Free Republic

Author and activist Naomi Klein was on a visit to Sydney last November when Donald Trump shocked the US and Western political establishment by taking the White House. "I think a great many of us felt that the world had just turned upside down, but [in Australia] I literally felt the world had turned upside down," she says, recalling that moment of supreme disorientation. Since then, unlike many American liberals, Klein has been fixated less by the drip-drip of revelations about the Trump campaign's murky links to the Kremlin, and more with what she calls the "corporate coup" taking place...

On Monday, a Texas civil rights attorney launched a clemency petition for National Security Agency whistleblower Reality Winner in Dallas. The attorney, Alison Grinter, encountered Winner through Crystal Mason, a Texas mother who served time alongside Winner in a Fort Worth federal prison after receiving a five-year sentence for “illegal voting” in the 2016 presidential election. Mason and Winner became friends in the facility’s newsroom, where they spent long hours watching TV news and debating current events. After hearing about Winner from Mason, Grinter began corresponding with the whistleblower’s mother, Billie Winner-Davis, on Twitter. Last year, the two women drove...

The legendary FBI agent in charge of New York’s counterterrorism division, Carlos T. Fernandez, is retiring after 21 years. Fernandez, 50, was posted in Yemen after the USS Cole bombing, in Afghanistan after 9/11 and in Libya after Benghazi. He is joining Viacom as their global head of security at their Times Square headquarters. Insiders say the media giant has hired him to lead all of their security teams on a global basis, protect their offices and digital systems, and ensure the safety of Viacom staff and guests who attend their events.

Just days after launching a new political action committee, former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden will join Republican officials and donors at a weekend retreat hosted by former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Biden will be interviewed by Romney during a Friday evening event in Park City, Utah, at the invitation-only summit, according to a Biden spokesman and participants briefed on the schedule. The speaker lineup for what is traditionally a gathering of Romney allies is packed with high-profile Republicans, among them House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain. Ryan was Romney’s running mate in 2012....

Rod Rosenstein Led Task Force that Spied on Attkisson’s Computers A former federal agent has stepped forward to admit illegal spying on Attkisson’s computers, and has implicated colleagues. In a federal lawsuit filed this week, Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosentein has been implicated in yet another improper government spy operation. In the new complaint, Attkisson v. Rosenstein et.al., investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson names former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosentein and four other Justice Department officials as the government agents who of illegally survielled her electronic devices. According to the complaint—filed in United States District Court in Baltimore, Maryland—Rosenstein led...

Venezuela's ousted chief prosecutor and her husband — two of President Nicolas Maduro's most outspoken critics — fled the country and landed Friday afternoon in Colombia. Luisa Ortega Diaz and German Ferrer arrived in Bogota aboard a private plane traveling from Aruba, Colombian migration authorities said in a statement. The couple didn't request asylum, according to a senior Colombian official speaking on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to discuss the politically sensitive case. Ortega and Ferrer have long been aligned with Venezuela's ruling socialist party but recently broke with Maduro, publicly denouncing his push to convene a constitutional...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the "excessive demonization" of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin "is one means of attacking the Soviet Union and Russia." Putin made the comments in the last of four installments of a series of interviews that he gave to U.S. filmmaker Oliver Stone, which was aired on June 15, 2017. In the past, Putin has praised Stalin as an "effective manager," and Stalin's reputation in Russia has been growing steadily since Putin came to power in 2000. A poll in April by the independent Levada research center found that 25 percent of Russians consider Stalin's...

< SNIP> In April of this year, Senators Grassley and Johnson sent a letter to Attorney General Barr asking him for any information on the following (or perhaps this was their way of encouraging him to look into something). What they specifically asked about was related to some text messages from corrupt FBI Agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page referring to a “CI guy” in the White House – Next Grassley and Johnson provide the exact text messages they wanted Barr to look into. The text from Peter Strzok says “Do we want Joe to go with Evania instead of...

Trump to Cuba: Return woman convicted in NJ trooper's murder Associated Press Published 2:49 p.m. ET June 16, 2017 | Updated 19 hours ago MIAMI — President Donald Trump has demanded that Cuba return a woman convicted in the murder of a New Jersey state trooper. Trump made the demand for the return of Joanne Chesimard while announcing changes to Obama-era Cuba policy in Miami Friday. Chesimard was convicted in 1977 in the death of Trooper Werner Foerster. He was killed during a gunfight after a traffic stop on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1973.

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it received six pages of records from the FBI showing that in June, 2017, a month after FBI Director James Comey was fired by President Donald Trump, FBI agents visited his home and collected “as evidence” four memos that allegedly detail conversations he had with President Trump. One of his memos was written on June 6, a month after he was fired.

