Free Republic

Smartmatic — the company involved in a defamation lawsuit against Fox News over the latter’s reporting on the 2020 election — was indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami on Thursday for allegedly bribing a Philippine official in relation to the 2016 Philippine national elections.The indictment added the parent company of Smartmatic, SGO Corporation Ltd., as a defendant in the case already underway against three Smartmatic executives. The indictment charges that between 2015 and 2018, Smartmatic executives Roger Alejandro Piñate Martinez, Jorge Miguel Vasquez, and others “caused at least $1 million in bribes to be paid” to the former...

With the arrests and federal indictments of two California men announced on Thursday, we're now getting an idea of how California's billions of dollars to "end homelessness" vanished without a trace. Instead of helping to solve the problem of rampant tent encampments filled with addicts on the beaches and streets in California, things got worse. Where did all that money go? An audit in 2024 revealed that no one knew how the homeless money was spent. I wrote about this in "No Wonder Gavin Newsom Didn't Want an Audit to Track $24 Billion in Homeless Spending." The audit revealed that...

The Democrat-led state of Illinois spent more to give free health care to illegal migrants than the total it spent on its citizens in programs for foster kids, the elderly, its roadways, and the arts — combined. The 2025 budget, passed in June of 2024, totaled $53.1 billion in spending, inducing more than one billion dollars in new taxes. But despite the huge rise in taxes, Gov. JB Pritzker also signed onto a total of $629 million toward taxpayer-funded health care for illegal migrants called the Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults (HBIA). The mounting number of programs for illegal aliens...

Police in Alberta, Canada, are searching for Jessica Yaniv, also known as Jessica Simpson, in relation to a criminal harassment charge according to Western Standard. The outlet spoke with the complainant who said they are trying to confirm if the search extends to British Columbia, where Yaniv is from. No court records have yet been released in relation to the case and Calgary Police have yet to comment, so further details of the harassment have not been disclosed. In Canada warrants can be forced across different provinces if they are filed under a national database or authorized under a interprovincial...

President Donald Trump said Friday he had commuted the sentence of former U.S. Rep. George Santos, who is serving more than seven years in federal prison after pleading guilty to fraud and identity theft charges. The New York Republican was sentenced in April after admitting last year to deceiving donors and stealing the identities of 11 people — including his own family members — to make donations to his campaign. He reported to the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, in southern New Jersey, on July 25 and is being housed in a minimum security prison camp with fewer than 50...

Chilling security footage shows a sushi chef being randomly stabbed by a homeless woman while the chef was walking down the street to work. Wan Lai, 26, was walking down the sidewalk in a busy area of Melbourne, Australia, when a redheaded stranger ran up behind her, tapped her on the shoulder and plunged a knife into her chest. Lai, clearly stunned, clutches the wound and slowly sits on the ground as a good Samaritan runs over to help and offers Lai her coat, according to the clip. She was rushed to the hospital, where she spent three days recovering...

Networks are planning coverage of the nationwide No Kings protests on Saturday, the second round of demonstrations against President Donald Trump‘s actions in the White House. Thousands of events are being planned across the country, but there will be a few differences from the last day of demonstration in June. This time, it is taking place amid a government shutdown, with few signs that it will end soon. And there is an official event being planned in Washington, D.C. at Pennsylvania Ave. and Third Street NW near the National Mall and the Capitol. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Chris...

A Polish court on Friday blocked the extradition to Germany of a Ukrainian man suspected of involvement in the 2022 attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines and ordered his release, a ruling that was welcomed by Poland’s prime minister. Volodymyr Zhuravlov, 46, was arrested near Warsaw Sept. 30 on a German warrant. German prosecutors have described him as a trained diver and allege that he was part of a group that placed explosives on the pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm three years ago. The Warsaw District Court rejected his extradition on Friday and ordered his immediate release....

DONALD Trump has deployed 10,000 US troops, nuclear-capable bombers, and America’s most elite special operations unit — the “Night Stalkers” — to the waters off Venezuela. The Caribbean is now bracing for its most explosive showdown in decades as dictator Nicolás Maduro whips his country into a war footing and vows to repel any US attack. In a dramatic escalation, three B-52 bombers — the same heavy bombers used in Iraq and Syria — flew for hours off Venezuela’s coast this week. Meanwhile, MH-6 Little Birds and MH-60 Black Hawks from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the...

A protester in an inflatable frog suit who has risen to notoriety over clashes with immigration officers is a self-identifying non-binary Antifa terrorist, The Telegraph can reveal. The “Portland frog” has become a symbol of resistance for Left-wing agitators in Portland, Oregon during nightly protests which have plagued the city for months. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were filmed pepper-spraying the anonymous figure through his inflatable disguise, with the video quickly going viral. The person in the costume can now be unmasked as Seth Todd, a non-binary 24-year-old who previously called for the murders of Donald Trump and police...

