Free Republic

Unsealed 2017 DOJ emails reveal that Jeffrey Epstein used UAE and Saudi contacts to acquire and ship three fragments of the Kiswa (the Kaaba’s sacred cloth) to his private residence in the US Virgin Islands. Labeled as "artwork" to clear customs, the transfer of these highly spiritual items—traditionally reserved for diplomatic gifts—has sparked intense backlash due to their religious sanctity and unauthorized possession by Epstein. Unsealed DOJ documents reveal that in 2017, Jeffrey Epstein acquired three pieces of the Kiswa (the sacred cloth of the Kaaba), coordinated by an Emirati businesswoman and a Saudi contact, and shipped to his residence...

Chinese-Canadian billionaire Xiao Jianhua, who went missing in Hong Kong five years ago, was due to go on trial in China on Monday (Jul 4), the Canadian embassy in Beijing said. China-born Xiao, known to have links to China's Communist Party elite, has not been seen in public since 2017 after he was investigated amid a state-led conglomerate crackdown. The specifics of the probe haven't been disclosed by officials. "Global Affairs Canada, our home office, is aware that a trial in the case of Canadian citizen Mr Xiao Jianhua will take place today," a Canadian Embassy official told Reuters over...

A billionaire with links to the family of Xi Jinping was reportedly taken from his apartment in the Four Seasons in Hong Kong by Chinese police and taken to the mainland. Xiao Jianhua, one of China’s richest men, is currently in police custody on the mainland, the Financial Times and New York Times reported. He may be assisting with a graft investigation, part of the Chinese president’s sweeping campaign that critics say is more about consolidating power than tackling corruption. If Chinese police were involved in Xiao’s abduction from Hong Kong, it would appear to violate the former British colony’s...

January 21, 2022 With inflation at a record high, millions of its citizens fleeing the country, and a political opposition recognized by most Western democracies as the legitimate government of Venezuela, the regime of Nicolás Maduro seemed to be on the brink of collapse in 2019. But Maduro regime survived, thanks to a number of factors — among them the external support it received from malign state actors such as Russia and China. Moscow and Beijing never wavered in their political support of the Venezuelan regime, or of Maduro himself, including by refusing to recognize the constitutionally mandated interim presidency...

The terrorist responsible for the deaths of 17 U.S. sailors on the USS Cole in 2000 is believed to be dead this week. A U.S. official told CNN on Friday that Al Qaeda terrorist Jamel Ahmed Mohammed Ali Al-Badawi is believed to be dead after a U.S.-led airstrike on Yemen on Tuesday. A predator drone reportedly struck Al-Badawi’s vehicle in an isolated attack as he was driving alone in the Ma’rib Governorate located in central Yemen. Al-Badawi is believed to be the terrorist behind the Oct. 12, 2000 suicide bomber attack that struck the USS Cole as it refueled in...

FBI Agent Peter Strzok and his FBI Crossfire Hurricane unit were focused on the White House during President Trump’s inauguration celebration, so much so that the “angry” agent complained he was kept out of the loop on a bureau counter-intelligence briefing there.Mr. Strzok, who would later be fired for his anti-Trump messages to FBI lawyer Lisa Page, erupted the day after Mr. Trump became president, according to newly released emails obtained by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog in Washington.Mr. Strzok said in an email to his boss, counter-intelligence chief Bill Priestap, he could have folded the FBI briefing into his...

A BLM activist has been charged over a huge fraud which is said to have included blowing a grant intended for young men at risk of violence on trips to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Shake Shack and a nail salon. She is accused of using much of the $1 million raised by her nonprofit Violence in Boston Inc for good causes. Her salary jumped from $25,000 in 2020 to $170,000 in 2021. Cannon-Grant - once named a Bostonian of the Year by the prestigious Boston Globe newspaper - was arrested at her spacious home last week. She appeared in a...

Researchers have discovered there was an anomaly in Earth's gravitational field between 2006 and 2008, potentially caused by a mineral shift deep within Earth's mantle...The large gravitational anomaly lasted for about two years over the eastern Atlantic Ocean. It peaked in January 2007, the same month Steve Jobs announced the first iPhone (though, of course, there was no connection between the two events).Researchers recently discovered the signal while analyzing data collected by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites between 2003 and 2015. The gravitational anomaly happened around the same time as a geomagnetic "jerk" -- an abrupt change...

It wasn’t that long ago that Venezuela, which possesses the world’s largest crude oil reserves, was a relatively stable democracy with one of Latin America’s fastest-rising economies. It was a nation so awash in petroleum revenues that the socialist government of the late former President Hugo Chavez spent huge amounts on social programs and, at one point, even provided free heating oil for impoverished Americans. But starting in 2014, the South American nation began suffering a startling collapse. With Venezuela’s gross domestic product plummeting even more than the United States during the Great Depression, many of its nearly 32 million...

