Free Republic

Prosecutors on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team investigating alleged “collusion” between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia knew all along that the anti-Trump “dossier” compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele that fueled their probe was biased and likely phony. Yet instead of investigating those individuals at the FBI and Justice Department who actively participated in the dossier fraud – as he should have done – Mueller hired several of them to investigate Trump. Newly confirmed congressional testimony of former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr shows that he warned both the FBI and the Justice Department that Steele was...

A diet has been developed that promises to save lives, feed 10 billion people and all without causing catastrophic damage to the planet. Scientists have been trying to figure out how we are going to feed billions more people in the decades to come. Their answer - "the planetary health diet" - does not completely banish meat and dairy. But it requires a ginormous shift in what we pile onto our plates and turning to foods that we barely eat. What changes am I going to have to make? If you eat meat every day then this is the first...

When the annals of mistakes and abuses in the FBI’s Russia investigation are finally written, Bruce Ohr almost certainly will be the No. 1 witness, according to my sources. The then-No. 4 Department of Justice (DOJ) official briefed both senior FBI and DOJ officials in summer 2016 about Christopher Steele’s Russia dossier, explicitly cautioning that the British intelligence operative’s work was opposition research connected to Hillary Clinton’s campaign and might be biased. Ohr’s briefings, in July and August 2016, included the deputy director of the FBI, a top lawyer for then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch and a Justice official who later...

Sears Holdings reached a roughly $5 billion deal with its chairman, Eddie Lampert, early Wednesday to keep the company, and about 400 stores, in operations, according to people familiar with the situation. The deal came after days of negotiations at the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Lampert has been trying to buy Sears out of bankruptcy through an affiliate of his hedge fund ESL Investments. The owner of Kmart and Sears had filed for bankruptcy in October, and Lampert's bid was the only one that would have kept it alive. The offer had strong bargaining tools: It could save...

“To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen has been charged with issuing bad checks and failing to pay thousands of dollars to a vendor for marketing materials. Hansen, 59, of Shippan, Connecticut, turned himself into police over the bounced checks on Monday and was charged with "issuing a bad check," Stamford Police told Fox News. He was released without bond and signed a PTA or a promise to appear in court, police said. A Message from choosenissan.com Sponsored video Watch to learn more Hansen reportedly asked Peter Psichopaidas, the owner of Promotional Sales LTD, for mugs, decals and T-shirts for...

The GoFundMe campaign that generated $20 million in private donations is being shutdown and those who donated are being refunded their money unless they decide to donate it to a newly-established 501(c)4. Brian Kolfage, the veteran who started the campaign, on Friday posted the following message on the campaign's website: Eight days before Christmas I started this GoFundMe campaign because I was tired of watching the U.S. government’s inability to secure our southern border. Like most Americans, I see the porous southern border as a national security threat and I refuse to allow our broken political system to leave my family...

Voter Fraud: Democrats say they oppose President Trump's demand for money to start building a border wall on moral grounds. More likely it's because they know that unchecked immigration — legal or illegal — helps them win elections. If you don't think so, look at what happened in California in the midterms. A recent Los Angeles Times article — titled "How young immigrant 'Dreamers' made flipping control of the House a personal quest" — talked about how those who came to the country illegally as children had been running around California helping otherwise nonvoters fill out ballots. Ballot-Harvesting By 'Dreamers'...

Today we investigate one of the biggest medical controversies of our time: vaccines. There’s little dispute about this much-- vaccines save many lives, and rarely, they injure or kill. A special federal vaccine court has paid out billions for injuries from brain damage to death. But not for the form of brain injury we call autism. Now—we have remarkable new information: a respected pro-vaccine medical expert used by the federal government to debunk the vaccine-autism link, says vaccines can cause autism after all. He claims he told that to government officials long ago, but they kept it secret. Yates Hazlehurst...

DUBLIN, Ireland -- The Irish government is proposing rebates to a carbon tax it recently imposed to households that comply with what it considers "low-carbon lifestyles." The rebate, according to Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, might be in the form of a check, an increase in welfare benefits or a tax credit for people who live the way the government thinks they should. Some believe that if implemented, the rebate could reduce tensions seen in many parts of Europe, but especially in France, where the "yellow vest" movement that began as a protest against President Emmanuel Macron's big tax increase on...