Former FBI director James Comey made a quiet visit to The New York Times building on Thursday, one of few public outings since he admitted leaking stories to the newspaper about President Trump before the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8. Comey kept his sunglasses on and his gaze forward as he marched through the front entrance of the Times Square office building which houses the publication. He was accompanied by his wife Patrice Failor who also wore sunglasses. Unmistakable as he towered over the crowds in a crisp navy suit and tie on one of the warmest days of...

The Trump administration on Tuesday began the process of formally rescinding the highly controversial “Waters of the U.S.” rule, an Obama-era regulation that gave Washington broad powers over streams and other small bodies of water across the country. The rule, put forth in 2015 but subsequently stayed by the Supreme Court before going into effect, was one of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s top targets when he took the helm at the agency. President Trump earlier this year signed an executive order directing Mr. Pruitt to review the rule, and with Tuesday’s action, the EPA says it’s finalized that review and...

Leading congressional Democrats are looking to stall the process to release documents related to the Russia investigation, which President Donald Trump ordered declassified on Monday. Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff and Sens. Chuck Schumer and Mark Warner, sent a letter Tuesday asking Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats to provide an “immediate briefing” to the Gang of Eight before declassifying and releasing the documents. The four Democrats expressed “profound alarm” at Trump’s order to declassify the records. Trump ordered the Justice Department and Office of the Director of National...

US tariffs could cripple Chinese communist regime With communism abandoned in Europe and most parts of the world, only a handful of communist regimes are left. Just like how former U.S. president Ronald Reagan was instrumental in bringing about the demise of communism in the Eastern Bloc and the collapse of the Soviet Union, President Donald Trump is also helping end communism in the world, dealing with each communist state in a different way, says Frank Xie, an associate professor in the School of Business Administration at the University of South Carolina. Trump has spoken out against communism on a...

A trove of emails and handwritten notes from Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr exposes the continuous contact and communication between the DOJ attorney and anti-Trump dossier author Christopher Steele, according to notes and documents obtained by SaraACarter.com. The emails and notes were written between 2016 and 2017. SNIP... In June 2017, Steele tells Ohr, “We are frustrated with how long this reengagement with the Bureau and Mueller is taking. Anything you can do to accelerate the process would be much appreciated. There are some new, perishable, operational opportunities which we do not want to miss out on.” In October...

Accused leaker Reality Leigh Winner pleaded not guilty again Thursday to providing classified information to an online news outlet and her defense team signaled they will fight to get as much information as they can to aid her defense in the face of heavy security restrictions. Winner entered U.S District Court in Augusta heavily shackled and accompanied by two U.S. Marshals. She wore a rumpled orange jumpsuit with “inmate” stamped on the back and her blond hair was woven in tight braids across her head. She barked out a clear, “Not guilty” to the superceding indictment she faced in the...

The National Security Agency contractor who leaked a top secret report about Russian activities during the election told FBI agents that she was upset with her employer because Fox News was played on TVs at her office. “I’ve filed formal complaints about them having Fox News on, you know?” Reality Winner, the contractor, told FBI agents during a June 3 interview at her home in Augusta, Ga. “Uh, just at least, for God’s sake, put Al Jazeera on, or a slideshow with people’s pets. I’ve tried everything to get that changed.” Federal prosecutors disclosed the interview transcript in a court...

Reality Winner, the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor who was accused of leaking a classified report to a news outlet, will reportedly plead guilty as part of a plea deal. ...She was arrested in June 2017... charged, under the Espionage Act.

Over the weekend Sen. Mark Warner, the top democrat on the Senate Intelligence community, said (as so many already have) that there is no smoking gun in the Trump-Russia investigation: WASHINGTON – The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee says “there’s no smoking gun” in the Russian collusion investigation and Hillary Clinton leaped to conclusions when she said Americans “guided” the Kremlin ‘s meddling in the 2016 presidential election. “There’s a lot of smoke,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We have no smoking gun at this point. But there is a lot of smoke.”...

The FBI on Friday night raided the Sterling, Virginia, home of a Muslim convert, Sean Andrew Duncan, who, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case, stated that he attempted to join ISIS in Syria and shared bomb-making instructions with a woman currently in international custody. Sterling, about 20 miles from Washington, D.C., is home to a large Muslim community. According to an Instagram post by Duncan, he converted to Islam at age 17 and moved to the area from Pittsburgh this past June. When reports emerged Friday night that an FBI raid was ongoing, there was no indication...