Free Republic

California Rep. Nancy Pelosi and her husband, venture capitalist Paul Pelosi, could earn a windfall of more than $1 million thanks to a bullish bet Paul made on a Bay Area tech company. The couple is eyeing Nvidia, a software and graphics chip company headquartered in Santa Clara. According to a recent financial filing Nancy submitted with the Clerk of the House of Representatives, Paul purchased 50 call options in Nvidia with a strike price of $120. The purchase was made on Nov. 22, 2023, and the contracts expire on Dec. 20, 2024. Paul’s call options have a strike price...

The Joe Biden regime has classified elite getaways, including Martha’s Vineyard, as “low-income” in an effort to qualify them for an electric vehicle (EV) charger subsidy program under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The EV charger tax credit program was supposed to allocate subsidies to “low-income” or “non-urban” areas. An examination of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) eligibility map identified several upscale areas deemed “low-income” by the regime, allowing them to receive EV charger subsidies. To be seen as “low-income,” areas must either have a poverty rate of over 20 percent, a median income beneath 80 percent of their wider...

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) suggests that Russian influence has manipulated opponents of a border compromise that could usher in 5,000 or more migrants per day.Parroting similar talking points about Russian influence to Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 presidential campaign, Rounds seems to suggest that Russian disinformation about the border components or a broader deal, including aid to Ukraine, is to blame for the yet-unseen deal’s opposition.Rounds said Wednesday, “I suspect that a lot of the internet rumors are very well coming from overseas, where they would love to see this shut down because some people would rather not see funding for...

Squad progressive Rep. Cori Bush is under investigation by the Justice Department for allegedly misusing government funds meant for private security. Punchbowl News first reported that DOJ is conducting the criminal probe into Bush. On Monday, the Justice Department subpoenaed the House Sergeant at Arms for records related to the misuse of federal security money.

Georgia elections workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss sued Rudy Giuliani again on Monday seeking to “permanently bar” him from making public statements about them related to their involvement in counting ballots in the 2020 presidential election. The defamation suit was related to Giuliani’s statements about the two Georgia election workers seen on surveillance video from the State Farm Arena tabulation center on election night in 2020. Video played at a Georgia Senate hearing in December 2020 allegedly showed the election workers scanning ballots without an independent state monitor present. "The two women asked the court to prevent Giuliani...

Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the United States needed to “very much acknowledge” climate change was upon us. Anchor Jake Tapper said, “Experts warn that extreme disasters such as this one are only becoming more common because climate change is fueling stronger storms, hotter temperatures, more widespread droughts. Earlier this week, President Biden incorrectly claimed he had already declared a climate emergency, which would give him additional powers to combat the climate crisis. Given what you’re seeing on the ground, do you want President Biden to actually declare a climate emergency?”

Not too long ago, Wells Fargo got its head handed to it by regulators, drawing a $3 billion fine for opening fake accounts in real customers' names, to beef up their bonuses as well as fool shareholders into thinking the business was growing, potentially driving up the stock price. That's no partisan take -- that's just plain dishonesty. The bank had to pay a $3 billion fine, at least one executive faced prison and a hefty personal fine of $17 million, and if anything, it was too little. A small fry bank that did this would rightly be shut down...

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop Fernández, new DDF prefect, interfered in judicial investigation, victims’ attorneyCardinal-designate Víctor Manuel Fernández, the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, “worked quickly” to “interfere in the judicial investigation” into abuse allegations against Father Eduardo Lorenzo, the attorney for Lorenzo’s alleged victims charged.The Associated Press reported on attorney Juan Pablo Gallego’s remarks about the canonical investigation in a Spanish-language article. The attorney’s remarks did not appear in the AP’s companion English-language article.Gallego asserted that “the Interdiocesan Ecclesiastical Tribunal of La Plata under the mandate of Fernández provided elements that sought to protect” Father...

FBI official in charge of Mar-a-Lago raid had strong misgivings about the operationA senior FBI official involved in planning the raid of former President Donald Trump‘s Florida residence told Congress two days ago he had strong reservations about the operation and the investigation.The House Judiciary released new information about the raid of Mr. Trump‘s residence and his indictment that details several deviations from the Justice Department’s usual protocol.The information was provided to the Committee via a June 7 transcribed interview of Steven D’Antuono, the former assistant director-in-charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.Details of Mr. D’Antuono’s interview were related to...

As a conservative, I have watched with increasing concern as the left wing of the Democratic Party has pushed for greater control over the US banking system. This push has been fueled by a misguided belief that the banking system is inherently corrupt and that only government intervention can save it. However, as renowned conservative economist Milton Friedman once said, “The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem.” In other words, the left wing’s proposed solution of greater government control over the banking system would likely only exacerbate the problem. If the left wing of...

