Free Republic

More than two dozen people were arrested in DC, Maryland and Virginia Wednesday as the ATF, the FBI and local agencies teamed up for a gang-related sting operation, according to authorities. Officials say the arrests stemmed from an investigation into Blood gang-related crimes throughout the area, particularly in Northern Virginia.The ATF announced earlier Wednesday they were engaged in "ongoing law enforcement activity" from Woodbridge to Alexandria. According to authorities, "Operation Tin Panda" started this past Spring, as they investigated Blood-related crimes over the course of the year.Officials say utilizing search warrants today, officers found guns, heroin and other drugs. Before...

(JTA) — The Palestine Liberation Organization office in Washington, D.C., canceled its Christmas reception due to President Trump’s expected announcement that he will be recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

WASHINGTON - FOX 5 has confirmed that multi-agency law enforcement activity is taking place in the D.C. region this morning. Federal law enforcement agencies, along with state and local authorities, are working in the Washington D.C. area. At this time, exact locations of activity have not been released nor have the nature of the operations.

Vice President Mike Pence may be tapped for an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller, who is spearheading an investigation to determine if the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, according to a report Tuesday. Although Pence has maintained he was unaware former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn spoke with former Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak about U.S. sanctions, court filings unsealed last week, along with new information revealed about Trump’s knowledge of certain events, suggest many advisers knew of Flynn’s communications with Kislyak. Pence oversaw Trump’s transition team and was aware that Flynn had contacted Russia,...

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday she was "not aware" of any plans by President Donald Trump to pardon former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn — saying any such discussion would be premature at this point. "I'm not aware that has come up or any process or decision on that front," she told reporters at the daily briefing. "No, I haven't asked the president whether or not he would do that. "Before we start discussing pardons for individuals, we should see what happens in specific cases," she added. When pressed further, Sanders responded: "I haven't the conversation...

The quest for collusion is over. Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation has not — either through leaks or announced indictments — revealed any collusion, and Democrats and their allies in the liberal mainstream media know that it never will. This reality is setting in among the president’s clearer-thinking foes, and they are transitioning to an obstruction of justice claim in an effort to sustain the fight with President Trump. Mueller’s investigation has been looking into Russian meddling in the 2016 election since May. His team has made a number of consequential findings, but none of them establish...

Fox News personality and radio host Sean Hannity told former White House strategist and Breitbart executive Steve Bannon that he thought that both of them “may end up in jail” for defending President Trump against a supposed “deep state” impeachment efforts. Last night Bannon hosted a special edition of “Breitbart News Tonight.” Hannity joined Bannon and Fox News political analyst Pat Goodell. It wasn’t long before the panel began to speculate about a secret plan orchestrated by “deep state” officials to remove Trump from the White House. “I think they’re coming after Trump because they understand they have to destroy...

Beijing is deploying to Syria thousands of members of two elite People Liberation Army units to combat extremist Islamic Uighurs fighting in the northern Syrian province of Idlib Those units are the Chinese Navy’s Night Tigers and the Shenyang Region’s Siberian Tigers. Beijing accuses Turkey’s MIT intelligence of backing the Chinese Islamist separatists. Examine in depth this extraordinary event which is befalling Syria in the last stages of its civil war.

Compared to states, the District ranks No. 2 for the percentage of adults who consume alcohol and No. 1 for the percentage of heavy drinkers, according to Detox.net, an online resource for alcohol abuse treatment programs. According to the study, 65.9 percent of adults in D.C. have had at least one drink in the past month, second only to Wisconsin’s 67.3 percent. The study was based on data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which collects health-related data from phone interviews. The study also says 11.1 percent of D.C. adults are what it...

The FBI must release the texts. All of them, between Peter Strzok, the top FBI investigator that special counsel Robert Mueller removed from the Russian investigation in August, and his colleague Lisa Page, so voters can examine for themselves whether the probe is what many, including our president, believe it is ... a partisan witch hunt. Without seeing the politically biased texts — the FBI has been stonewalling Congress for months on that and other document requests — one can safely assume the missives must have been highly problematic to prompt a dismissal. So what political biases did agent Strzok...