The Alabama attorney general on Jan. 7, called on federal authorities to investigate the state’s 2017 special election for the U.S. Senate. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall made the announcement after conducting an informal inquiry into reports of a false-flag operation designed to boost Democrat Doug Jones, who defeated Republican Roy Moore by a thin margin in a hotly contested race. The New York Times reported in December that a secret social media operation funded by billionaire Democratic donor Reid Hoffman directed thousands of accounts designed to appear like Russian bots to follow Moore. A Facebook page then falsely portrayed...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is ready to tax the rich to make her Green New Deal a reality. “People are going to have to start paying their fair share in taxes,” the recently elected New York Democrat told TV show “60 Minutes” in an interview set to air Sunday. Speaking of prior decades’ taxation rates in the country, Ocasio-Cortez added, “Once you get to the tippy tops, on your 10 millionth dollar, sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent.” It shouldn’t be a surprise that the avowed “democratic socialist” went with the predictable “tax the rich”...

Existing Illegals in US problem can be solved by establishing the procedure for existing Illegals to come out of shadow and register, give those about 1 or 2 years to do so. That would give them working permit – visas, say for 3 years and chance to apply for resident status. Will have to pay taxes and keep registering their whereabouts and employment. One time exemption – "resident amnesty" to become Resident Alien (not citizen) for those who entered US before, say 2012, others would have to go back and apply from their home country. This is to avoid influx...

After a hard-fought battle to obtain records by the Sacramento Bee, we now learn that California's electoral officials are admitting that they have no idea how many illegals and other non-citizens voted in the last primary, based on the state's motor-voter registration, which has been shown to have registered thousands of non-citizen voters. California officials still can’t say whether non-citizens voted in the June 2018 primary because a confusing government questionnaire about eligibility was created in a way that prevents a direct answer on citizenship. Apparently, tens of thousands of foreign nationals and other ineligible voters, maybe 16 year olds,...

The “Dry Alabama” Facebook page, illustrated with stark images of car wrecks and videos of families ruined by drink, had a blunt message: Alcohol is the devil’s work, and the state should ban it entirely. Along with a companion Twitter feed, the Facebook page appeared to be the work of Baptist teetotalers who supported the Republican, Roy S. Moore, in the 2017 Alabama Senate race. “Pray for Roy Moore,” one tweet exhorted. In fact, the Dry Alabama campaign, not previously reported, was the stealth creation of progressive Democrats who were out to defeat Mr. Moore — the second such secret...

(CNN) — In recent weeks, a new consensus has emerged among many legal analysts and observers: Special counsel Robert Mueller is finally closing in on President Trump. This could be correct, but at present, it is still mostly conjecture. There remains a real possibility that Mueller will come up empty, at least in connection with President Donald Trump, his family, and high-level advisers. Neither liberals nor conservatives have adequately considered this prospect. They should. For liberals, it is an article of faith that Mueller will produce a damning report if only he is allowed to complete his investigation. Conservatives dispute...

House Democrats on Friday introduced a sweeping government reform package designed to weed Washington of corruption and bolster voting rights across the country — two of the party’s principal campaign promises — as its top legislative priority. Central to the package is a provision requiring the president and vice president to disclose their finances and tax forms going back 10 years— a direct shot at President Trump, who has defied historic precedent by refusing to release his tax returns. “Over the last two years, President Trump set the tone from the top in his administration that behaving ethically and complying...

In Orange County the Democrats harvested 250,000 absentee ballots—enough to kill off four members of Congress, a State Senator and Assemblyman. Now we find out, through a technicality in the law, the harvesters in many cases were illegal aliens!! “The Times describes how California’s famed ballot-harvestors, who flipped places such as Orange County blue in the last midterm, aren’t actually citizens. They did it by “helping” voters fill out, and turn in, and continue to turn in, ballots from otherwise uncommitted voters until they got the result they wanted. Here’s the DREAMers “helping” the voters vote the way they wanted,...

I have zero interest in financially supporting any politician, much less ones I find morally unpalatable. Yet Democrats want to force me -- and every other American taxpayer -- to contribute, as a matter of public policy, to the campaigns of candidates we disagree with. Believe it or not, this might be an even more dangerous assault on free expression than unpleasant tweets directed at CNN anchors. One of Nancy Pelosi's first projects as the new speaker of the House will be passing a government overhaul of campaign finance and ethics rules that would, among other things, "expand voting rights."...

How about a movement to expel Pelosi from the House? Let’s see her tax returns. Let’s see all of her husband’s business dealings. https://t.co/a1m0rDCSOK— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) January 4, 2019

The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold its first hearing under the chamber’s new Democratic majority on climate change. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), who became the panel’s chairman Thursday when the new Democratic-majority House was sworn in, said climate will come before other major issues within Energy and Commerce’s broad jurisdiction, including health care and technology. Pallone said he is dedicating the first hearing to climate is meant in part to highlight how Democrats believe Republicans ignored the issue during their eight years in the majority. “Part of the reason why we want to deal with climate change first...