Free Republic

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department recently opened an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the FBI's interview of Michael Flynn while he was serving as President Donald Trump's national security adviser, according to two people familiar with the inquiry. Flynn pleaded guilty to giving false statements to the FBI during that interview, but recently asked to withdraw that plea, further delaying his sentencing. Attorney General William Barr asked the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, Jeffrey Jensen, to look into Flynn's FBI interview, the people familiar with the inquiry said. The inquiry began within the past month, they said....

The Justice Department said Friday it will not pursue criminal charges against former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, after a nearly two-year-long investigation into accusations brought by the agency's independent watchdog who found that he lacked "candor" when questioned about leaking to the media. In a letter to McCabe attorney Michael Bromwich obtained by Fox News, Justice Department attorney J.P. Cooney said the investigation is now “closed.”

SAN FRANCISCO -- Facebook has decided to let political campaigns pay online influencers to spread their messages, a practice that had sidestepped many of the social network’s rules governing political ads. Friday’s policy reversal highlights difficulties tech companies and regulators have in keeping up with the changing nature of paid political messages. The change comes days after Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg exploited a loophole to run humorous messages promoting his campaign on the accounts of popular Instagram personalities followed by millions of younger people. The Bloomberg posts weren’t much more than self-deprecating humor used to sell the candidate’s old...

By the time Christopher Miller showed up at his estranged wife’s backdoor in September 2019 with a pistol in his waistband, state authorities already had declared him too dangerous to own firearms. He had lost his gun license 20 months earlier after being charged with aggravated battery for brutally beating a man in a Naperville parking lot. He disregarded orders to relinquish any weapons, and no one made sure he complied. Miller startled his wife that autumn afternoon as she moved around the kitchen making a snack for her daughter. With cocaine and alcohol in his system, he stared at...

Colorado legislators have rejected a bill that would grant legal protections for babies born alive after abortions, yet another state-level flare-up over the hot-button issue. House Bill 1068 threatened $100,000 fines for physicians who fail to "exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as a reasonably diligent and conscientious physician would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age." It also required that any born-alive child be immediately transferred to a hospital. “Colorado’s legislative hearings on late-term abortion show just how extreme and entrenched...

There was once a time, not that long ago, when the mainstream left was highly critical of the CIA, and scrutiny of dubious claims by U.S. intelligence was a common occurrence. Of course all of that changed when those same intelligence agencies were weaponized to target a political enemy that was also the enemy of the left, namely Donald Trump. Now, in the era of modern political narratives, no intelligence claim against the Trump administration is too outlandish. Regardless of dubious sourcing, it’s all pushed as fact so long as the target of the claim is President Donald Trump. As...

Andrew McCabe's legal team denied a claim that the former FBI deputy director was offered a pre-indictment plea deal from U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is conducting a criminal inquiry into the origins of the Russia investigation. Conservative commentator Mark Levin said on his radio show a "very good source" told him that McCabe had rejected the offer, after which Durham impaneled a grand jury in Washington, D.C. "This is what I was told by a very, very, good source. No, not the attorney general. No, not the U.S. attorney. Remember, I worked at Justice years ago, so I know...

Violence against Trump supporters is surging of late, so Breitbart News is updating its list of credibly reported hate crimes against Trump supporters since September 2015. These reported crimes include physical assaults, vandalism, an actual murder, and encouraging violence against individuals and groups based only on their personal beliefs. Sadly, these crimes have been approved and encouraged by the establishment media, either through the media’s open calls for violence against us or the media’s revealing and deafening indifference. When the corporate media want to stop Americans from engaging in certain behavior — say, a rodeo clown wearing an Obama mask...

A Northwest Indiana congressional candidate is insisting that he was not threatening anybody when he tweeted Thursday that he's planning to become "one of those Second Amendment people" if President Donald Trump is elected to a second term. Ryan Farrar, of DeMotte — one of 14 candidates vying for the Democratic nomination in Indiana's 1st U.S. House District — said far from threatening the Republican president, or anyone else, his tweet is a recommendation that liberals begin preparing to combat tyranny. "It's just kind of putting the idea out there that maybe more people on the left should consider becoming...

TRIBUTE TO A SOLDIER: Bob is my friend. Some of you know Bob as a photographer; however, long before he picked up a camera Bob rode bulls in the 50s and early 60s. Bob is also a Navy veteran, a submarine sailor, the best of the best. Bob's son who I'll call Jr for now enlisted in the Army and was deployed during the first Gulf War in 1991. While dug in with his unit somewhere in Iraq they came under an Iraqi SCUD missile attack. The missiles landed close to Jr's position but unlike other missiles these had a...