Donald Trump’s banking information has formally been turned over to Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor who is investigating whether the president’s campaign conspired with the Kremlin during the 2016 presidential election. Deutsche Bank, the German bank that serves as Trump’s biggest lender, was forced to submit documents about its client relationship with the president and some of his family members, who are also Deutsche clients, after Mueller issued the bank with a subpoena for information, according to multiple media reports. The news was first reported by Handelsblatt, the German newspaper.

Whatever Flynn’s other transgressions may be -- the White House says he lied to Vice President Pence about his conversations last year with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and the FBI could investigate whether he told federal agents the truth in interviews -- he almost certainly doesn’t have to worry about the Logan Act. In the 218 years since its passage, not a single person has been convicted of violating the law.

DOJ tells Senate Judiciary confidential informant wasn’t interviewed prior to indictments on Russian nuclear bribery case “In all my years as a federal prosecutor I would not have ever filed an indictment without interviewing the main witness,” said Victoria Toensing, attorney for William Campbell Jr., former confidential informant. Department of Justice prosecutors did not interview a confidential informant and main witness in a Russian nuclear industry bribery and laundering case in 2014, prior to issuing its indictments against the defendants, this reporter has learned. This “oversight” was disclosed in a briefing by the Department of Justice to the Senate Judiciary...

The Washington Post faced swift backlash on Twitter Sunday evening after tweeting “White nationalists angered by Mexican immigrant’s acquittal in Kate Steinle’s killing.” While yes, White Nationalists are in fact angry about the slaying and subsequent acquittal, they certainly aren’t alone — and being angry doesn’t mean that you are one. Angry Twitter users promptly seized upon the tweet to slam the outlet for their poor-taste in framing the issue: "So if you're mad a seven time convicted felon got away with murder you must be a white nationalist. " "You guys have been taking too many lessons from the...

WASHINGTON — Drivers on eastbound Interstate 66 saw tolls fluctuate frantically and top out at almost $35 during the Monday morning commute, the first with dynamic tolling on the highway. Rush-hour tolling began at 5:30 a.m. and early morning drivers saw tolls at around $3.50. Within an hour, the tolls had risen to $10 and eventually reached $34.50 at the height of rush-hour. By 9 a.m., prices were back down to below $10, said WTOP’s traffic reporter Dave Dildine, who spent the morning driving on I-66 to report the latest conditions. “It’s going to take some time for us to...

No one seems especially shocked. Last week on WAMU, the National Public Radio affiliate that broke the story, the Washington Post’s Robert McCartney called it “fraudulent” and “a terrible embarrassment.” But he quickly added, “It shouldn’t be that much of a surprise, though, to anybody who has been following District schools for any length of time.” In an analysis for the Post, Valerie Strauss concluded, “It is, unfortunately, familiar.” The “it” involves Ballou High School, described as “a historically troubled school serving some of the city’s most disadvantaged students in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.” However, earlier this year...

A 34-year-old activist admitted in court Tuesday to discussing a plot to disrupt an inaugural ball for Trump supporters with an acid attack inside the National Press Club in downtown Washington.Scott R. Charney, of Northwest Washington, pleaded guilty in D.C. Superior Court to conspiracy to commit assault, a misdemeanor. In an agreement with prosecutors, the criminal record will be expunged if he performs 48 hours of community service.The arrest of Charney hours ahead of the Jan. 19 DeploraBall attracted national attention, with police saying they had successfully foiled a dangerous plan to spread butyric acid through the press club’s ventilation...

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Wednesday criticized President Donald Trump after he retweeted anti-Muslim propaganda originally shared by Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of the extremist group Britain First. "It is shameful and dangerous that the president of the United States is retweeting disturbing and violent anti-Muslim videos sourced from a far-right nationalist with a long and dubious record of propagating hate videos. ....

President Trump dredged up a notorious old mystery with his latest bomb at NBC, citing the bizarre death 16 years ago of a young female staffer in the office of then-congressman and current “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough. The story of Lori Klausutis has dogged Scarborough on the Internet since she was found dead in his Florida district office on July 19, 2001. Although Scarborough was out of town — and the medical examiner later ruled she had died after falling and hitting her head on a desk — conspiracy theorists have long speculated, with no reliable evidence, that Scarborough...

Just 2 weeks ahead of the Alabama Senate race, One America News uncovers shocking ties between Roy Moore accusers and a major news organization. One America’s Pearson Sharp has the exclusive report and reveals how one woman’s ties to drug dealers throws her whole story into question.