Free Republic

Federal agents spent months tracking down Conn, who cut off his electronic monitor and fled in June. Conn pleaded guilty in March to stealing from the federal government and bribing a judge in a more than $500 million Social Security fraud case.

In case you missed it over the weekend, news broke that Special Counsel Robert Mueller removed an FBI agent from his investigation into the 2016 presidential election after the agent sent anti-Trump, pro-Hillary text messages to his girlfriend earlier this year. The agent has been identified as Peter Strzok, one of the agency’s most experienced and trusted counterintelligence investigators, said the New York Times, which first reported the dismissal. The allegations came to light after the Justice Department’s inspector general started examining Strzok's messages. “Immediately upon learning of the allegations, the Special Counsel’s Office removed Peter Strzok from the investigation,”...

Two Senate Republican campaign staffers have resigned after they were caught breaking into a fundraising database kept by the House Republican campaign committee, according to a new report by Politico.

When it comes to “leadership”, Barack Obama knows what he’s talking about. (We know you can feel the sarcasm dripping off of those words, right?) After his eight year party-on-the-White House lawn, Obama is still jet-setting around the world and offering up his take on our current administration. BHO flew to Paris to speak at an invitation-only event organized by a network of communications professionals known as the Napoleons. He lunched with President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee palace. And although Obama did not mention President Donald Trump by name (of course, he wouldn’t dare sully his tongue), who announced...

The answer lies in Russia’s adept use of carrots and sticks to bind the oligarchs more closely to the regime. The Putin administration has spent lavishly to convince the heads of the business community that it is the only game in town: a popular, competent, but also merciless government that faces no real alternatives to its hold on power. However, this co-optation strategy carries a unique set of risks as well as critical implications for U.S. policymaking going forward. Oligarchs in Russia are now more invested in domestic politics than ever, made dependent on government action to protect and grow...

Former FBI Director James Comey just couldn’t help himself. Shortly after his longtime friend and former colleague Robert Mueller procured a guilty plea from former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who will reportedly testify against President Trump and members of his family, Comey tweeted a Bible passage in what seemed like gloating: “But justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream”. “But justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” Amos 5:24 https://t.co/o89PSY1YBd — James Comey (@Comey) December 1, 2017 Two days earlier, Comey published another cryptic tweet that seems to suggest he might’ve...

TRENTON -- An Essex County welfare division employee has been indicted on charges she filed bogus claims for more than $7,000 in wage reimbursement and disability payments for work she claimed to have missed because of car accidents, authorities said Wednesday. Fatu K. Rimbert, 31, of Perth Amboy, was charged with insurance fraud, impersonation and theft by deception, according to the state Attorney General's Office. Rimbert is accused of submitting "forged and altered" documents to insurance firms in order to get wage reimbursement and disability payments for days she was purportedly out of work after two vehicle accidents, prosecutors said.

By Wallace Bruschweiler & William Palumbo Reading the constant newspaper headlines over the past weeks and months, it’s high time we ask ourselves: are we living in a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah? These Biblical cities were infamously smote by God’s righteous cleansing by a rain of fire and brimstone; what will we do to rectify today’s situation? The number of cases of sexual harassment/abuse from society’s so-called “elites,” (and since they run the media, government, and Hollywood, “elite” is no idle label) points to a disturbing – and, frankly revolting – number of sexual criminals running our country’s government...

Arnold Reed, attorney for Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich), asserted a claim of "constitutional immunity" in a bid to shield the congressman from charges that he wrongfully spent $27,000 in public monies to purchase the silence of a woman he is alleged to have sexually harassed. "My client is no ordinary person," Reed said. "He is a member of Congress. As such, he is entitled to privileges granted to such members by the Constitution. Among these privileges is immunity from arrest for any crimes save treason, felony, and breach of the peace. Even if true, the allegations made against him do...

“Dopey” Prince Alaweed Was Warned — Now He Sits In Prison In December 2015 Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal slammed Donald Trump for proposing a ban on Muslim immigrants in the US after the San Bernardino attacks. Donald Trump hit the “dopey prince” back twice as hard. "Detained members of Saudi elite have been hung by their feet and beaten by interrogates, source says. Among those hung upside down are Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, an investor worth at least $7 billion who is being held at Riyadh’s Ritz Carlton. Saudi princes and billionaire businessmen arrested in a power grab earlier...