Nishad Singh is third person in founder’s inner circle agreeing to cooperate with federal prosecutors ... The collapse of FTX has set off the largest crypto-related bankruptcy ever ... Singh said that in mid-2022 he learned that Mr. Bankman-Fried’s crypto hedge fund Alameda Research was borrowing FTX customer funds. By September 2022, Alameda was no longer able to repay the billions of dollars that it had taken from FTX, Mr. Singh said. He said that, at the direction of Mr. Bankman-Fried, he falsified FTX’s revenues to make the company more appealing to investors. ... Mr. Singh also pleaded guilty to...

The founder of FTX used executives as cut-outs for donations, prosecutors allege... That Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former chief executive of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX that recently filed for bankruptcy, was aggressively using campaign donations as part of a campaign to woo Washington toward his vision of cryptocurrency regulation was no secret — nor was it a secret that other FTX executives quickly became some of the country’s biggest political donors to both Republicans and Democrats, especially those who work on financial regulation. But a new federal criminal indictment alleges that things may have been even simpler than they...

Two academics at Stanford University secured the $250 million bond on behalf of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried ahead of his trial, court documents revealed on Wednesday. Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty last month to eight charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and conspiracy to defraud the Federal Election Commission through campaign finance violations. His cryptocurrency empire collapsed at the end of last year after users and investors learned that FTX had improperly commingled funds with sister trading company Alameda Research. Mark Cohen, a lawyer for Bankman-Fried who previously defended Jeffrey Epstein confidant Ghislaine Maxwell,...

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources contracted with a company in 2017 to develop a system, known as WV PATH, to help the agency better manage programs including Medicaid, food assistance and its child welfare system. With less than four years left on the contract, the project still isn’t complete. Senate Finance Committee Chair Eric Tarr, who has questioned DHHR about the missing database, said the project has cost $173 million as of July 2022 based on information from DHHR. “The first risk is harm to kids,” Tarr, R-Putnam, said. “The larger risk is that the feds...

Just one of the lesser scandals generated by Joe Biden's son, Hunter, is his apparent illegal statement when he bought a handgun. The New York Post reported that in October 2018 Hunter Biden’s sister-in-law-turned-lover, Hallie Biden, allegedly tossed Hunter’s .38-caliber revolver in a dumpster outside a grocery store in Wilmington, Del. Hallie, who had been married to Hunter’s late brother Beau Biden, reportedly claimed in text messages that she was afraid her boyfriend would "use" the gun, the report said

The mayor and all four council members in New Jersey's East Hanover township are switching from the Democrat to Republican Party, in a move they say is in the "best interest of the community."The township has a population of about 11,100."Municipal leaders have a responsibility to best represent their constituents, and it is our belief this change of party is in the best interest of the community," Mayor Joseph Pannullo said Tuesday, according to The New Jersey Globe."As the nastiness, rhetoric, and social media vitriol of national politics continues to infiltrate local governance, we collectively determined this was the best...

Ukraine corruption scandal claims several top officials KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Several senior Ukrainian officials, including front-line governors, lost their jobs Tuesday in a corruption scandal plaguing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government as it grapples with the nearly 11-month-old Russian invasion. Ukraine’s biggest government shake-up since the war began came as U.S. officials said Washington was poised to approve supplying Kyiv with M1 Abrams tanks, with international reluctance eroding toward sending tanks to the battlefront against the Russians. Zelenskyy was elected in 2019 on an anti-establishment and anti-corruption platform in a country long gripped by graft, and the new allegations come...

Pfizer and the VaticanSources say Pope Francis met privately twice last year with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla The Register has learned that Pope Francis privately held undisclosed meetings with the CEO of Pfizer last year as questions arise over the efficacy of the vaccines in preventing transmission, which are now being mandated for all Vatican staff and visitors.According to Vatican sources, the Holy Father twice met Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla at the Vatican, although the precise details are not known. Unlike most papal private audiences, these meetings were not announced by the Holy See Press Office, which did not...

Archbishop Paglia: Financial Reform?On December 14, The Pillar reported the following: Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia diverted hundreds of thousands of euros allocated to support missionary and charitable works while he served as president of the Pontifical Council for the Family. Paglia used much of the money to finance building projects in Rome, including the renovation of his personal apartment. . . .According to multiple independent sources with knowledge of the events, Archbishop Paglia confirmed in a 2015 memo to Holy See financial officials that hundreds of thousands of euros had been paid to an Italian construction contractor instead of going to...

Lawsuits, criminal investigations, new scandals: what is going on with Libero Milone and the Vatican?The Holy See’s former auditors remain locked in legal disputes with Vatican court officials in their attempt to bring a lawsuit against the Secretariat of State for wrongful dismissal. The lawsuit, and linked criminal investigation into the former auditors, has the potential to develop into a full-blown parallel legal process alongside the ongoing financial crimes trial in Vatican City — and could potentially bring dramatic new allegations of corruption to light, or derail the so-called “trial of the century” entirely. So as the end of the...