Now that Bernie Sanders—once an obscure socialist senator from Vermont—is officially the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, it is time to confront what that means. It does not mean the U.S. is flirting with socialism. That’s not going to happen. The meaning of Bernie’s ascent is that the Democratic Party, older even than he is, has simply run out of gas. The Democrats resemble Europe’s aging political parties—Britain’s Labour, France’s Socialists, Germany’s Social Democrats and Christian Democrats. All have simply deflated with voters. Signs of public fatigue with the Democrats could be seen in Iowa and New Hampshire. Besides...

*** [The Department of Education's] records since approximately 1990 show U.S. universities and colleges have reported donations from Qatar, China, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates in excess of $6.6 billion, but this sum may be significantly underestimated. According to investigations by Congress, GAO, and the Department, colleges and universities significantly underreport their foreign gifts and contracts. *** WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education announced today it is launching investigations into both Harvard and Yale Universities after it appears both Ivy League higher education institutions potentially failed to report hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign gifts and...

Megan Youngren will become the first openly transgender female athlete to compete at the United States Olympic marathon trials. The 29-year-old will make history on February 29 in Atlanta, where she will compete against 63 women for a spot on the Olympic team to compete at the Summer Games in Tokyo later this year. Youngren began her transition from a male to a female when she was a college student in 2011, according to Sports Illustrated. She also started taking hormone medication that year, and in 2012, she came out publicly as transgender. She officially finalized her transition last year,...

USS Normandy (CG 60), in accordance with international law, boarded a stateless dhow in the Arabian Sea and interdicted an illicit shipment of advanced weapons and weapon components intended for the Houthis in Yemen, Feb. 9, 2020. US Navy Photo. Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG-60) seized a cache of Iranian-made anti-tank missiles and other munitions aboard a dhow in the Arabian Sea over the weekend. Normandy stopped the dhow while conducting maritime security operations over the weekend, in accordance with international law, according to a statement released Thursday by U.S. Central Command.

KONKOL COMMENTARY: The Sun-Times didn't just endorse Kim Foxx's reelection bid. Its owners donated $750,000 to her campaign since September. The investigation into whether any individuals within the Cook County State's Attorney's Kim Foxx's office engaged in any wrongdoing in connection with the Smollett investigation continues, according to special prosecutor Dan Webb. (AP Photo/Teresa Crawford File) CHICAGO — It seemed strange enough the Sun-Times editorial board on Monday "strongly" endorsed Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx for a second term, telling voters to spare her the "injustice" of letting a "single high-profile mistake ... overshadow her accomplishments." Foxx's "single" flub,...

I considered naming the Fort after the Ohio city that threw two retired veterans in jail for not painting their home. The heartless city officials were ungrateful for the fact that the veterans were willing to risk all of their tomorrows so the city officials could have their todays. The veterans didn't know they were living in Fort Stepford. The fictional city of Stepford is the home of robotic wives. A Fort Stepford city is a city where government martinets try to force rigid adherence to the city's military like regulations. City codes define the condition a resident owner's house...

‘Y’all should have seen how QUICK the white people packed their bags and left!’ An apparent University of Virginia student urged white people to leave the campus Multicultural Student Center, claiming that it is a “space for people of color” and that there were “too many white people” in the building, according to video that surfaced Wednesday afternoon. The video, tweeted by the Young America’s Foundation, showed a young black woman pacing around a room while making a “public service announcement,” in her words: If ya’ll didn’t know, this is the MSC [Multicultural Student Center], and frankly there’s just too...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) will no longer pursue criminal charges against former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, closing a high-profile case against the former official whose conduct during the 2016 election came under intense scrutiny. "We write to inform you that, after careful consideration, the Government has decided not to pursue criminal charges against your client, Andrew G. McCabe, arising from the referral by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to our Office of conduct,” wrote two officials from the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office. "Based on the totality of the circumstances and all of the information known to...

FUll Title: BUSTED: New Hampshire Primary Election Day Official “I Think Voting Any Democrat is Wise”; ‘Bernie and Buttigieg Top 2’; Deputy Election Moderator Admits “Not Everyone Attended Training” When it Comes to Poll Station Officials After a series of Project Veritas investigations conducted across the state of New Hampshire yesterday, Project Veritas journalists uncovered an election official, Beth Hunter, at the polling location for Ward 01 and Ward 04 in Derry, NH opening up about her political inclinations and illegally influencing voters on Election Day. According to the state’s law, election officials are prohibited from influencing a citizen’s vote...

The HGTV show House Hunters featured its first “Throuple”, or polyamorous couple, on its show Wednesday night. A “Throuple” is a relationship made up of three people. In this case, two women and a man named Lori, Geli, and Brian. The couple has two children, who are biologically related to Brian and Lori. In the episode, the trio describes their ideal home as one that has a three-car garage, a master bedroom that fits three people, and room for the two children. While looking at a house’s kitchen, Lori remarked on its size as a “couple’s kitchen, not a throuple’s...