The Albuquerque International Sunport has joined airports across the country in refusing to show a video of U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem blaming Democrats for the federal government shutdown. Mayor Tim Keller said in a statement Tuesday that political rhetoric was not welcome at the Sunport. “Our nation’s airports are not an appropriate venue for political messages, especially statements that will lead to confusion for the traveling public,” Keller said. “Our focus at the Sunport remains where it should be: the safety, security and experience of all travelers.” Federal workers nationwide, including agents at the Transportation Security Administration,...

Democratic party attorney Marc Elias on Thursday told MSNBC's "The Weeknight" that President Donald Trump is trying to intimidate his political "enemies" from being a meaningful and robust opposition to him. MICHAEL STEELE, CO-HOST: Marc, Marc, here we go again. One more, right? What's your reaction, my friend, as the indictment counts seem to mount up here? MARC ELIAS, DEMOCRATIC ATTORNEY, DEMOCRACY DOCKET FOUNDER: Yeah, look, I think that we can't overcomplicate this with all due respect to your one of your prior guests. The fact is Donald Trump came into office saying he's going to seek vengeance against...

The former special counsel was referred to the Justice Department by several current GOP lawmakers. Former special counsel Jack Smith was criminally referred to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Oct. 16 by multiple Republican lawmakers for alleged misconduct and possible disbarment. A group of GOP lawmakers, led by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, asking her office to refer Smith, who was involved in two federal cases against then-former President Donald Trump, to the Office of Professional Responsibility for an investigation. A statement from Blackburn’s office said Smith had “allegedly engaged in serious...

A security guard was arrested after allegedly shooting and killing a man who reportedly took $90 worth of merchandise from a Halloween store in Northeast Albuquerque Thursday evening. Josiah Armijo, 25, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder Friday. He was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center and does not yet have a lawyer. Officers were dispatched to the Spirit Halloween on Carlisle NE at Indian School around 5 p.m. Thursday following reports of a homicide. Upon arrival, police saw a man with a gunshot wound to the chest ... Security camera footage from the store showed the man place...

If their plan is just to rely on Trump’s overreach, then they’ll be repeating Biden’s mistakes.Voters certainly seem to be going south on President Donald Trump’s war on non-White immigrants. In a New York Times poll conducted in late September, a slim majority of registered voters said the president had gone too far in aggressively trying to ferret out and deport non-Americans — and that was before federal agents started using tear gas and pepper spray on the streets of Chicago.It’s a rare glimpse of bluer skies for Democrats since last year’s presidential election. But if their plan on immigration...

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe is defending his pro-life beliefs this week after he denied clemency to a convicted murderer and is facing criticism from activists who oppose the death penalty. Kehoe, a Republican, rejected last-minute appeals to halt the execution of Lance Shockley, who was convicted of killing Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham Jr. in 2005. Shockley was executed by lethal injection Oct. 14 in Bonne Terre, Missouri, marking the first execution since Kehoe took office as governor, Missouri news station First Alert 4 reported. “The murder of Missouri State Highway Patrol Sergeant Carl DeWayne Graham, Jr.,...

Summary Investigation predates Trump administration, unlike Comey and James Trump critics say he is using Justice Department to punish enemies Proving Bolton's diaries were classified may be complex Oct 17 (Reuters) - The indictment of John Bolton on charges of sharing classified information is stronger than the recent charges against two other political foes of President Donald Trump, but the former U.S. national security adviser has several options for mounting a defense, legal experts said.Bolton, 76, said in a statement on Thursday that he was the latest target in Trump's weaponization of the Justice Department against his enemies. He pleaded...

One guy used $2.1 MILLION to pay his American Express Credit Card

FLORENCE, Ariz. — The State of Arizona executed Richard Djerf by lethal injection on Friday at Arizona State Prison Complex-Florence.When asked if he had any last words, Djerf said he "did not."Witnesses to the execution said the inmate officially died at about 10:40 a.m. after some time was spent struggling to find a vein on Djerf's arm to insert a needle.The death penalty comes roughly 30 years after he admitted to killing four members of a Phoenix family.Court records show Djerf committed the murders for retribution of a "petty theft" of Albert Luna Jr., whose parents and two siblings were...

FBI Director Kash Patel tells Just the News that the bureau is "on the verge" of unmasking the command structure and financing for anarchist groups like Antifa that have unleashed unrest around America and has also identified potential new criminal activity related to the abuse of federal law enforcement and intelligence. "We are looking at so many different leads on criminal activity by those who are in positions of power, and we're not going to stop until every single one of those is fully exposed," Patel said during a wide-ranging interview this week on the "Just the News, No Noise"...