When news broke that the FBI had finally arrested a suspect who placed pipe bombs at RNC and DNC headquarters in January 2021, I offered this prediction: "this will turn out to be unrelated to the J6 riot or law enforcement and intelligence agencies, but will be a rando nutcase anarchist." I could have also predicted that the Protection Racket Media would attempt to make the perp into a right-wing MAGA nutcase who voted for Donald Trump. I didn't have "pretend he's a white guy" on my Bingo card, but you can't win 'em all. Otherwise, my predictions have held...

Federal prosecutors on Thursday charged a Minneapolis man in connection with a string of sexual assaults including of a 15-year-old girl. In two of the cases, Abdimahat Bille Mohamed, 28, avoided prison as part of a recent plea deal with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and allegedly raped his latest victim in September while on probation. In a statement, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi blamed Minnesota’s “left-wing soft-on-crime policies” for putting innocent people at risk from a “Somali national.” In response, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said the Justice Department news release is a “clear attempt to politicize a sexual...

From 7/7 to Manchester 2025 – the story they refuse to tellAfter the Manchester synagogue attack, I began tracing two decades of Islamic terrorism in Britain – uncovering a disturbing pattern hidden in plain sight. This is not prejudice. It’s record-keeping – and a warning about policies putting us all at risk.ManchesterI didn’t learn about the Manchester synagogue terrorist attack until I opened my phone after Yom Kippur had ended. I had also missed messages from my cousin, who had witnessed the event and been evacuated from her home by the police.By 7:30 the following morning, I had already traced...

Last night, on October 19, a series of explosions occurred at the Novokuibyshev Oil Refinery in Russia’s Samara Region following a drone attack. Drones also struck a gas processing plant in the Russian city of Orenburg. According to eyewitnesses, black smoke rose above the Novokuibyshev refinery after the attack, and videos shared on social media show heavy smoke over the facility. Regional Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev confirmed the UAV attack but did not disclose details regarding the damage. The Novokuibyshev refinery, owned by Rosneft, is one of the key enterprises in the Samara Region, with a capacity to process up to...

Comey expected to work for 'President-elect Clinton,' knew top aide was talking to media: emails Emails referenced in a bombshell court filing by acting U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan in which the government rejected Comey's argument that he was being maliciously prosecuted for providing false statements and obstructing Congress about actions he took as FBI director. Federal prosecutors revealed Monday they have unearthed a trove of personal emails showing then-FBI Director James Comey openly talked in the days before the 2016 election that he expected to be working soon for President-elect Hillary Clinton and was being kept apprised by a top...

The train was reportedly shorted using jumper cables, causing the train to stop. Since November 17, dozens of anarchists have been camping on the tracks to prevent trains from transporting fracking supplies from the Port of Olympia — however, railroad companies have stated that there were no such shipments scheduled. On Wednesday, Union Pacific Railroad officers were met by 20 to 30 masked protesters as they cleared out the encampment and swept it for bombs. Four of the people who were camping on the tracks refused to leave and were subsequently arrested, as were eight others on suspicion of obstructing...

Comey's media leak denial in front of Congress in 2017 likely would have fallen outside the statute of limitations. But the fired FBI chief doubled down on his denial in 2020 — and he was indicted days before the statute was set to expire next week. Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Virginia on charges he made false statements to Congress when he denied leaking to the media – putting himself in legal jeopardy after having doubled down on his 2017denials during Senate testimony in 2020. Comey’s alleged leaking was already part...

Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted on criminal charges of false statements and obstruction on Thursday, a person familiar with the move said, in an escalation of President Donald Trump's campaign to pursue justice against people he says have wrongfully criticized him and spearheaded trumped-up investigations. In a social media post on X, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the indictment shows the Justice Department's commitment to accountability. "No one is above the law," she posted early Thursday evening. "Today’s indictment reflects this Department of Justice’s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American...

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather called President Trump a “threat to our democracy” after his actions Friday banning some media from a press gaggle. He authored a scathing note on his Facebook account and sent it out via Twitter Friday evening.(TWEET-AT-LINK) “The time for normalizing, dissembling, and explaining away Donald Trump has long since passed,” the post began. The barring of respected journalistic outlets from the White House briefing is so far beyond the norms and traditions that have governed this republic for generations, that they must be seen as a real and present threat to our democracy. These...

The co-founder of Code Pink is married to Neville Roy Singham who provides funding to communist and far-left leftist groups and efforts. Singham reportedly funded the recent anti-ICE protests across the US. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, the chairwoman of the Taskforce on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, called on Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to freeze all assets of Neville Singham, the billionaire funder of the communist Code Pink organization, ANSWER Coalition, National Students for Justice in Palestine and several other anti-American leftist organizations. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) posted the news on a...

In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Ilhan Omar tweeted out an Anti-Defamation League chart that purports to prove that right wingers perpetrate the majority of politically motivated murders in the United States. This ADL graph is very popular with left wingers. The problem is that it’s based on one of the most dishonest reports you’ll ever read. The ADL has long padded its “right-wing extremism” by including incidents of non-ideological criminality by perpetrators suspected of being white supremacists. This year, though, virtually none of the incidents listed by the ADL as having been committed by “white supremacists” or “far-right...