Free Republic

Lawmakers from both parties have called for John Lausch to keep his job President Joe Biden is forcing Chicago's top federal prosecutor to resign amid ongoing criminal probes of powerful Illinois Democrats and their associates. U.S. attorney John Lausch is prosecuting close confidants of Democrat boss Mike Madigan, an ally of former president Barack Obama who resigned from the state legislature Thursday after a decades-long reign in Springfield. Lausch's office will also prosecute Chicago alderman Edward Burke (D.), an influential figure accused of strong-arming businesses into retaining his law firm. Lausch's abrupt removal has drawn bipartisan criticism from Illinois lawmakers...

The attorney representing Mohamed Sabry Soliman — the terrorist charged with firebombing a peaceful pro-Israel demonstration in Boulder, Colorado — was reportedly barred from practicing law just six years earlier over what was described as “misconduct concerning an immigration matter.” The Federalist’s Sean Davis shared the story in a post on X, explaining that attorney Susanna Dvortsin had been reprimanded by the South Dakota Supreme Court and barred from practicing law in that state in 2019. “Guess who was banned from practicing law in 2019 for immigration misconduct? The attorney for the illegal immigrant family of the Egyptian terrorist who...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been hiding the truth from Congress and the public, and they’ve just been caught. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley on Friday called for an investigation of the internal tools the G-men have been using to conceal their official actions from legitimate oversight. Material released by the Iowa Republican senator confirms the existence of a secretive electronic file drawer within Sentinel, the FBI’s case management system, allowing the bureau to reply, “We have no responsive documents” when a congressional committee subpoenas information locked within. The issue came to light in a recently declassified 2019...

WUSA9 reports that the Prince George Police Department announced the arrest of five suspects connected to the notorious Mara Salvatrucha-13 (MS-13) street gang after the gruesome discovery of a slain 16-year-old boy stabbed more than 100 times and lit on fire in a Virginia field on March 9th.Police told local media that the victim, Jason Chicas, was also part of the "MS-13 clique" in question. Chicas was "killed inside of a home located in the 7000 block of Varnum Street in Landover Hills, Md. in Prince George's County. Police say his remains were then driven to Stafford County." His body was discovered...

Rep. Mike Collins mocked Sen. Chris Van Hollen over his visit to El Salvador ... Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., claimed in a post on X that he altered the name plaque outside the office of Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. The Republican lawmaker’s post included a photo in which the plaque outside Van Hollen’s office says that he represents El Salvador. ... Sen. Chris Van Hollen meets with Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador ... "margarita-gate." ... Collins has repeatedly criticized Van Hollen for traveling to El Salvador to meet with MS-13 member and illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego-Garcia .... when...

Professional journalism groups reacted with alarm after Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas released an opinion Tuesday urging the high court to reconsider a landmark freedom of the press decision called New York Times v. Sullivan. The Sullivan ruling generally shields reporters and news platforms from libel or defamation lawsuits provided they were acting in good faith. Though journalists believe that protection is essential, Justice Thomas said the high court was wrong to usurp the role of states in regulating libel. “[Sullivan] and the Court’s decisions extending it were policy-driven decisions masquerading as constitutional law,” Thomas’s opinion reads. “We should not...

An IT specialist employed by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was arrested today for attempting to transmit national defense information to an officer or agent of a foreign government. Nathan Vilas Laatsch, 28, of Alexandria, was arrested in northern Virginia and will make his initial court appearance tomorrow. According to court documents, Laatsch became a civilian employee of the DIA in 2019, where he works with the Insider Threat Division and holds a Top Secret security clearance. In March, the FBI commenced an operation after receiving a tip that an individual - now known to be Laatsch - offered to...

Syria’s new government will relocate ISIS families from camps, with Kurdish and US support. The new Syrian transitional government is seeking to find a way to deal with thousands of ISIS families who have been housed at camps in eastern Syria since ISIS was defeated in Syria in 2019. When ISIS was defeated in several villages near the Euphrates River in 2019, some of the terrorist group chose to surrender, and thousands of families of ISIS fighters ended up in the hands of the US-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The thousands of families were sent to several camps and detention facilities...

Is a trap being set for Trump in the Senate trial?

Venezuela released U.S. Air Force veteran Joseph St. Clair on Tuesday in a bid to ease tensions with the United States. St. Clair, 33, boarded a private chartered flight in Antigua and Barbuda and arrived in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, according to The Wall Street Journal. Richard Grenell, the U.S. envoy for special missions, oversaw the handoff between Venezuelan and U.S. authorities. Nine other Americans remain in Venezuelan custody. St. Clair and eight of the remaining prisoners were declared wrongfully detained by the U.S. State Department on March 3. The ninth is expected to be designated wrongfully detained soon, WSJ...

