Free Republic

Former President Donald Trump stands trial before the Senate this week on an impeachment charge that accuses him of inciting the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. His lawyers in a 78-page memorandum on Monday detailed a range of legal and factual arguments that they intend to make at trial. Some of the highlights: ARGUMENT: TRUMP DID NOT INCITE THE INSURRECTION Defense lawyers are adamant that Trump did not incite the riot when he addressed a huge crowd of supporters at a rally that preceded it.

Authorities say a hacker gained access to a Florida city’s water treatment plant in an unsuccessful attempt to fill the water supply with a potentially harmful chemicalA hacker remotely gained access to a Florida city’s water treatment plant in an unsuccessful attempt to fill the water supply with a potentially harmful chemical, authorities said. An unknown suspect breached a computer system for the city of Oldsmar's water treatment plant on Friday and briefly increased the amount of sodium hydroxide from 100 parts per million to 11,100 parts per million, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said during a news conference Monday....

A hacker recently tried to poison a Florida city’s water supply, police announced Monday. Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said someone remotely accessed a computer system that controls the City of Oldsmar’s water treatment facility on Friday. The unidentified person increased the amount of sodium hydroxide being distributed into the city’s drinking water to a “dangerous” level, Gualtieri said at a press conference. The chemical, also known as lye, is used in small amounts to control the water’s acidity — but can be deadly if ingested in large quantities. A worker at the plant immediately noticed the change and reversed...

Vince Lombardi, the legendary Green Bay Packers coach for whom the Super Bowl trophy is named after, returned in virtual form to get players and fans excited before the kickoff of Super Bowl LV. A pre-produced video showed the "coach" walking through America's heartland giving a rousing pre-game speech. He wore his traditional hat, overcoat and glasses. As the video ended, the virtual, deep fake form of Lombardi appeared on a stage at the corner of the end zone at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, where the Chiefs and Buccaneers were getting ready to play. People on social media...

The White House sign-language interpreter who was outed as a supporter of former President Donald Trump said Sunday that she hasn’t been offered a return engagement since — and blasted critics who attacked her credibility and professionalism. Heather Mewshaw, who began working as an independent contractor for the White House last year, said she hasn’t been contacted by the Biden administration in the wake of a Time magazine report that revealed she translated speeches for conservative social media groups. "The goal of my activity — at the White House or with Hands of Liberty — is that it’s all about...

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis defended a photo showing him maskless at Sunday’s Super Bowl in Tampa. “Someone said, ‘Hey, you were at the Super Bowl without a mask,'” DeSantis told reporters Monday, according to Politico’s Marc Caputo. “But how the hell am I going to be able to drink a beer with a mask on? Come on. I had to watch the Bucs win.” The image shows DeSantis sitting down without a mask in Raymond James Stadium while talking to an unknown individual less than six feet away from him. A second person is seen wearing a black mask...

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, speaking about a vote to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from her House Committee assignments, accused any Republicans who fail to denounce her of supporting “white supremacy.” Greene (R-GA) came under fire after it was discovered she “liked” controversial comments on social media, including one that said “a bullet to the head would be quicker” in a discussion to remove House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). ... Tlaib alleges support for Greene is tantamount to support for the Klan. “Every single day that goes by without outright condemnation from every single one of her Republican colleagues, without consequences for...

Former President Donald Trump's attorneys said on Monday that the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol was perpetrated by people “of their own accord and for their own reasons,” and not because of Trump’s call to march on Congress and “fight like hell.” In a 78-page legal brief ahead of the Senate’s impeachment trial, Trump’s attorneys argued the House’s effort is constitutionally deficient and cannot result in his conviction on a charge of inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. They say Democrats declared Trump’s free speech impeachable and linked it to what the attorneys say is a years...

On Monday’s episode of “The View,” Whoopi Goldberg called out Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) for his claims that Democrats were just as guilty of inciting violence as Republicans. The host first played a clip of U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) calling for Donald Trump’s impeachment. And then played Paul’s appearance on “Fox News Sunday With Chris Wallace” where he proclaimed, “You can’t just criminalize Republican free speech and ignore all the Democrats who have incited violence.” “That’s a false equivalent,” Goldberg responded, noting how Democrats like California’s Maxine Waters have rallied crowds but stopped well short of encouraging violence. “You...

President Biden had an awkward, flirty moment Monday during a video conference event with health care workers in Arizona, during which he stopped to compliment one nurse for her youthful appearance — even gushing that she looks “like a freshman.” Biden got up to some of his “creepy” old antics when he responded to the nursing supervisor’s detailed description of giving COVID-19 shots by asking her about her age. “Are you a freshman at the university?” Biden asked Brittney Hayes at the end of a conversation in which she had laid out the process for getting shots to people at...

