Free Republic

Barack Obama and Joe Biden had such a "fraught relationship" that Obama wanted to drop Biden from the 2012 Democratic ticket, according to excerpts from a new book obtained by the Daily Mail. Obama considered replacing his vice president with Hillary Clinton, leaving Biden "distraught," according to The Long Alliance by Gabriel Debenedetti. Obama eventually stuck with Biden, though he was furious at his veep's decision to blurt out the administration's support for gay marriage, an announcement Obama wanted to make. Biden's actions were "tantamount to betrayal" and "an example of Biden trying to position himself in front of the...

A co-founder of an embattled upstate New York self-help organization is expected to plead guilty in a case featuring sensational claims that some followers became branded sex slaves. Nancy Salzman is due in federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday afternoon for a plea hearing. There was no response to a request for comment from one of her lawyers. Salzman was a co-founder of NXIVM, a cult-like group based near Albany. Prosecutors say a secret society within the organization branded women with a spiritual leader's initials and forced them to have sex with him.

Four more people have been arrested in connection to the alleged sex cult NXIVM, including group leaders with such titles “The Prefect” serving “The Vanguard.” Clare Bronfman, 39; Kathy Russell, 60; Lauren Salzman, 42; and Nancy Salzman, 64, were arrested Tuesday on a superseding indictment charging them with

The FBI raided the home of Nancy Salzman, the co-founder of NXIVM. It's all part of an ongoing federal investigation into the organization and its secret society. Raniere had been detained earlier this week on charges of U.S. sex trafficking and forced labour in Mexico, where authorities allege he was hiding out in a luxury villa in the company of several women followers.

Clare W. Bronfman, an heiress of the Seagram Company business empire, allegedly implanted a "key logger" virus on the computer of her late father, Edgar M. Bronfman Sr., so officials with the NXIVM corporation could secretly monitor his emails, including his exchanges with world leaders and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, according to court records. The extraordinary allegations are attributed to Kristen M. Keeffe, who was part of the inner circle that ran NXIVM, a "human development" organization that has been described by one expert as an "extreme cult." The accusations by Keeffe are contained in a transcript of a...

The state attorney general's office is investigating a nonprofit foundation associated with the NXIVM corporation that allegedly sponsored brain-activity and other human behavioral studies without any apparent oversight, according to court records. The nonprofit Ethical Science Foundation was formed in 2007 by Clare W. Bronfman, an heiress of the Seagram Co. business empire who has described herself as the operations director of NXIVM. Bronfman, who owns a horse farm in Delanson, is listed in public records as the trustee and donor of the Ethical Science Foundation. At the request of the attorney general's office, a state Supreme Court justice recently...