Mexicans have endured a week of gas shortages as the government takes drastic action to combat narco fuel thieves. Several states in the center of the country, including the capital Mexico City, have seen hundreds of petrol stations closed and long lines at those left open. {snip} The government of Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, known as AMLO, has cut off the gas supply in a number of key pipelines transporting fuel from refineries. The aim is take the fight to the "huachicoleros" as the fuel thieves are known. Many are affiliated with larger drug cartels, who for years have been...

The Gottis are back in town — and the bloodshed could just be beginning. Police are taking a serious look at whether Gambino crime family boss Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali was whacked in an internal war for control — with one of John Gotti’s brothers and a key associate fresh out of prison and possibly looking to seize power, law enforcement sources told The Post on Thursday. While the motive for the Wednesday hit on Cali outside his Staten Island home remains under investigation, cops were probing whether it was part of a brewing American-vs.-Sicilian power struggle — with Gene...

Donald Trump once again works his magic. A group of white South Africans has been granted refugee status in the US The first group of white South Africans arrived in the United States on Monday, the State Department announced following the prioritization of the Afrikaner refugee resettlement program.State spokesperson Tammy Bruce argued in a statement that the group is vulnerable and facing unjust racial discrimination in South Africa, saying taking them in is an action to protect victims of racial discrimination. They thank Trump. They wave the American flag. This has democrats ablaze in outrage. Representative of the left, Al...

Washington, DC ~ Wednesday, March 11, 2020 Remarks as Prepared for DeliveryGood afternoon, everyone.  Thank you for joining us.Today, we are announcing the results of Project Python, a multilateral interagency operation targeting the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, also known as CJNG.  This operation was led by the DEA, and on behalf of the Department, I want to thank Acting Administrator Dhillon for his strong leadership in the fight against transnational organized crime. And I want to express my appreciation for the courageous law enforcement professionals of the DEA – the men and women who, day in and day out, put...

Is Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman trying to sabotage Joe Biden’s reelection bid? It’s quite possible. The Saudi leader, known as MBS, has made clear his disdain for President Biden, and his fury over insults lobbed at him by this White House. He is a powerful force behind the current surge in oil prices, which could — if sustained — contribute to Biden’s defeat. Oil prices are soaring — up 19 percent since the start of the year. Since they lag behind crude oil, gasoline prices have only jumped 14 percent so far. But, unless oil markets take a...

SAO PAULO (CNS) — A Catholic prelature in Brazil's Amazon has decreed that its parishes will not accept donations from any person or company that displaces minorities or damages the earth. Bishop José Ionilton Lisboa de Oliveira of Itacoatiara has prohibited parishes, pastoral communities, groups and movements linked to the prelature -- similar to a diocese — from receiving financial resources from those he says "damage the Amazon." "We decree, for an indefinite period, that in parishes, communities, pastorals, groups and movements of the Prelature of Itacoatiara, we will not receive financial resources, in currency or other goods, from politicians,...

[Catholic Caucus] Brazilian Bishop who denounced Pachamama and was expelled from his diocese by the Vatican, diesCV NEWS FEED // The outspoken Brazilian bishop who condemned the worship of the Pachamama and was expelled from his see by the Vatican after his retirement died this week.The Order of Augustinian Recollects and the Catholic Church mourn the death of Monsignor José Luis Azcona Hermoso, emeritus Bishop of the Prelature of Marajó in the Brazilian Amazon. Bishop Azcona, who died on November 20, leaves behind a legacy of fearless defense of the faith and an indelible mark on the Church.Born on March...

Venezuelan lawmaker Freddy Superlano, a member of the opposition party, is in serious but stable condition after being poisoned in Colombia, his party says. His cousin has passed away. Voluntad Popular, the party of opposition leader Juan Guaidó, said late on Saturday that Superlano was poisoned at a restaurant in Cúcuta, a city near the border with Venezuela. His assistant and cousin, Carlos Salinas, died.

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...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Russian media on Thursday that former Secretary of State John Kerry approved of Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula, believing the residents were overwhelmingly in favor of “reuniting” with Russia. According to Lavrov, Kerry’s main criticism of Russia’s actions was to suggest holding another referendum to reinforce the legitimacy of annexation. Russia’s RT.com summarized Lavrov’s comments to the RBK news service: I won’t reveal a big secret if I say that John Kerry was telling me in April 2014: ‘Everything is clear. Everything happened the way the Crimean people...