Alcee Hastings was appointed to be a federal judge in 1979. In 1981, he was accused of soliciting bribes and obstructing justice ... A special committee of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals began a .. three-year investigation ended with the panel concluding that Hastings did indeed commit perjury, tamper with evidence, and conspire to gain financially by accepting bribes. ... He was impeached by the United States House of Representatives and convicted by the Senate. He was kicked out of his judgeship in 1989. .... Four years later he ran for the U.S. House — a federal office —...

Apparently, the only activists and protesters who the media will label “terrorists,” “anarchists,” and “left wing” these days are those “who have been vocal critics of the city’s leadership.” Last summer, as celebrities, professional athletes, corporate America, media figures, ethnic race baiters, and the rich and famous jumped on board the Antifa and BLM riot train signaling their superior virtue while pledging their care and concern for George Floyd, cities were destroyed, businesses looted, ransacked and annihilated, and citizens and police were injured and killed. But those were called “mostly peaceful protests” by media across the country and in Sacramento,...

The most nausea-inducing moment of Sunday night’s Super Bowl came not during the public spanking of The Chiefs by the Bucs. It was during a tone-deaf, two-minute TV commercial starring New Jersey’s own Bruce Springsteen, in which the mega-wealthy musician and leftist sage revealed that his longtime working-class grift is as phony as his cowboy hat. In the commercial entitled “The Middle,” Bruce, is seen driving a 1980 Jeep CJ-5 to a chapel in Lebanon, Kansas, which he describes as “standing on the exact center of the lower 48.’’ He rhapsodizes about this geographical oddity — ignoring the fact that...

Pope Francis commemorates Abu Dhabi document, gives peace award to pro-abortion UN chiefPope Francis congratulated UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres Guterres for “all the efforts he has made for peace." Guterres has used the COVID-19 crisis as a means to promote access to abortion worldwide.VATICAN CITY, February 8, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Delivering a completely irreligious address, Pope Francis has taken part in a video with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar to mark the first International Day of Human Fraternity commemorating the Abu Dhabi document, which has been described as seeming to “overturn the doctrine of the Gospel.” The Pope then...

Video: Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki gets upset because a reporter asked her when the laid off oil workers will get the green energy jobs that Biden had promised themA reporter asked Jen Psaki when the laid off oil workers will get the green jobs that Biden had promised them.Psaki refused to cite any specific date.She even seems to be mad that the reporter would ask such a question.I think it was a great question:https://twitter.com/CurtisHouck/status/1358830482167848962Fox News's Peter Doocy is back and he's brought the receipts on energy to Jen Psaki.Needless to say, she didn't like that he pressed her on...

Violent crime in Minneapolis soared by over 20% last year, calling into question a litany of criminal justice reform measures proposed by local left-wing lawmakers. In total, the Minneapolis Police Department logged 5,422 violent crime incidents over the course of the year, an increase of 21% from the previous year and a substantial uptick from the city's five-year average of 4,496 violent crimes. Property crimes grew by 10%. The news comes after the city announced a tripling of the budget of the Office of Violence Prevention, a pseudo-police replacement agency staffed with unarmed caseworkers to intervene in conflict. Virtually all...

Explanation: Stars can be like artists. With interstellar gas as a canvas, a massive and tumultuous Wolf-Rayet star has created the picturesque ruffled half-circular filaments called WR32, on the image left. Additionally, the winds and radiation from a small cluster of stars, NGC 3324, have sculpted a 35 light year cavity on the upper right, with its right side appearing as a recognizable face in profile. This region's popular name is the Gabriela Mistral Nebula for the famous Chilean poet. Together, these interstellar clouds lie about 8,000 light-years away in the Great Carina Nebula, a complex stellar neighborhood harboring numerous...

The office of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger confirmed to CNN on Monday that it has started an investigation into former President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the state's election results, including a phone call the former President made to Raffensperger. During the call, Trump pushed Raffensperger to "find" votes to overturn the election results after his loss to then-President-elect Joe Biden, according to an audio recording later obtained by CNN. Raffensperger was adamant in defending the results of the presidential election as well as the integrity of the state's voting system.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Monday rejected Ghislaine Maxwell’s effort to keep under wraps an excerpt from a 2016 deposition that she fears could undermine her criminal trial on charges she aided the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and committed perjury. U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska said Maxwell had only a “minimal” privacy interest in the 20-line excerpt, because it concerned massages and not private sexual activity of consenting adults, and the public had a right to see her testimony. “There is no reason not to unseal this portion of testimony,” the Manhattan-based judge wrote. “While the...

The new Biden Administration has largely been focused on fulfilling its election promises in its first month in power. After reversing an extensive list of Trump policies via executive orders, Biden is now focusing on the Middle East. In stark contrast to his predecessor, Joe Biden’s administration is taking a reserved and diplomatic approach towards the ongoing crisis in the Middle East region. While the new administration is yet to fully address Iranian Sanctions or the JCPOA-agreement, it has stepped up the pressure on some Arab countries by temporarily blocking U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. In...