in New York, where the block was shut down and only a small group of reporters was allowed to stand outside the restaurant.

Mr. Trump’s administration is being assembled behind the scenes. But like much else in the nation’s capital, little stays secret for long. The list of names being mentioned as possibilities for crucial posts in Mr. Trump’s cabinet is growing by the hour, giving official Washington what it craves most: a never-ending parlor game as speculation grows about who might actually get the nod. A big revelation may come soon, according to Mr. Trump himself, who took to Twitter on Friday morning with some news. “Busy day planned in New York,” the president-elect said. “Will soon be making some very important...

Despite the conciliatory tone struck in President-elect Donald Trump’s victory speech early Wednesday morning, the man who could run his Justice Department left the door wide open to prosecuting Hillary Clinton. Rudy Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor, New York City mayor and a name on Trump's short list for attorney general, said Wednesday on Fox News' “The O’Reilly Factor” that Clinton was a legitimate target to be investigated and disputed that any prosecution would be political “payback.” “There’s one tradition in America, right? Election is over. We forget about it. There is another tradition in America which is ‘equal justice...

Maggie Passmore of St. Paul, Minnesota, had been watching election returns at a party but reverted to watching at home "when things got scary." She fell asleep, then awoke to learn that Donald Trump was defeating Hillary Clinton. "And then I threw up," said Passmore, 54. "My body totally rejected the result." Hours later, she found herself writing an email to her kids saying how terrified she was... Shock. Despair. A punch to the gut. Hopelessness. Countless female Clinton supporters used those words Wednesday to describe their feelings. Some spoke of collapsing in tears, or seeing strangers do the same...