The prominent Michigan congressman who illegally forced congressional staffers to be personal servants and work on state and local campaigns is embroiled in a major sex scandal. Various media outlets report that John Conyers, the longest serving House member and ranking Democrat of the powerful Judiciary Committee, secretly settled a sexual harassment claim by an employee with taxpayer funds from his office budget. Additionally, multiple former staff members accuse the 88-year-old lawmaker of repeatedly making sexual advances toward female staff. Democratic colleagues have already called for a House Ethics Committee probe, but there’s little hope Conyers will be punished since...

""Judicial Watch: New FBI Records Show FBI Leadership’s Conflicts of Interest Discussions on Clinton Email Investigation"" Advised of possible conflict of interest between Jill McCabe candidacy and Clinton email investigation, Comey responded that he “has no issue with it” Dep. Dir. McCabe used official FBI email to promote wife’s candidacy: ‘Check her out on Facebook as Dr. Jill McCabe for Senate.’ (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released 79 pages of Justice Department documents concerning ethics issues related to FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s involvement with his wife’s political campaign. The documents include an email showing Mrs. McCabe was recruited...

Despite Whirlpool’s arguments being the corporate equivalent of a child who wants dessert but not to clean his room, the ITC sided with Whirlpool and is now considering which “remedies” to impose. Whirlpool, for its part, suggests a prohibitively high 50 percent tariff on washing machine imports from LG and Samsung. Implementing this tariff, even in a temporary manner, would harm opportunities for thousands of American workers. Samsung is already in the process of building a washing machine factory in South Carolina, expected to employ nearly 1,000 American workers. LG is constructing a factory in Clarksville, Tennessee, which would employ...

Imagine: even the New York Times’ Ross Douthat now thinks that Bill Clinton should have stepped down over the Monica Lewinsky affair. Douthat's mea culpa op-ed in this past weekend’s paper, in which he confesses that he and others may have been wrong to dismiss Bill Clinton’s indefensible behavior, will serve as the official political obituary for Clinton, Inc. Hillary Clinton is done, finished, kaput. Dogged by scandals old and new, out of step politically, her excess baggage has morphed into an entire baggage train, dragging her towards political oblivion. While it is refreshing to consider the landscape unadorned by...

Lois G. Lerner, the former director of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations Unit, filed court documents on Thursday requesting the sealing in perpetuity of tapes and transcripts of depositions she gave in court this year, Washington Times reports. Lerner claimed members of her family, including “young children,” have received death threats due to her role in the IRS targeting scandal, in which conservative and tea party groups had their tax-exempt status denied or delayed until after the 2012 election.

What a disgusting cesspool of self-serving corruption is the nation’s capital and no better example of that can be found today than Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell who, according to longtime political activist, Ned Ryun, was a primary source of the anti-Roy Moore stories that are now attempting to sway the upcoming Alabama special election and help clear the path for a Trump impeachment attempt in 2018. “…I strongly suspect it’s a very short list of people, all who are associated with Mitch McConnell – whether it’s Josh Holmes, whether it’s Karl Rove, might even be Steven Law – I...

As Ed Morrissey pointed out yesterday, New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez is off the hook… for now. Even if there isn’t another corruption trial to come (which is still up in the air) he will likely be facing a full investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee alongside other luminaries such as Al Franken and even Roy Moore if he somehow manages to win a seat.The Menendez victory dance was a bit offputting to say the least, and even in his moment of temporary victory he had to find someone to blame for all of his legal troubles. Who better than...

Few things are more painful to me than the abuse of power, or incompetence in the execution of that power. The consequences for those affected by such malfeasance and clumsiness are so great as to demand a sense of outrage from us all. Over the last year, for example, dozens of men, including the president of the United States himself, have been credibly accused of sexual assault and sexual misconduct. And the fact that they were powerful men made the allegations really sting. That’s why I find misconduct and chicanery on the part of the law enforcement community so troubling....

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A tearful Corrine Brown made her plea to the court Thursday afternoon, asking the judge to consider all she has done in her life and to show “mercy and compassion.” Brown, 71, was convicted in May of 18 counts of conspiracy, fraud and filing false tax returns. She said those charges run contrary to everything she's ever done in her life, and that she considers her decades of public service an honor and a privilege. Corrine Brown Headlines Corrine Brown with her attorney, James-Smith Corrine Brown's attorney: People 'deserve second chances' After tears, tough questions, Corrine Brown...

We miss the days when Hillary Clinton was hiding out in the woods of Chappaqua, but that promotional tour for her book “What Happened” brought her out of the forest and into just about every bookstore still standing, as well as every news network, daytime chat show, and podcast. That tour seems to be winding down as Hillary hits smaller news outlets, but as Twitchy reported Wednesday night, there are new questions to ask. For example, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has reportedly made noises about appointing a special counsel to investigate the Clinton Foundation and Uranium One.